Centuries of compounding human influence on Amazonian forests

McMichael, Crystal N. H. and Bush, Mark B. and ter Steege, Hans and Piperno, Dolores R. and Gosling, William D. and Nascimento, Majoi N. and Lombardo, Umberto and de Souza Coelho, Luiz and Leão do Amaral, Iêda and de Almeida Matos, Francisca Dionízia and de Andrade Lima Filho, Diógenes and Castilho, Carolina V. and Wittmann, Florian and Guevara-Andino, Juan Ernesto and Magnusson, William E. and Salomão, Rafael P. and Phillips, Oliver L. and Cardenas Revilla, Juan David and Irume, Mariana Victória and Pires Martins, Maria and Fernandez Piedade, Maria Teresa and Ferreira Ramos, José and Pitman, Nigel C. A. and Luize, Bruno Garcia and Moraes de Leão Novo, Evlyn Márcia and Núñez Vargas, Percy and Sanna Freire Silva, Thiago and Martins Venticinque, Eduardo and Manzatto, Angelo Gilberto and Farias Costa Reis, Neidiane and Casula, Katia Regina and Honorio Coronado, Euridice N. and Montero, Juan Carlos and Schöngart, Jochen and Castaño Arboleda, Nicolás and Monteagudo Mendoza, Abel and Zartman, Charles Eugene and Vasquez, Rodolfo and Mostacedo, Bonifacio and Terborgh, John and Demarchi, Layon O. and Assis, Rafael L. and Brilhante de Medeiro, Marcelo and Costa Quaresma, Adriano and Simon, Marcelo Fragomeni and Andrade, Ana and Camargo, José Luís and Feldpausch, Ted R. and Killeen, Timothy J. and Laurance, William F. and Laurance, Susan G. W. and Maniguaje Rincón, Lorena and de Sousa Farias, Emanuelle and Nascimento, Henrique Eduardo Mendonça and Barçante Ladvocat Cintra, Bruno and Baker, Tim R. and Oliveira Feitosa, Yuri and Mogollón, Hugo F. and Araujo-Murakami, Alejandro and Brienen, Roel and Lopes, Maria Aparecida and Lima Magalhães, José Leonardo and Lima de Queiroz, Helder and Comiskey, James A. and Marimon, Beatriz S. and Marimon-Junior, Ben Hur and Damasco, Gabriel and Draper, Freddie C. and García-Villacorta, Roosevelt and Lopes, Aline and Vicentini, Alberto and Cornejo Valverde, Fernando and Alonso, Alfonso and Dallmeier, Francisco and Ferreira, Leandro Valle and Gomes, Vitor H. F. and P. de Aguiar, Daniel P. and Carvalho, Fernanda Antunes and Gribel, Rogerio and Petratti Pansonato, Marcelo and Aymard C., Gerardo A. and Fine, Paul V. A. and Licona, Juan Carlos and Villa Zegarra, Boris Eduardo and Vos, Vincent Antoine and Arroyo, Luzmila and Cerón, Carlos and Silveira, Marcos and Stropp, Juliana and Daly, Doug and Milliken, William and Pardo Molina, Guido and Ríos Paredes, Marcos and Barlow, Jos and Berenguer, Erika and Dantas do Amaral, Dário and Ferreira, Joice and Jimenez, Eliana M. and Klitgaard, Bente and Mora, Maria Cristina Peñuela and Peres, Carlos A. and Stevenson, Pablo R. and Dexter, Kyle G. and Di Fiore, Anthony and Huamantupa-Chuquimaco, Isau and Marcelo Pena, José Luis and Pennington, Toby and de Oliveira Pereira, Luciana and Phillips, Juan Fernando and Rivas-Torres, Gonzalo and Hildebrand, Patricio von and Costa Noronha, Janaína and Marques Barbosa, Edelcilio and Rodrigues Barbosa, Flávia and de Matos Bonates, Luiz Carlos and de Sá Carpandeo, Rainiellen and Dávila Doza, Hilda Paulette and Fuentes, Alfredo and Zárate Gómez, Ricardo and Gonzales, Therany and Gallardo Gonzales, George Pepe and Malhi, Yadvinder and de Andrade Miranda, Ires Paula and Mozombite Pinto, Linder Felipe and Prieto, Adriana and Rodrigues, Domingos de Jesus and Rudas, Agustín and Tello, J. Sebastián and Vela, César I. A. and Albuquerque, Bianca Weiss and Cano, Angela and Holmgren, Milena and Trindade Nascimento, Marcelo and Oliveira, Alexandre A. and Rocha, Maira and Ruschel, Ademir R. and Vizoni Scudeller, Veridiana and Sierra, Rodrigo and Silman, Miles R. and Silva, Natalino and Tirado, Milton and Umaña, Maria Natalia and Vriesendorp, Corine and Baider, Cláudia and Balslev, Henrik and Linares-Palomino, Reynaldo and Mendoza, Casimiro and Mesones, Italo and Parada, Germaine Alexander and Alexiades, Miguel N. and Farfan-Rios, William and Garcia-Cabrera, Karina and Palacios Cuenca, Walter and Pansini, Susamar and Pauletto, Daniela and Ramirez Arevalo, Freddy and Sampaio, Adeilza Felipe and Valderrama Sandoval, Elvis H. and Valenzuela Gamarra, Luis and Veiga Carim, Marcelo de Jesus and da Silva Guimarães, José Renan and Pipoly, John J. and Coelho de Souza, Fernanda and Carneiro Guedes, Marcelino and de Toledo, José Julio and Campelo, Wegliane and Henkel, Terry W. and Molino, Jean-François and Barbosa Pedrosa Costa, Janaina and Guimarães Vieira, Ima Célia and Sabatier, Daniel and Duque, Alvaro and Zuleta, Daniel and Trindade, Thiago and Tamanaha, Eduardo Kazuo and de Almeida, Fernando Ozorio and Feeley, Kenneth J. (2025) Centuries of compounding human influence on Amazonian forests. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 122 (47): e251404012. ISSN 0027-8424

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.