Centuries of compounding human influence on Amazonian forests

McMichael, Crystal N. H., Bush, Mark B., Ter Steege, Hans, Piperno, Dolores R., Gosling, William D., Nascimento, Majoi N., Lombardo, Umberto, de Souza Coelho, Luiz, Leão do Amaral, Iêda, de Almeida Matos, Francisca Dionízia, de Andrade Lima Filho, Diógenes, Castilho, Carolina V., Wittmann, Florian, Guevara-Andino, Juan Ernesto, Magnusson, William E., Salomão, Rafael P., Phillips, Oliver L., Cardenas Revilla, Juan David, Irume, Mariana Victória, Pires Martins, Maria, Fernandez Piedade, Maria Teresa, Ferreira Ramos, José, Pitman, Nigel C. A., Luize, Bruno Garcia, Moraes de Leão Novo, Evlyn Márcia, Núñez Vargas, Percy, Sanna Freire Silva, Thiago, Martins Venticinque, Eduardo, Manzatto, Angelo Gilberto, Farias Costa Reis, Neidiane, Casula, Katia Regina, Honorio Coronado, Euridice N., Montero, Juan Carlos, Schöngart, Jochen, Castaño Arboleda, Nicolás, Monteagudo Mendoza, Abel, Zartman, Charles Eugene, Vasquez, Rodolfo, Mostacedo, Bonifacio, Terborgh, John, Demarchi, Layon O., Assis, Rafael L., Brilhante de Medeiro, Marcelo, Costa Quaresma, Adriano, Simon, Marcelo Fragomeni, Andrade, Ana, Camargo, José Luís, Feldpausch, Ted R., Killeen, Timothy J., Laurance, William F., Laurance, Susan G. W., Maniguaje Rincón, Lorena, de Sousa Farias, Emanuelle, Nascimento, Henrique Eduardo Mendonça, Barçante Ladvocat Cintra, Bruno, Baker, Tim R., Oliveira Feitosa, Yuri, Mogollón, Hugo F., Araujo-Murakami, Alejandro, Brienen, Roel, Lopes, Maria Aparecida, Lima Magalhães, José Leonardo, Lima de Queiroz, Helder, Comiskey, James A., Marimon, Beatriz S., Marimon-Junior, Ben Hur, Damasco, Gabriel, Draper, Freddie C., García-Villacorta, Roosevelt, Lopes, Aline, Vicentini, Alberto, Cornejo Valverde, Fernando, Alonso, Alfonso, Dallmeier, Francisco, Ferreira, Leandro Valle, Gomes, Vitor H. F., P. de Aguiar, Daniel P., Carvalho, Fernanda Antunes, Gribel, Rogerio, Petratti Pansonato, Marcelo, Aymard C., Gerardo A., Fine, Paul V. A., Licona, Juan Carlos, Villa Zegarra, Boris Eduardo, Vos, Vincent Antoine, Arroyo, Luzmila, Cerón, Carlos, Silveira, Marcos, Stropp, Juliana, Daly, Doug, Milliken, William, Pardo Molina, Guido, Ríos Paredes, Marcos, Barlow, Jos, Berenguer, Erika, Dantas do Amaral, Dário, Ferreira, Joice, Jimenez, Eliana M., Klitgaard, Bente, Mora, Maria Cristina Peñuela, Peres, Carlos A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1588-8765, Stevenson, Pablo R., Dexter, Kyle G., Di Fiore, Anthony, Huamantupa-Chuquimaco, Isau, Marcelo Pena, José Luis, Pennington, Toby, de Oliveira Pereira, Luciana, Phillips, Juan Fernando, Rivas-Torres, Gonzalo, Hildebrand, Patricio von, Costa Noronha, Janaína, Marques Barbosa, Edelcilio, Rodrigues Barbosa, Flávia, de Matos Bonates, Luiz Carlos, de Sá Carpandeo, Rainiellen, Dávila Doza, Hilda Paulette, Fuentes, Alfredo, Zárate Gómez, Ricardo, Gonzales, Therany, Gallardo Gonzales, George Pepe, Malhi, Yadvinder, de Andrade Miranda, Ires Paula, Mozombite Pinto, Linder Felipe, Prieto, Adriana, Rodrigues, Domingos de Jesus, Rudas, Agustín, Tello, J. Sebastián, Vela, César I. A., Albuquerque, Bianca Weiss, Cano, Angela, Holmgren, Milena, Trindade Nascimento, Marcelo, Oliveira, Alexandre A., Rocha, Maira, Ruschel, Ademir R., Vizoni Scudeller, Veridiana, Sierra, Rodrigo, Silman, Miles R., Silva, Natalino, Tirado, Milton, Umaña, Maria Natalia, Vriesendorp, Corine, Baider, Cláudia, Balslev, Henrik, Linares-Palomino, Reynaldo, Mendoza, Casimiro, Mesones, Italo, Parada, Germaine Alexander, Alexiades, Miguel N., Farfan-Rios, William, Garcia-Cabrera, Karina, Palacios Cuenca, Walter, Pansini, Susamar, Pauletto, Daniela, Ramirez Arevalo, Freddy, Sampaio, Adeilza Felipe, Valderrama Sandoval, Elvis H., Valenzuela Gamarra, Luis, Veiga Carim, Marcelo de Jesus, da Silva Guimarães, José Renan, Pipoly, John J., Coelho de Souza, Fernanda, Carneiro Guedes, Marcelino, de Toledo, José Julio, Campelo, Wegliane, Henkel, Terry W., Molino, Jean-François, Barbosa Pedrosa Costa, Janaina, Guimarães Vieira, Ima Célia, Sabatier, Daniel, Duque, Alvaro, Zuleta, Daniel, Trindade, Thiago, Tamanaha, Eduardo Kazuo, de Almeida, Fernando Ozorio and Feeley, Kenneth J. (2025) Centuries of compounding human influence on Amazonian forests. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122 (47). ISSN 0027-8424

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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.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data, Materials, and Software Availability: All study data are included in the article and/or supporting information.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	indigenous land use,colonization,ecological legacy,hyperdominance,tropical forest,general ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1000
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Biology
Related URLs:	https://www.scopus.com/pages/publication... https://pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.251404...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	10 Aug 2026 14:51
Last Modified:	10 Aug 2026 14:51
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/104094
DOI:	10.1073/pnas.2514040122

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