Rodrigues, Leonor; Sprafke, Tobias; Bokatola Moyikola, Carine; Barthès, Bernard G.; Bertrand, Isabelle; Comptour, Marion; Rostain, Stéphen; Yoka, Joseph; McKey, Doyle (2020). A Congo Basin ethnographic analogue of pre-Columbian Amazonian raised fields shows the ephemeral legacy of organic matter management. Scientific reports, 10(1) Springer Nature 10.1038/s41598-020-67467-8
|
Text
s41598-020-67467-8.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Download (3MB) | Preview |
The functioning and productivity of pre-Columbian raised fields (RFs) and their role in the development of complex societies in Amazonian savannas remain debated. RF agriculture is conducted today in the Congo Basin, offering an instructive analogue to pre-Columbian RFs in Amazonia. Our study of construction of present-day RFs documents periodic addition of organic matter (OM) during repeated field/fallow cycles. Field investigations of RF profiles supported by spectrophotometry reveal a characteristic stratigraphy. Soil geochemistry indicates that the management of Congo RFs improves soil fertility for a limited time when they are under cultivation, but nutrient availability in fallow RFs differs little from that in uncultivated reference topsoils. Furthermore, examination of soil micromorphology shows that within less than 40 years, bioturbation almost completely removes stratigraphic evidence of repeated OM amendments. If Amazonian RFs were similarly managed, their vestiges would thus be unlikely to show traces of such management centuries after abandonment. These results call into question the hypothesis that the sole purpose of constructing RFs in pre-Columbian Amazonia was drainage.
Item Type: |
Journal Article (Original Article) |
|---|---|
Division/Institute: |
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography 08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Physical Geography > Unit Paleo-Geoecology 08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Physical Geography |
UniBE Contributor: |
Gondim Rodrigues, Leonor Maria, Sprafke, Tobias |
Subjects: |
900 History > 910 Geography & travel 500 Science > 550 Earth sciences & geology 500 Science > 560 Fossils & prehistoric life 900 History > 930 History of ancient world (to ca. 499) 900 History > 960 History of Africa 900 History > 980 History of South America |
ISSN: |
2045-2322 |
Publisher: |
Springer Nature |
Language: |
English |
Submitter: |
Lukas Munz |
Date Deposited: |
06 Jul 2020 10:58 |
Last Modified: |
05 Dec 2022 15:39 |
Publisher DOI: |
10.1038/s41598-020-67467-8 |
BORIS DOI: |
10.7892/boris.144992 |
URI: |
https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/144992 |
Actions (login required)
 |
Edit item |