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800-Year-Old Farmers Could Teach Us How to Protect The Amazon

By Guest PostApril 14, 2012Environmentagriculture, Amazon, amazonian forest, amazonian savannas, archaeologist, cattle ranching, charcoal, climate, columbian encounter, conservation, deforestation, doyle mckey, ecosystem, Environment, european settlers, farming, farmland sustainably, fire, francis mayle, french guiana, global warming, indigenous people, jose iriarte, mitchell power, old world diseases, paleoecologist, phytoliths, plant remains, pollen, raised field, savannas, stephen rostain, sustainable use, university of exeter, university of montpellier

In the face of mass deforestation of the Amazon, we could learn from its earliest inhabitants who managed their farmland sustainably.

Research from an international team of archaeologists and paleoecologists, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows for the first time that indigenous people, living in the savannas around the Amazonian forest, farmed without using fire.

Led by the University of Exeter, the research could provide insights into the sustainable use and conservation of these globally-important ecosystems, which are being rapidly destroyed. Pressure on the Amazonian savannas today is intense, with the land being rapidly transformed for industrial agriculture and cattle ranching.

By analysing records of pollen, charcoal and other plant remains like phytoliths spanning more than 2,000 years, the team has created the first detailed picture of land use in the Amazonian savannas in French Guiana. This gives a unique perspective on the land before and after the first Europeans arrived in 1492. (more…)

Building A Better Trap

By Guest PostFebruary 19, 2012Nature, Scienceandes mountains, Colombia, electromagnetic spectrum, entomologist, equipment, evolutionary effect, fieldwork, fieldwork in peru, fluorescent, fluorescent bulb, french guiana, insects, leds, lee w cohnstaedt, leishmaniasis, leonard e munstermann, light emitting diodes, light technology, lorenza beati, michael greenwood, nanometer, peru, remote site, sand fly, south america, time, trap, vector borne diseases, wavelength of light

Fieldwork in Peru’s Andes Mountains is demanding, especially when it involves hauling heavy equipment to remote sites that are accessible only by traversing the region’s rugged terrain.

But the task of collecting insects for the study of vector-borne diseases and other purposes has become a little less onerous since a Yale School of Public Health researcher and colleagues designed a lighter — and perhaps better — trap. (more…)

Why Are Vines Overtaking the American Tropics?

By Guest PostFebruary 15, 2011Environment, ScienceAmazon, american tropics, barro colorado island, beauty kingdom, bolivian smazon, brazil, carbon, carbon storage, el nino events, english ivy, forest canopy, forests, french guiana, human communities, impact on animals, japanese honeysuckle, kudzu, liana vines, milwaukee, oliver phillips, oriental bittersweet, panama, planet, Smithsonian, south carolina, stefan schnitzer, subtropical forests, tropical forests, united states, vines

A Million-Dollar Question

Sleeping Beauty’s kingdom was overgrown by vines when she fell into a deep sleep. Researchers at the Smithsonian in Panama and the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee received more than a million dollars from the U.S. National Science Foundation to discover why real vines are overtaking the American tropics. Data from eight sites show that vines are overgrowing trees in all cases.

“We are witnessing a fundamental structural change in the physical make-up of forests that will have a profound impact on the animals, human communities and businesses that depend on them for their livelihoods,” said Stefan Schnitzer, research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and associate professor at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. (more…)

Tag Archives: french guiana

800-Year-Old Farmers Could Teach Us How to Protect The Amazon

Building A Better Trap

Why Are Vines Overtaking the American Tropics?