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The making of today: cultural biogeography

The making of today: cultural biogeography. Use of Tools and Fire Domestication Transplantation Biocides Conservation . Human impacts on the world’s fauna and flora. MEANS ENDS (e.g.) TIME (yrs) Tools Hunting ~500,000 Fire Ecosystem change ~50,000

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The making of today: cultural biogeography

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  1. The making of today: cultural biogeography Use of Tools and Fire Domestication Transplantation Biocides Conservation

  2. Human impacts on the world’s fauna and flora MEANS ENDS (e.g.) TIME (yrs) Tools Hunting ~500,000 Fire Ecosystem change ~50,000 Domestication Inc. food supply ~10,000 Transplantation Biotic homogenization ~500 Biocides Pest control ~50 Conservation Species maintenance ~50

  3. Hunting: tools and effects Wooden (spruce) spears found in association with butchered horses (plus elephant and rhinoceros bones) in middle Pleistocene deposits (~ 400,000 BP) at Schöningnen, north Germany.

  4. Late Pleistocene extinctions of megamammals

  5. 0 10 20 30 40 50 ka BP Australia S. America N. America Europe Africa Major periods of extinctions of large mammals in late Quaternary

  6. 0 10 20 30 40 50 ka BP Australia 0 -5 -10 S. America Temperature change (°C) N. America Europe Africa Was climate change to blame?

  7. The demise of the Australian megafauna Graphic: http://acl.arts.usyd.edu.au/research/cuddie/animalssm.gif According to Roberts et al., (2001), the continent - wide extinction of the Australian megafauna occurred about 46 000 years ago, within 10±5 ka of human arrival. Roberts, R.G. et al. 2001. Science 292, 1888-1892. e.g. Diprotodon a 2m tall,3 ton wombat

  8. Were humans to blame? • Roberts et al. (2001) found that: 12 of the 20 genera of megafauna survived until at least 80 000 years ago; and extinction occurred ± simultaneously across the continent at about 46 ka BP. • Extinction may have been a product of:butchering by huntersecosystem disruption (by fire?)by Aboriginal colonistsclimatic change

  9. Are we also to blame in the Americas?- the Pleistocene “blitzkrieg” hypothesis.(15 genera go extinct in North America from 11.5 -10 ka BP)(note ‘killing front’)

  10. Post-colonial extinctions (North America) Some of the victims Tool: fluted point

  11. Times of extinction: the initial phase

  12. Post-colonial extinction: New Zealand moas*(*11 species of ratites; all now extinct) Archaeological evidence Population model (simulation) Holdaway, R.N. and Jacomb, C. 2000. Science287, 2250-2254.

  13. Post-colonial extinction model:eastern Polynesia Steadman, D.W. and Martin, P.S. 2003. Jour. Archaeol. Sci., 61, 133-147.

  14. Post-colonial extinction: Dodo(Raphus cucullatus) • A giant flightless pigeon restricted to the the island of Mauritius. • First sighted ~AD1600, the dodo was extinct by ~AD1693. • Sailors butchered them for food, and feral animals (rats, cats and pigs) destroyed their nests. Graphic courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History

  15. Post-colonial (near) extinction of the buffalo

  16. Post-colonial extinction:the passenger pigeon 109 106 103 100 ? Population 1800 1903

  17. Post-colonial extinction: the Rocky Mountain locust 1875: a swarm of ~3 trillion insects (the swarm covered ~300000sq. km, 0.5 km deep) passed over central Great Plains. 1876: US Congress declared the locust to be “the single greatest impediment to the settlement of the country”. 1902: last pair observed in Manitoba. Ploughing of floodplain areas in western plainslikely destroyed their breeding habitat Lockwood, J. 2004. “Locust” Basic Books

  18. Extinctions since AD 1600 Mammals Birds Asia 4 5 Africa 11 2 S. America 1 - N. America 10 7 Europe 6 1 Antarctica* 1 68 W. Indies 3 22 Hawaii - 24 * incl. islands

  19. Use of tools (axes and fire):deforestation Jerf-el-Ahmar archaeological site N. Syria; ~11,600 years old

  20. Pollen record, Ghab valley 5 8 10 15 ka,BP

  21. Effects of deforestation On the landscape of Attica (central Greece), Plato commented: “what now remains compared with what then existed is like the skeleton of a sick man, all the fat and soft earth having wasted away, and only the bare framework of the land being left” In the Mediterranean Basin deforestation as a result of agricultural clearance and pasture led to permanent changes in the character of the ecosystem.

  22. Maori colonization ~1000 BP Maori use of fire for forest clearance 1. Charcoal in soil 2. Bracken (rhizomes gathered)3. Moa habitat modification?

  23. Fire as a tool of ecosystem “maintenance” “the Indians of the interior have another intolerable method, . . . which is to fire the plains and forests . . . both to drive the mosquitoes away and at the same time drive lizards and like things from the earth to eat. They also kill deer by encircling fires; deprived of pasturage, the animals are forced to seek it where the Indians may trap them”. Cabeza de Vaca, A.N. Relación (1542) Cabeza de Vaca was shipwrecked by a hurricane on the coast of Texas in 1528 after trying to sail a raft back to Havana with the few survivors of an ill-fated Spanish expedition to search for gold in Florida. He reached the Spanish settlements on the west coast of Mexico 8 years later.

  24. Domestication: from foraging to farming Roots and tubers: Forager: dig up. Transition: dig up-replant part. Early farmer: clear land, plant roots, weed, harvest, save some roots,etc. Grains: Forager: pluck seedheads Transition: cut seedheads-save some*-replant. Early farmer: clear land, plant seeds, weed, harvest, save some seed,etc. * easiest seeds to save were non-shattering (e.g. changeover from einkorn to wheat) “Did roots precede grains?” David Harris

  25. Food Food additives Fibre Wood Beverages Narcotics, stimulants Ornamentals rice, cabbage pepper, sugar hemp, jute radiata pine tea, coffee tobacco, grape tulip, rose Plant cultigensPurpose Examples

  26. The geography of domestication De Candolle, a Swiss botanist, investigated areas of domestication in the 19th C. The Russian botanist N.I. Vavilov undertook extensive field collections to identify “hearths” of domestication from the 1920’s until his death in 1943. Vavilov contended that diversity hotspots in domesticated species (e.g. ~50 varieties of Zea mays grown in southern Mexico-Guatemala at present) were indicative of hearths. Jack Harlan (American geneticist), however, noted that plant species are particularly prone to radiate into diverse varieties in mountain areas - these may not be the original hearths. Nikolai Vavilov

  27. Plant domestication hearths after Vavilov

  28. Crop hearths 1. China rice, soybean, rhubarb, apricots, citrus, tea? 2. India / SE Asia eggplant, mango, jute, rice, banana, sugarcane 3. Pak-Afghanistan cotton, soybeans? 4. Middle East wheat, onion, turnip, apple, fig, melon, alfalfa, pea, lentil 5. Mediterranean date, olive, lettuce, sugar beet 6. Ethiopia coffee, okra 7. Mesoamerica maize, sweet potato, avocado, cotton, capsicum 8. Andes / Brazil potato, pumpkin, tomato, runner bean / peanut, pineapple, tobacco

  29. African hearths

  30. Early wheat varieties Einkorn Emmer Spelt Kamut

  31. Biogeographic range of wild cereals Einkorn Barley Emmer

  32. Domestication of wheat bread wheat wild emmer

  33. Times of initial doemstication

  34. Food Labour Hunting Animal products Ornamentals cattle horse, yak dog* silk, wool, honey budgies, goldfish Animal cultigensPurpose Examples *or did the dog domesticate us?

  35. Animal hearths China pig, duck, (carp?) India / SE Asia pig, dog, zebu cattle, chicken, elephant, water buffalo Iran-Afghanistan bibos cattle, sheep, goat Central Asia horse, bactrian camel, yak Middle East cat, dromedary Europe auroch cattle,rabbit, goose, reindeer Africa ass, guinea fowl North America turkey Mesoamerica dog, turkey Andes llama, alpaca, guinea pig

  36. Artificial selection for variable traits in domesticated species e.g. cabbages dogs Would Neolithic folk recognize a cauliflower or poodle?

  37. Selection for gigantism of desirable traits “French grow giant snails even bigger” Globe & Mail (1999/02/04) Zea mays from Mexican archaeological sites 10 cm Above: 2 yr-old coho “Frankenfish” Below: 2 yr-old wild coho The Province (2001/02/16) 7500 BP 500 BP

  38. Domestication and agricultural technology e.g. the ‘tribulum’ - a threshing sled (flints inserted in wooden planks) designed to separate the grain from the chaff and straw, and break up the straw for animal feed. Still used in some areas of the Middle East.

  39. Agricultural transference in the Neolithic: crops, technology and language diffuse from hearth barn barley [Lat. = emmer] bar far (farina) [Eng.]

  40. Agricultural transference in recent times e.g. the grape (Vitis vinifera)

  41. Agricultural transference:the “Columbian Exchange” From the Old World to the New: Wheat (many vegetables) Grapes Bananas Horses Cattle (+ weeds and diseases) From the New World to the Old: Potatoes Corn Tomatoes Squashes Peppers Tobacco Rubber Pineapples (+ diseases?) ~AD1500

  42. Agricultural transference: tropical plantation crops tobacco cacao bananas sugarcane rubber pineapples coffee Why? protection from co-evolved pests and pathogens; consider effects: slavery and indentured labour

  43. Silvicultural transference: introduction of exotic trees into Britain (AD 1600-1950)

  44. Biological introductions: invasive species Deliberate introductions: e.g. rabbits in Australia; prickly pear in Australia and Mediterranean; starlings, pigeons and house sparrows in North America; bullfrogs in B.C. Inadvertent introductions: e.g. brown rat (almost everywhere); knapweeds and cheatgrass in western North America; ballast stowaways (worldwide)

  45. Deliberate introductions:prickly pear (Opuntia stricta), Australia • Introduced into Australia in 1788 to form the basis of a cochineal dye industry. Opuntia was late planted for emergency cattle fodder and as hedging by farmers in NSW; • Invaded huge areas of pastureland in NSW and QLD from 1900-1930; • Largely (but not completely) controlled by introduction of Cactoblastis cactorum (amoth from Argentina that feeds exclusively on Opuntia) in 1926 Graphics: http://www.northwestweeds.nsw.gov.au

  46. Deliberate introductions: American bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana), BC • Introduced into BC in the 1930’s by frog farmers; • Spreading rapidly in SW BC (>1 km/yr on southern Vancouver Island), often by deliberate introdcutions into backyard ponds; • Feeds on native frogs, garter snakes, etc.

  47. Inadvertent introductions Many recent introductions of aquatic aliens have resulted from release of ballast water. Zebra mussel (Dreissina polymorpha): released from ballast waters into the Great Lakes in 1986.

  48. Invasive species: mitigation B.C. woman fined for importing crabs in suitcase Wednesday, August 13, 2008“A Richmond, B.C., woman has been fined $10,000 after pleading guilty to importing 70 live Shanghai hairy crabs - a delicacy in Asia and one of the world's most invasive species……It's prohibited in Canada because of its ravenous appetite that can outcompete native species, harming the ecosystem and the fishing industry.It also burrows into riverbanks and dikes, causing instability and erosion.The Shanghai hairy crab, named for its furry claws, is also a carrier of the Oriental lung fluke, a parasite that can cause tuberculosis and even death in humans if improperly cooked…..The crab has been found in Quebec, Ontario's Great Lakes area, the U.S. eastern seaboard, California and the Columbia River estuary in Washington state, according to the U.S. Geological Survey” Canwest News Service

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