Sensitivity of bulk sedimentary stable carbon isotopes to prehistoric forest clearance and maize agriculture

Journal of Archaeological Science

Volumn 35, Issue 8, 2008, Pages 2119-2132

  Lane, Chad S ^a   Mora, Claudia I ^a   Horn, Sally P ^a   Orvis, Kenneth H ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE   (United States)

Author keywords

Dominican Republic; Erosion; Lake sediments; Mineral influx; Pollen; Tropics

Indexed keywords

ARCHAEOLOGY; CARBON CYCLE; CARBON ISOTOPE; CORRELATION; CULTIVATION; FOREST CLEARANCE; ISOTOPIC COMPOSITION; LACUSTRINE DEPOSIT; MAIZE; POLLEN; STABLE ISOTOPE; TOTAL ORGANIC CARBON;

ATLANTIC ISLANDS; ATLANTIC OCEAN; CARIBBEAN ISLANDS; CORDILLERA CENTRAL [DOMINICAN REPUBLIC]; DOMINICAN REPUBLIC; GREATER ANTILLES;

ZEA MAYS;

EID: 44449084750     PISSN: 03054403     EISSN: 10959238     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2008.01.019     Document Type: Article

References (83)

1. Aucour A.M., Bonnefille R., and Hillaire-Marcel C. Sources and accumulation rates of organic carbon in an equatorial peat bog (Burundi, East Africa) during the Holocene: carbon isotope constraints. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology 150 3-4 (1999) 179-189
2. Aylor D.E., Baltazar B., and Schoper J. Some physical properties of teosinte (Zea mays subsp. parviglumis) pollen. Journal of Experimental Botany 56 419 (2005) 2401-2407
3. Beach T. Soil catenas, tropical deforestation, and ancient and contemporary soil erosion in the Peten, Guatemala. Physical Geography 19 5 (1998) 378-405
4. Bender M.M. Variations on the 13C ratios of plants in relation to the pathway of photosynthetic carbon dioxide fixation. Phytochemistry 10 (1971) 1239-1244
5. Bolay E. The Dominican Republic: A Country Between Rain Forest and Desert; Contributions to the Ecology of a Caribbean Island (1997), Margraf Verlag, Weikersheim
6. Brenner M., Whitmore T.J., Lasi M.A., Cable J.E., and Cable P.H. A multi-proxy trophic state reconstruction for shallow Orange Lake, Florida, USA: possible influence of macrophytes on limnetic nutrient concentrations. Journal of Paleolimnology 21 (2000) 215-233
7. Brincat D., Yamada K., Ishiwatari R., Uemura H., and Naraoka H. Molecular-isotopic stratigraphy of long-chain n-alkanes in Lake Baikal Holocene and glacial age sediments. Organic Geochemistry 31 4 (2000) 287-294
8. 4 Plant Biology (1999), Academic Press, San Diego 473-509
9. Burney D.A., Burney L.P., and MacPhee R.D.E. Holocene charcoal stratigraphy from Laguna Tortuguero, Puerto Rico, and the timing of human arrival on the island. Journal of Archaeological Science 21 2 (1994) 273-281
10. 13C of plant-derived n-alkanes in soil particle-size fractions. Organic Geochemistry 32 2 (2001) 253-258
11. 4 Plant Biology (1999), Academic Press, San Diego 445-473
12. Clement R.M., and Horn S.P. Pre-Columbian land-use history in Costa Rica: a 3000-year record of forest clearance, agriculture and fires from Laguna Zoncho. Holocene 11 4 (2001) 419-426
13. Cohen A.S. Paleolimnology: The History and Evolution of Lake Systems (2003), Oxford University Press
14. Colinvaux P.A., De Oliveira P.E., and Moreno J.E. Chapter 3: Guide to piston coring of lake sediments. Amazon Pollen Manual and Atlas (1999), Hardwood Academic Publishers, Amsterdam
15. Conserva M.E., and Byrne R. Late Holocene vegetation change in the Sierra Madre Oriental of central Mexico. Quaternary Research 58 2 (2002) 122-129
16. Davies S.J., Metcalfe S.E., MacKenzie A.B., Newton A.J., Endfield G.H., and Farmer J.G. Environmental changes in the Zirahuen Basin, Michoacan, Mexico, during the last 1000 years. Journal of Paleolimnology 31 1 (2004) 77-98
17. Dean W.E. Determinations of carbonate and organic matter in calcareous sediments and sedimentary rocks by loss on ignition: comparison with other methods. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 44 (1974) 242-248
18. Dull R.A. A Holocene record of Neotropical savanna dynamics from El Salvador. Journal of Paleolimnology 32 (2004) 219-231
19. Dull R.A. The maize revolution: A view from El Salvador. In: Staller J., Tykot R., and Benz B. (Eds). Histories of Maize: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Prehistory, Biogeography, Domestication, and Evolution of Maize (2006), Elsevier Press, San Diego 357-365
20. Dull R.A. Evidence for forest clearance, agriculture, and human-induced erosion in Precolumbian El Salvador. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 97 1 (2007) 127-141
21. Ekdahl E.J., Teranes J.L., Guilderson T.P., Turton C.L., McAndrews J.H., Wittkop C.A., and Stoermer E.F. Prehistorical record of cultural eutrophication from Crawford Lake, Canada. Geology 32 9 (2004) 745-748
22. Faegri K., and Iverson J. Textbook of Pollen Analysis. fourth ed. (1989), Wiley, New York
23. Ficken K.J., Li B., Swain D.L., and Eglinton G. An n-alkane proxy for the sedimentary input of submerged/floating freshwater aquatic macrophytes. Organic Geochemistry 31 (2000) 745-749
24. Ficken K.J., Street-Perrott F.A., Perrott R.A., Swain D.L., Olago D.O., and Eglinton G. Glacial/interglacial variations in carbon cycling revealed by molecular and isotope stratigraphy of Lake Nkunga, Mt. Kenya, East Africa. Organic Geochemistry 29 5-7 (1998) 1701-1719
25. Ficken K.J., Wooller M.J., Swain D.L., Street-Perrott F.A., and Eglinton G. Reconstruction of a subalpine grass-dominated ecosystem, Lake Rutundu, Mount Kenya: a novel multi-proxy approach. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 177 1-2 (2002) 137-149
26. Fisher E., Oldfield F., Wake R., Boyle J., Appleby P., and Wolff G.A. Molecular marker records of land use change. Organic Geochemistry 34 1 (2003) 105-119
27. Goman M., and Byrne R. A 5000-year record of agriculture and tropical forest clearance in the Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico. Holocene 8 1 (1998) 83-89
28. Hayes J.M., Freeman K.H., Popp B.N., and Hoham C.H. Compound-specific isotopic analyses: a novel tool for reconstruction of ancient biogeochemical processes. Organic Geochemistry 16 4-6 (1990) 1115-1128
29. Horn S.P. Pre-Columbian maize agriculture in Costa Rica: Pollen and other evidence from lake and swamp sediments. In: Staller J., Tykot R., and Benz B. (Eds). Histories of Maize: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Prehistory, Biogeography, Domestication, and Evolution of Maize (2006), Elsevier Press, San Diego 367-380
30. Huang Y.S., Street-Perrott F.A., Perrot R.A., Metzger P., and Eglinton G. Glacial-interglacial environmental changes inferred from molecular and compound-specific delta C-13 analyses of sediments from Sacred Lake, Mt. Kenya. Geochimica Et Cosmochimica Acta 63 9 (1999) 1383-1404
31. Huang Y., Street-Perrott F.A., Metcalfe S.E., Brenner M., Moreland M., and Freeman K.H. Climate change as the dominant control on glacial-interglacial variations in C-3 and C-4 plant abundance. Science 293 5535 (2001) 1647-1651
32. Islebe G.A., Hooghiemstra H., Brenner M., Curtis J.H., and Hodell D.A. A Holocene vegetation history from lowland Guatemala. Holocene 6 3 (1996) 265-271
33. Jacob J.S., and Hallmark C.T. Holocene stratigraphy of Cobweb Swamp, a Maya wetland in northern Belize. Geological Society of America Bulletin 108 7 (1996) 883-891
34. Johnson K.D., Wright D.R., and Terry R.E. Application of carbon isotope analysis to ancient maize agriculture in the Petexbatun region of Guatemala. Geoarchaeology-an International Journal 22 3 (2007) 313-336
35. Krieger H.W. The aborigines of the ancient island of Hispaniola, Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for 1929 (1930), Government Printing Office, Washington D.C. 473-556 pp.
36. Lane, C.S., 2007. Late-Holocene Environmental History in the Northeastern Caribbean: Multi-Proxy Evidence from Two Small Lakes on the Southern Slope of the Cordilleran Central, Dominican Republic. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 226 p.
37. Lane C.S., Horn S.P., and Mora C.I. Stable carbon isotope ratios in lake and swamp sediments as a proxy for prehistoric forest clearance and crop cultivation in the Neotropics. Journal of Paleolimnology 32 4 (2004) 375-381
38. Lane, C.S., Horn, S.P., Taylor, Z.P., Mora, C.I., in press-a. Assessing the scale of prehistoric human impact in the Neotropics using stable carbon isotope analyses of lake sediments. Latin American Antiquity.
39. Lane, C.S., Horn, S.P., Orvis, K.H., Mora, C.I., in press-b. The earliest evidence of Ostionoid maize agriculture from the interior of Hispaniola. Caribbean Journal of Science.
40. Leyden B.W., Brenner M., and Dahlin B.H. Cultural and climatic history of Coba, a lowland Maya city in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Quaternary Research 49 1 (1998) 111-122
41. Liogier A.H. Ecosistemas de montañas en la República Dominicana. Anuario 5 (1981) 87-102
42. - by aquatic plants. Annual Review of Plant Physiology 34 (1983) 71-104
43. Lucke A., Schleser G.H., Zolitschka B., and Negendank J.F.W. A Lateglacial and Holocene organic carbon isotope record of lacustrine palaeoproductivity and climatic change derived from varved lake sediments of Lake Holzmaar, Germany. Quaternary Science Reviews 22 5-7 (2003) 569-580
44. Luna S., Figueroa J., Baltazar M., Gomez R., Townsend R., and Schoper J. Maize pollen longevity and distance isolation requirements for effective pollen control. Crop Science 41 (2001) 1551-1557
45. Meyers P.A. Preservation of elemental and isotopic source identification of sedimentary organic matter. Chemical Geology 114 (1994) 289-302
46. Meyers P.A., and Ishiwatari R. Lucustrine organic geochemistry-an overview of indicators of organic-matter sources and diagenesis in lake-sediments. Organic Geochemistry 20 7 (1993) 867-900
47. Meyers P.A., and Lallier-vergés E. Lacustrine sedimentary organic matter records of late Quaternary paleoclimates. Journal of Paleolimnology 21 (1999) 345-372
48. Meyers P.A., and Teranes J.L. Sediment organic matter. In: Last W.M., and Smol J. (Eds). Tracking Environmental Change Using Lake Sediments. Physical and Geochemical Methods vol. 2 (2001), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht 239-268
49. Mook W.G., Bommerson J.C., and Staberman W.J. Carbon isotope fractionation between dissolved bicarbonate and gaseous carbon dioxide. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 22 (1974) 169-176
50. Newsom L.A. Caribbean maize: Current research on the archaeology, history, and biogeography. In: Staller J., Tykot R.H., and Benz B. (Eds). Histories of Maize: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Prehistory, Linguistics, Biogeography, Domestication, and Evolution of Maize (2006), Elsevier, San Diego 325-335
51. Newsom L.A., and Deagan K.A. Zea mays in the West Indies: the archaeological and early historic record. In: Johannessen S., and Hastorf C.A. (Eds). Corn and Culture in the Prehistoric New World (1994), Westview Press, Boulder, CO 203-217
52. Northrop L.A., and Horn S.P. PreColumbian agriculture and forest disturbance in Costa Rica: Palaeoecological evidence from two lowland rainforest lakes. Holocene 6 3 (1996) 289-299
53. Ogrinc N., Lojen S., and Faganeli J. A mass balance of carbon stable isotopes in an organic-rich methane-producing lacustrine sediment (Lake Bled, Slovenia). Global and Planetary Change 33 (2002) 57-72
54. O'Hara S.L., Metcalfe S.E., and Street-Perrott F.A. On the arid margin - the relationship between climate, humans and the environment-a review of evidence from the highlands of Central Mexico. Chemosphere 29 5 (1994) 965-981
55. Oldfield F., Wake R., Boyle J., Jones R., Nolan S., Gibbs Z., Appleby P., Fisher E., and Wolff G. The late-Holocene history of Gormire Lake (NE England) and its catchment: a multiproxy reconstruction of past human impact. Holocene 13 5 (2003) 677-690
56. O'Leary M.H. Carbon isotope fractionation in plants. Phytochemistry 20 (1981) 553-567
57. Ortiz Aguilu J.J., Melendez J.R., Jacome A.P., Maiz M.M., and Colberg M.L. Intensive agriculture in pre-Columbian West Indies: The case for terraces. In: Cummins A., and King P. (Eds). Proceedings of the Fourteenth Congress of the International Association for Caribbean Archaeology (1991), Barbados Museum and Historical Society, Barbados 278-285
58. Phillips D.L., and Gregg J.W. Source partitioning using stable isotopes: coping with too many sources. Oecologia 136 2 (2003) 261-269
59. Raynor G.S., Ogden E.C., and Hayes K.V. Dispersion and deposition of corn pollen from experimental sources. Agronomy Journal 64 (1972) 420-427
60. Reimer P.J., Baillie M.G.L., Bard E., Bayliss A., Beck J.W., Bertrand C.J.H., Blackwell P.G., Buck C.E., Burr G.S., Cutler K.B., Damon P.E., Edwards R.L., Fairbanks R.G., Friedrich M., Guilderson T.P., Hogg A.G., Hughen K.A., Kromer B., McCormac G., Manning S., Ramsey C.B., Reimer R.W., Remmele S., Southon J.R., Stuiver M., Talamo S., Taylor F.W., van der Plicht J., and Weyhenmeyer C.E. IntCal04 terrestrial radiocarbon age calibration, 0-26 cal kyr BP. Radiocarbon 46 3 (2004) 1029-1058
61. Reimer P.J., Brown T.A., and Reimer P.J. Discussion: Reporting and calibration of post-bomb C-14 data. Radiocarbon 46 (2004) 1299-1304
62. Rosenmeier M.F., Hodell D.A., Brenner M., Curtis J.H., and Guilderson T.P. A 4000-year lacustrine record of environmental change in the southern Maya lowlands, Peten, Guatemala. Quaternary Research 57 2 (2002) 183-190
63. Rosenmeier M.F., Hodell D.A., Brenner M., Curtis J.H., Martin J.B., Anselmetti F.S., Ariztegui D., and Guilderson T.P. Influence of vegetation change on watershed hydrology: implications for paleoclimatic interpretation of lacustrine delta O-18 records. Journal of Paleolimnology 27 1 (2002) 117-131
64. Rouse I. The Tainos: Rise and Decline of the People who Greeted Columbus (1992), Yale University Press, New Haven
65. 4 Plant Biology (1999), Academic Press, San Diego 551-584
66. 4 Plant Biology (1999), Academic Press, San Diego 313-377
67. Sluyter A. Regional, Holocene records of the human dimension of global change: Sea-level and land-use change in prehistoric Mexico. Global and Planetary Change 14 3-4 (1997) 127-146
68. - and to carbon isotope discrimination. New Phytology 86 (1980) 245-259
69. In: Staller J., Tykot R., and Benz B. (Eds). Histories of Maize: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the PrehistoryLinguistics, Biogeography, Domestication, and Evolution of Maize (2006), Elsevier, San Diego
70. 13C natural abundance in plant communities along a rainfall gradient: A biological integrator of rainfall availability. Functional Plant Biology 22 (1995) 51-55
71. Stockmarr J. Tablets with spores used in absolute pollen analysis. Pollen et Spores 13 (1971) 615-621
72. Stokes, A.V., 1998. A Biogeographic Survey of Prehistoric Human Diet in the West Indies Using Stable Isotopes. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
73. Street-Perrott F.A., Huang Y.S., Perrott R.A., Eglinton G., Barker P., Ben Khelifa L., Harkness D.D., and Olago D.O. Impact of lower atmospheric carbon dioxide on tropical mountain ecosystems. Science 278 5342 (1997) 1422-1426
74. Street-Perrott F.A., Ficken K.J., Huang Y.S., and Eglinton G. Late quaternary changes in carbon cycling on Mt. Kenya, East Africa: an overview of the delta C-13 record in lacustrine organic matter. Quaternary Science Reviews 23 7-8 (2004) 861-879
75. 14C age calibration program. Radiocarbon 35 (1993) 215-230
76. Talbot M.R., and Johannessen T. A high resolution paleoclimate record for the last 27,500 years in tropical West Africa from the carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition of organic matter. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 110 (1992) 23-37
77. Telford R.J., Heegaard E., and Birks H.J.B. All age-depth models are wrong: but how badly?. Quaternary Science Reviews 23 1-2 (2004) 1-5
78. Telford R.J., Heegaard E., and Birks H.J.B. The intercept is a poor estimate of a calibrated radiocarbon age. Holocene 14 2 (2004) 296-298
79. Tolentino L., and Peña M. Inventario de la vegetación y uso de la tierra en la República Dominicana. Moscosoa 10 (1998) 179-203
80. Wahl D., Byrne R., Schreiner T., and Hansen R. Holocene vegetation change in the northern Peten and its implications for Maya prehistory. Quaternary Research 65 3 (2006) 380-389
81. Webb E.A., Schwarcz H.P., and Healy P.F. Detection of ancient maize in lowland Maya soils using stable carbon isotopes: evidence from Caracol, Belize. Journal of Archaeological Science 31 8 (2004) 1039-1052
82. Webb E.A., Schwarcz H.P., Jensen C.T., Terry R.E., Moriarty M.D., and Emery K.F. Stable carbon isotope signature of ancient maize agriculture in the soils of Motul de San Jose, Guatemala. Geoarchaeology-an International Journal 22 3 (2007) 291-312
83. Wilson S.M. The Indigenous People of the Caribbean (1997), University Press of Florida, Gainesville