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The legacy of 4,500 years of polyculture agroforestry in the eastern Amazon

Overview of attention for article published in Nature Plants, July 2018
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Among the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#28 of 2,065)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (95th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
9 news outlets
blogs
6 blogs
policy
1 policy source
twitter
485 X users
facebook
11 Facebook pages
wikipedia
2 Wikipedia pages
googleplus
1 Google+ user

Citations

dimensions_citation
155 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
347 Mendeley
Title
The legacy of 4,500 years of polyculture agroforestry in the eastern Amazon
Published in
Nature Plants, July 2018
DOI 10.1038/s41477-018-0205-y
Pubmed ID
Authors

S. Yoshi Maezumi, Daiana Alves, Mark Robinson, Jonas Gregorio de Souza, Carolina Levis, Robert L. Barnett, Edemar Almeida de Oliveira, Dunia Urrego, Denise Schaan, José Iriarte

Abstract

The legacy of pre-Columbian land use in the Amazonian rainforest is one of the most controversial topics in the social1-10 and natural sciences11,12. Until now, the debate has been limited to discipline-specific studies, based purely on archaeological data8, modern vegetation13, modern ethnographic data3 or a limited integration of archaeological and palaeoecological data12. The lack of integrated studies to connect past land use with modern vegetation has left questions about the legacy of pre-Columbian land use on the modern vegetation composition in the Amazon, unanswered11. Here, we show that persistent anthropogenic landscapes for the past 4,500 years have had an enduring legacy on the hyperdominance of edible plants in modern forests in the eastern Amazon. We found an abrupt enrichment of edible plant species in fossil lake and terrestrial records associated with pre-Columbian occupation. Our results demonstrate that, through closed-canopy forest enrichment, limited clearing for crop cultivation and low-severity fire management, long-term food security was attained despite climate and social changes. Our results suggest that, in the eastern Amazon, the subsistence basis for the development of complex societies began ~4,500 years ago with the adoption of polyculture agroforestry, combining the cultivation of multiple annual crops with the progressive enrichment of edible forest species and the exploitation of aquatic resources. This subsistence strategy intensified with the later development of Amazonian dark earths, enabling the expansion of maize cultivation to the Belterra Plateau, providing a food production system that sustained growing human populations in the eastern Amazon. Furthermore, these millennial-scale polyculture agroforestry systems have an enduring legacy on the hyperdominance of edible plants in modern forests in the eastern Amazon. Together, our data provide a long-term example of past anthropogenic land use that can inform management and conservation efforts in modern Amazonian ecosystems.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 485 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 347 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 347 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 53 15%
Researcher 46 13%
Student > Master 46 13%
Student > Bachelor 39 11%
Student > Doctoral Student 21 6%
Other 59 17%
Unknown 83 24%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 79 23%
Environmental Science 67 19%
Earth and Planetary Sciences 30 9%
Arts and Humanities 25 7%
Social Sciences 14 4%
Other 30 9%
Unknown 102 29%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 463. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 20 January 2024.
All research outputs
#59,327
of 25,589,756 outputs
Outputs from Nature Plants
#28
of 2,065 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#1,213
of 341,383 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Nature Plants
#4
of 65 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,589,756 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,065 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 50.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 341,383 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 65 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its contemporaries.