Phytoliths from native plants and surface soils from the Upper Madeira river, SW Amazonia, and their potential for paleoecological reconstruction

Author(s)

Watling, Jennifer ^[1] ; Castro, Martin Torres ^[2] ; Simon, Marcelo F. ^[3] ; Rodrigues, Flavio O. ^[4] ; de Medeiros, Marcelo Brilhante ^[3] ; De Oliveira, Paulo E. ^{[2, 5]} ; Neves, Eduardo G. ^[1]

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Museum Archaeol & Ethnol, Ave Prof Almeida Prado 1466, BR-05508070 Sao Paulo, SP - Brazil

^[2] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Geosci, Rua Do Lago 562, BR-05507070 Sao Paulo, SP - Brazil

^[3] Embrapa Genet Resources & Biotechnol, Ave W5 Norte, BR-70770917 Brasilia, DF - Brazil

^[4] Univ Fed Goias, Inst Biol Sci, Dept Ecol, Grad Program Ecol & Evolut, Setor Vila Itatiaia, Ave Esperanca S-N, BR-74690900 Goiania, Go - Brazil

^[5] Field Museum Nat Hist, Keller Sci Act Ctr, 1400 S Lake Shore Dr, Chicago, IL 60605 - USA

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: QUATERNARY INTERNATIONAL; v. 550, p. 85-110, JUN 10 2020.
• Web of Science Citations: 0

Abstract

Phytolith reference collections of plants and surface soils are a critical part of studies that use these microbotanical remains for archaeological and paleoecological reconstruction. In the archaeologically-rich region of the Upper Madeira river in Rondonia, Brazil, phytolith analysis is being applied in both on- and off-site contexts in order to shed light on human-environment interactions over a period that extends almost the entire Holocene. The present study brings together data on phytolith production patterns among 90 native species, representing 36 plant families, as well as 56 surface soil samples taken from underneath 11 monitored forest plots. Our discussion focuses on the comparison between the surface soil phytolith records and the above-ground floristic inventories, scrutinized considering the plant reference collection results. We found that the phytoliths of several species which produce diagnostic or potentially-diagnostic morphotypes were under-represented in the surface soils, including several understory herbs. While the phytolith assemblages from three forest types (palm, sororoca and dense forest) presented considerable overlap, in accordance with similarities in the floristic inventories, bamboo forest and different types of campinaranas were able to be distinguished based on their phytolith signatures. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 17/25157-0 - Peoples, plants and landscapes in Amazônia
• Grantee: Jennifer Watling
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Young Investigators Grants
• FAPESP's process: 17/09718-2 - Paleoecological reconstruction of the environment at the Teotônio archaeological site
• Grantee: MARTIN TORRES CASTRO
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• FAPESP's process: 14/21207-5 - Pre-Columbian human-environment interactions in the Upper Madeira basin, southwest Amazonia
• Grantee: Jennifer Watling
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral