Tropical forest trees are the centerpiece of debates on conservation, climate change and carbon sequestration today.
Tropical forest trees are the centerpiece of debates on conservation, climate change and carbon sequestration today. While their ecological importance has never been doubted, what has often been ignored is their ability to store cultural heritage. Using recent advances in scientific methods and a better understanding of the growth of these trees, researchers can now uncover, in detail, the growing conditions, including human management, that have occurred around these ancient giants over their centuries-long life span.
In a new article published in Trends in Plant Science, an international team of scientists presents the combined use of dendrochronology, radiocarbon dating and isotopic and genetic analysis as a means of investigating the effects of human activities on forest disturbances and the growth dynamics of tropical tree species. The study presents the potential applicability of these methods for investigating prehistoric, historical and industrial periods in tropical forests around the world and suggests that they have the potential to detect time-transgressive anthropogenic threats, insights that can inform and guide conservation priorities in these rapidly disappearing environments.
Led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and co-authored by leading scientists at the National Institute for Amazonian Research, The Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemisty and the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, the study shows that tropical trees store records of changing human populations and their management practices, including activities that ultimately led to a ‘domestication’ of tropical landscapes. The study promotes a dialogue between various fields of research to ensure that tropical trees are acknowledged for their role in both cultural and natural ecosystems.
Read more at Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Image: Settlement near useful plants on the banks of the Jaú River, Amazonas, Brazil (Credit: Victor L. Caetano Andrade)
