Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Disentangling The Last 1,000 Years Of Human–Environment Interactions Along The Eastern Side Of The Southern Andes (34–52°S Lat.), William Nanavati, Cathy Whitlock, Maria Eugenia De Porras, Adolfo Gil, Diego Navarro, Gustavo Neme

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Researchers have long debated the degree to which Native American land use altered landscapes in the Americas prior to European colonization. Human–environment interactions in southern South America are inferred from new pollen and charcoal data from Laguna El Sosneado and their comparison with high-resolution paleoenvironmental records and archaeological/ethnohistorical information at other sites along the eastern Andes of southern Argentina and Chile (34–52°S). The records indicate that humans, by altering ignition frequency and the availability of fuels, variously muted or amplified the effects of climate on fire regimes. For example, fire activity at the northern and southern sites was low at …