A new paper by Tom Kelly and other members of the Tropical Wetlands Consortium has just appeared in Journal of Quaternary Science.
As part of his PhD work, Tom showed that the lake at Quistococha, on the outskirts of Iquitos in Peru, contains a remarkable pollen and microcharcoal record. The data show an increase in pollen of the disturbance indicator Cecropia over the past century and a half, presumably reflecting the growth of Iquitos. Prior to that, the pollen record suggests little change in forest cover, despite a continuous microcharcoal record suggesting the presence of human populations.
A critical piece of evidence supporting our interpretation of the microcharcoal as an indicator of human presence was provided by co-author and archaeologist Santiago Rivas Panduro, who had previously published the results of excavations at an archaeological site adjacent to the lake. There, pottery, plant remains, and radiocarbon dates provide unequivocal evidence for prehistoric human occupation.
We suggest that the new record helps to support an emerging understanding that, in the wettest parts of Amazonia, there may have been little deforestation before modern times. This is an important qualification to the growing body of evidence from more seasonally-dry parts of the Amazon Basin which suggest that there, much of the forest had been cleared, at least episodically, in pre-Columbian times.
The article is published here.