|
WASHINGTON, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Trees planted by ancient peoples may have shaped the landscape of the Amazon rainforest, according to a new study.
The study published in the Science journal on Thursday compared data about the tree composition of forests at over 1,000 sites across the Amazon with a map of over 3,000 archaeological sites.
"Some of the tree species that are abundant in Amazonian forests today, like cacao, acai, and Brazil nut, are probably common because they were planted by people who lived there long before the arrival of European colonists," said Nigel Pitman from Chicago's Field Museum, a co-author of the study.
The study found that 85 tree species known to have been planted by Amazonian peoples for food, shelter, or other uses over the past thousands of years were five times more likely to be common in mature upland forests than non-domesticated species.
It also found that domesticated species in some parts of the Amazon basin were not only more common but also more diverse in forests closer to archaeological sites.
The study also showed that thousands of years of human settlement in the Amazon basin had a far more profound influence on modern-day patterns of Amazonian biodiversity.
