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Vegetation disturbance and human population in Colombia – a regional reconstruction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2015

Robert Marchant ,
Hermann Behling ,
Juan Carlos Berrio ,
Henry Hooghiemstra ,
Bas van Geel ,
Thomas van der Hammen ,
Luisa Herrera ,
Bert Melief ,
Guido van Reenen  and
Michael Wille
Robert Marchant
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Bennett Building, University Road, Lecicester LE1 7RH, UK (Email: r.a.marchant@le.ac.uk)
Hermann Behling
Affiliation:
Centre for Tropical Marine Ecology, Fahrenheitstrasse 1, D-28359 Bremen, Germany
Juan Carlos Berrio
Affiliation:
Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 318, 1098 SM Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Henry Hooghiemstra
Affiliation:
Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 318, 1098 SM Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Bas van Geel
Affiliation:
Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 318, 1098 SM Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Thomas van der Hammen
Affiliation:
Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 318, 1098 SM Amsterdam, The Netherlands Fundacion Tropenbos Colombia, Carrera 21 # 39–35, Santafe de Bogotá, Colombia
Luisa Herrera
Affiliation:
Fundacion Erigaie, A.A. 89657, Bogota, Colombia
Bert Melief
Affiliation:
Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 318, 1098 SM Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Guido van Reenen
Affiliation:
Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 318, 1098 SM Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Michael Wille
Affiliation:
University of Essen, Institute for Geography, Universitätsstr. 15, 45117 Essen, Germany
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Abstract

Palaeoecologists using pollen to map vegetation since the last ice age have noted numerous changes – which they feel increasingly obliged to blame on humans. These changes, such as deforestation or the dominance of certain plants, may happen suddenly or take place over thousands of years. The authors study the pollen record in Colombia, identify plants diagnostic of cultivation or disturbed ground (“degraded vegetation”) and use them to map human activities by proxy. They show how the people move and the landscape changes between 5000 BP and the present day, from the coast inland, and from the lowlands up into the Andes.

Keywords

ColombiaBiomepollendegraded vegetationenvironmental change
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 78 , Issue 302 , December 2004 , pp. 828 - 838
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2004

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