Centuries of compounding human influence on Amazonian forests

Citation

McMichael CNH, Bush MB, ter Steege H, Piperno DR, Gosling WD, Nascimento MN, Lombardo U, de Souza Coelho L, Leão do Amaral I, de Almeida Matos FD, de Andrade Lima Filho D, Castilho CV, Wittmann F, Guevara-Andino JE, Magnusson WE, Salomão RP, Phillips OL, Cardenas Revilla JD, Irume MV, Pires Martins M, Fernandez Piedade MT, Ferreira Ramos J, Pitman NCA, Luize BG, Moraes de Leão Novo EM, Núñez Vargas P, Sanna Freire Silva T, Martins Venticinque E, Manzatto AG, Farias Costa Reis N, Casula KR, Honorio Coronado EN, Montero JC, Schöngart J, Castaño Arboleda N, Monteagudo Mendoza A, Zartman CE, Vasquez R, Mostacedo B, Terborgh J, Demarchi LO, Assis RL, Brilhante de Medeiro M, Costa Quaresma A, Simon MF, Andrade A, Camargo JL, Feldpausch TR, Killeen TJ, Laurance WF, Laurance SGW, Maniguaje Rincón L, de Sousa Farias E, Nascimento HEM, Barçante Ladvocat Cintra B, Baker TR, Oliveira Feitosa Y, Mogollón HF, Araujo-Murakami A, Brienen R, Lopes MA, Lima Magalhães JL, Lima de Queiroz H, Comiskey JA, Marimon BS, Marimon-Junior BH, Damasco G, Draper FC, García-Villacorta R, Lopes A, Vicentini A, Cornejo Valverde F, Alonso A, Dallmeier F, Ferreira LV, Gomes VHF, P. de Aguiar DP, Carvalho FA, Gribel R, Petratti Pansonato M, Aymard C. GA, Fine PVA, Licona JC, Villa Zegarra BE, Vos VA, Arroyo L, Cerón C, Silveira M, Stropp J, Daly D, Milliken W, Pardo Molina G, Ríos Paredes M, Barlow J, Berenguer E, Dantas do Amaral D, Ferreira J, Jimenez EM, Klitgaard B, Mora MCP, Peres CA, Stevenson PR, Dexter KG, Di Fiore A, Huamantupa-Chuquimaco I, Marcelo Pena JL, Pennington T, de Oliveira Pereira L, Phillips JF, Rivas-Torres G, Hildebrand Pv, Costa Noronha J, Marques Barbosa E, Rodrigues Barbosa F, de Matos Bonates LC, de Sá Carpandeo R, Dávila Doza HP, Fuentes A, Zárate Gómez R, Gonzales T, Gallardo Gonzales GP, Malhi Y, de Andrade Miranda IP, Mozombite Pinto LF, Prieto A, Rodrigues DdJ, Rudas A, Tello JS, Vela CIA, Albuquerque BW, Cano A, Holmgren M, Trindade Nascimento M, Oliveira AA, Rocha M, Ruschel AR, Vizoni Scudeller V, Sierra R, Silman MR, Silva N, Tirado M, Umaña MN, Vriesendorp C, Baider C, Balslev H, Linares-Palomino R, Mendoza C, Mesones I, Parada GA, Alexiades MN, Farfan-Rios W, Garcia-Cabrera K, Palacios Cuenca W, Pansini S, Pauletto D, Ramirez Arevalo F, Sampaio AF, Valderrama Sandoval EH, Valenzuela Gamarra L, Veiga Carim MdJ, da Silva Guimarães JR, Pipoly JJ, Coelho de Souza F, Carneiro Guedes M, de Toledo JJ, Campelo W, Henkel TW, Molino J, Barbosa Pedrosa Costa J, Guimarães Vieira IC, Sabatier D, Duque A, Zuleta D, Trindade T, Tamanaha EK, de Almeida FO & Feeley KJ (2025) Centuries of compounding human influence on Amazonian forests. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122 (47), Art. No.: e2514040122. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2514040122

Abstract
Recent evidence suggests that the ecological footprints of pre-Columbian Indigenous peoples in Amazonia persist in modern forests. Ecological impacts resulting from European colonization c. 1550 CE and the Amazonian Rubber Boom c. 1850 to 1920 CE are largely unexplored but could be important additive influences on forest structure and tree species composition. Using environmental niche models, we show the highest probabilities of pre-Columbian and colonial occupation sites, and hence human-induced ecological influences, occurred in forests along rivers. In many areas, the predicted pre-Columbian and colonial distributions overlap spatially with the potential for superimposed ecological influences. Environmental gradients are known to structure Amazonian vegetation composition, but they are also strong predictors of past human influence, both spatially and temporally. Our comparisons of model outputs with relative abundances of Amazonian tree species suggest that pre-Columbian and colonial-period ecological legacies are associated with modern forest composition.

Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: Volume 122, Issue 47