Abstract
Deforestation associated with the initial settlement of New Zealand is a dramatic example of how humans can alter landscapes through fire. However, evidence linking early human presence and land-cover change is inferential in most continental sites. We employed a multi-proxy approach to reconstruct anthropogenic land use in New Zealand’s South Island over the last millennium using fecal and plant sterols as indicators of human activity and monosaccharide anhydrides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, charcoal and pollen as tracers of fire and vegetation change in lake-sediment cores. Our data provide a direct record of local human presence in Lake Kirkpatrick and Lake Diamond watersheds at the time of deforestation and a new and stronger case of human agency linked with forest clearance. The first detection of human presence matches charcoal and biomarker evidence for initial burning at c. AD 1350. Sterols decreased shortly after to values suggesting the sporadic presence of people and then rose to unprecedented levels after the European settlement. Our results confirm that initial human arrival in New Zealand was associated with brief and intense burning activities. Testing our approach in a context of well-established fire history provides a new tool for understanding cause-effect relationships in more complex continental reconstructions.
Highlights
Humans have altered landscapes around the world for thousands of years through their use of fire[1]
One of the most dramatic examples of prehistoric anthropogenic burning occurs in New Zealand, where charcoal and pollen records provide incontrovertible evidence of unprecedented fire activity and native forest decline coinciding with the arrival of people at c
We utilize specific molecular markers to provide a continuous record of human presence, fire activity and land use in the South Island of New Zealand during the last millennium
Summary
The biomarker reconstruction agrees with the new fuel types that replaced the podocarp-hardwood forests and the change in fire regime characterized by infrequent or smaller low-intensity fires based on low levels of macroscopic charcoal (Fig. 2)[6]. Such fires would result in lower temperatures and less oxygen depleted conditions, limiting the production of MAs and PAHs, which is strongly dependent on fuel and burning conditions[30,35], as observed in the post-settlement record
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