Human history and the environment

La Pirámide in the Mexican state of Yucatán was built by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization sometime between the 8th and 12th centuries AD.> There is no dispute that a series of droughts occurred in the Yucatan Peninsula of south-eastern Mexico… read more

New study links an increase in black carbon in Antarctic ice cores to Māori burning practices in New Zealand more than 700 years ago Several years ago, while analysing ice core samples from Antarctica’s James Ross Island, scientists Joe McConnell,… read more

Fossil pollen records from across the Amazon basin suggest that depopulation and resulting forest regrowth in Amazonia began centuries before European arrival and did not contribute to the observed decline in atmospheric carbon dioxide during the 17th century, according to… read more

In many regions around the world smaller or bigger forests have been preserved because the local people consider them sacred. They occur throughout the world and share many features, they are a kind of natural conservation area, often a forested… read more

Cli­mate driven net primary pro­ductiv­ity, biod­iversity, and patho­gens con­strain the global hunter-gatherer pop­u­la­tion dens­ity However, the most influential drivers of population density are context-dependent. Biodiversity affects population density mostly in the low-productivity environments, whereas pathogen stress, which has insignificant effects… read more