Abstract
Inter-island paleoecological comparisons have provided useful information concerning the role of humans vs. background-level disturbance in tropical ecosystems. Major ecological changes have occurred since human arrival in Madagascar, the West Indies, the Hawaiian Islands, and elsewhere. Prehuman vegetation changes and disturbances have also been documented for many islands. Instructive inter-island similarities and differences have been detected in the chronology, distribution, and extent of human activities, vegetation changes, and biotic extinctions. The earliest stratigraphic proxy evidence for initial human impacts (including increased charcoal particle influx to sediments, first appearance of exotic pollen, increase in ruderal pollen, and paleolimnological evidence for cultural eutrophication of lake waters) generally confirm but sometimes predate the earliest conventional archaeological evidence for human activity. Carefully chosen sites permitting the close integration of palynological, paleontological, and archaeological data from a variety of island settings with differing geographic and historical contingencies can enable investigators to more fully evaluate the importance of a range of human and ecological variables in determining the overall character and dynamics of ecosystems.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Athens, J. S., and Ward, J. V. (1993a). Environmental change and prehistoric Polynesian settlement in Hawai'i. Asian Perspectives 32(2): 205-223.
Athens, J. S., and Ward, J. V. (1993b). Paleoenvironmental Investigations at Hamakua Marsh, Kailua, O'ahu, Hawai'i. Report prepared for Ducks Unlimited, Inc., 50 p.
Athens, J. S., Ward, J. V., and Wickler, S. (1992). Late Holocene lowland vegetation, O'ahu, Hawai'i. New Zealand Journal of Archaeology 14: 9-34.
Athens, J. S. (1997). Hawaiian native lowland vegetation in prehistory. In Kirch, P. V., and Hunt, T. L. (eds.), Historical Ecology in the Pacific Islands. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp. 248-270.
Brenner, M., and Binford, M. W. (1988). A sedimentary record of human disturbance from Lake Miragoane, Haiti. Journal of Paleolimnology 1: 85-97.
Brook, G. A., Burney, D. A., and Cowart, J. B. (1990). Desert paleoenvironmental data from cave speleothems with examples from the Chihuahuan, Somali-Chalbi, and Kalahari deserts. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 76: 311-329.
Brown, J. H., and Gibson, A. C. (1983). Biogeography. Mosby, St. Louis.
Burney, D. A. (1987a). Pre-settlement vegetation changes at Lake Tritrivakely, Madagascar. Palaeoecology of Africa 18: 357-381.
Burney, D. A. (1987b). Late Quaternary stratigraphic charcoal records from Madagascar. Quaternary Research 28: 274-280.
Burney, D. A. (1987c). Late Holocene vegetational change in central Madagascar. Quaternary Research 28: 130-143.
Burney, D. A. (1993a). Recent animal extinctions: Recipes for disaster. American Scientist 81: 530-541.
Burney, D. A. (1993b). Late Holocene environmental changes in arid southwestern Madagascar. Quaternary Research 40: 98-106.
Burney, D. A., and MacPhee, R. D. E. (1988). Mysterious island: What killed Madagascar's large native animals? Natural History 97(7): 46-55.
Burney, D. A., Burney, L. P., Rafamantanantsoa, J.-G., D'Arrigo, R. D., and Jacoby, G. C. (1993). Laminated sediment cores, tree-ring records, and laminated speleothems from Madagascar. Eos 4/20: 93.
Burney, D. A., Burney, L. P., and MacPhee, R. D. E. (1994a). Holocene charcoal stratigraphy from Laguna Tortuguero, Puerto Rico, and the timing of human arrival on the island. Journal of Archaeological Science 21: 273-281.
Burney, D. A., Brook, G. A., and Cowart, J. B. (1994b). A Holocene pollen record for the Kalahari Desert of Botswana from a U-series dated speleothem. The Holocene 4(3): 225-232.
Burney, D. A., DeCandido, R. V., Burney, L. P., Kostel-Hughes, F. N., Stafford, T. W., Jr., and James, H. F. (1995). A Holocene record of climate change, fire ecology and human activity from montane Flat Top Bog, Maui. Journal of Paleolimnology 13: 209-217.
Burney, D. A., James, H. F., Grady, F. V., Rafamantanantsoa, J.-G., Ramilisonina, Wright, H. T., and Cowart, J. B. (1997). Environmental change, extinction, and human activity: Evidence from caves in NW Madagascar. Journal of Biogeography (in press).
Clark, J. S. (1988a). Particle motion and the theory of charcoal analysis: Source area, transport, deposition, and sampling. Quaternary Research 30: 67-80.
Clark, J. S. (1988b). Stratigraphic charcoal analysis on petrographic thin sections: Application to fire history in northwestern Minnesota. Quaternary Research 30: 81-91.
Dewar, R. E., and Wright, H. T. (1993). The culture history of Madagascar. Journal of World Prehistory 7(4): 417-466.
Diamond, J. M. (1972). Biogeographic kinetics: Estimation of relaxation times for avifaunas of southwest Pacific islands. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 69: 3199-3203.
Diamond, J. M. (1984). Historic extinction: A Rosetta Stone for understanding prehistoric extinctions. In Martin, P. S., and Klein, R. G. (eds.), Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 824-862.
Diamond, J. M. (1993). Ten thousand years of solitude. Discover 14(3): 48-57.
Ellison, J. C. (1994). Palaeo-lake and swamp stratigraphic records of Holocene vegetation and sea-level changes, Mangaia, Cook Islands. Pacific Science 48(1): 1-15.
Emory, K. P. (1921). An archaeological survey of Haleakala. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers 7(11): 237-259.
Faegri, K., and Iversen, J. (1989). Textbook of Pollen Analysis (IV Ed.). Wiley, Chichester.
Flannery, T. F. (1994). The Future Eaters. George Braziller, New York.
Flenley, J. R., King, A. S. M., Teller, J. T., Prentice, M. E., Jackson, J., and Chew, C. (1991). The Late Quaternary vegetational and climatic history of Easter Island. Journal of Quaternary Science 6: 85-115.
Gavenda, R. T. (1992). Hawaiian Quaternary paleoenvironments: A review of geological, pedological, and botanical evidence. Pacific Science 46(3): 295-307.
Hodell, D. A., Curtis, J. H., Jones, G. A., Higuera-Gundy, A., Brenner, M., Binford, M. W., and Dorsey, K. T. (1991). Reconstruction of Caribbean climate change over the past 10,500 years. Nature 352: 790-793.
Humbert, H. (1927). Destruction d'une flore insulaire par le feu: principaux aspects de la végétation à Madagascar. Mémoires de l'Academie Malgache 5: 1-80.
James, H. F. (1987). A late Pleistocene avifauna from the island of Oahu, Hawaiian Islands. Documents du Laboratoire Geologique de Lyon 99: 221-230.
James, H. F. (1995). Prehistoric extinctions and ecological changes on oceanic islands. Ecological Studies 115: 87-102.
James, H. F., and Olson, S. L. (1991). Descriptions of thirty-two new species of birds from the Hawaiian Islands: Part II. Passeriformes. Ornithological Monographs no. 46.
James, H. F., Stafford, T. W., Jr., Steadman, D. W., Olson, S. L., Martin, P. S., Jull, A. J. T., and McCoy, P. C. (1987). Radiocarbon dates on bones of extinct birds from Hawaii. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 84: 2350-2354.
Kirch, P. V. (1982). The impact of prehistoric Polynesians on the Hawaiian ecosystem. Pacific Science 36(1): 1-14.
Kirch, P. V. (1985). Feathered Gods and Fishhooks. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
Kirch, P. V., and Ellison, J. (1994). Palaeoenvironmental evidence for human colonization of remote Oceanic islands. Antiquity 68: 310-321.
Kirch, P. V., Flenley, J. R., and Steadman, D. W. (1991). A radiocarbon chronology for human-induced environmental change on Mangaia, southern Cook Islands, Polynesia. Radiocarbon 33(3): 317-328.
Kirch, P. V., Flenley, J. R., Steadman, D. W., Lamont, F., and Dawson, S. (1992). Ancient environmental degradation. National Geographic Research and Exploration 8(2): 166-179.
Kozlowski, J. K. (1974). Preceramic Cultures in the Caribbean. Zysztyy Naukowe, Universttyetu Jagiellonskiego, vol. 386, Prace Archeologiczne, Zezty 20. Krakow, Poland.
MacArthur, R. H., and Wilson, E. O. (1967). The Theory of Island Biogeography. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
MacPhee, R. D. E., and Burney, D. A. (1991). Dating of modified femora of extinct dwarf Hippopotamus from southern Madagascar: Implications for constraining human colonization and vertebrate extinction events. Journal of Archaeological Science 18: 695-706.
MacPhee, R. D. E., Burney, D. A., and Wells, N. A. (1985). Early Holocene chronology and environment of Ampasambazimba, a Malagasy subfossil lemur site. International Journal of Primatology 6(5): 463-489.
MacPhee, R. D. E., Ford, D. C., and McFarlane, D. A. (1989). Pre-Wisconsinan mammals from Jamaica and models of late Quaternary extinction in the Greater Antilles. Quaternary Research 31: 94-106.
Martin, P. S. (1966). Africa and Pleistocene overkill. Nature 212: 339-342.
Martin, P. S. (1984). Prehistoric overkill: The global model. In Martin, P. S., and Klein, R. G. (eds.), Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 354-403.
Martin, P. S. (1990). 40,000 years of extinctions on the “Planet of Doom.” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 82: 187-201.
Martin, P. S., and Klein, R. G. (1984). Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Matsumoto, K., and Burney, D. A. (1994). Late Holocene environments at Lake Mitsinjo, northwestern Madagascar. The Holocene 4(1): 17-25.
McGovern, T. H. (1980). cows, harp seals, and churchbells: Adaptation and extinction in Norse Greenland. Human Ecology 8(3): 245-273.
Moore, C. (1991). Cabaret: Lithic workshop sites in Haiti. Reports of the Archaeological-Anthropological Institute of the Netherlands Antilles 9: 92-104.
Morgan, G. S., and Woods, C. A. (1986). Extinction and the zoogeography of West Indian land mammals. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society of London 28: 167-203.
Olson, S. L. (1989). Extinction on islands: Man as a catastrophe. In Western, D., and Pearl, M. (eds.), Conservation for the Twenty-First Century. Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 50-53.
Olson, S. L., and James, H. F. (1982). Prodromus of the fossil avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, no. 365.
Olson, S. L., and James, H. F. (1984). The role of Polynesians in the extinction of the avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands. In Martin, P. S., and Klein, R. G. (eds.), Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 768-780.
Olson, S. L., and James, H. F. (1991). Descriptions of thirty-two new species of birds from the Hawaiian Islands: part I. Non-Passeriformes. Ornithological Monographs, no. 45.
Perrier de la Bâthie, H. (1936). Biogéographie des Plantes de Madagascar. Société d'Editions Géographiques, Maritimes, et Coloniales, Paris.
Pregill, G. K., Steadman, D. W., Olson, S. L., and Grady, F. V. (1988). Late Holocene fossil vertebrates from Burma Quarry, Antigua, Lesser Antilles. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, no. 463.
Reyes, N. E. (1993). The Modern Diatom Spectra of Madagascar and Diatom-inferred Late Quaternary Climatic Changes in Northeastern and Central Madagascar. PhD dissertation, Fordham University, New York.
Rouse, I. (1992). The Tainos: Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus. Yale University Press, New Haven.
Rouse, I., and Allaire, L. (1978). The Caribbean. In Meighan, C. W. (ed.), Chronologies in New World Archaeology. Academic Press, New York.
Selling, O. H. (1948). Studies in Hawaiian pollen statistics, part III. On the Late Quaternary history of the Hawaiian vegetation. Bishop Museum Special Publication, No. 39.
Simberloff, D. S., and Wilson, E. O. (1970). Experimental zoogeography of islands. A two year record of colonization. Ecology 51: 934-937.
Simons, E. L., Burney, D. A., Chatrath, P. S., Godfrey, L. R., Jungers, W. L., and Rakotosamimanan, B. (1995). AMS 14C dates for extinct lemurs from caves in the Ankarana Massif, northern Madagascar. Quaternary Research 43: 249-254.
Spriggs, M., and Anderson, A. (1993). Late colonization of East Polynesia. Antiquity 67: 200-217.
Steadman, D. W. (1993). Biogeography of Tongan birds before and after human impact. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 90: 818-822.
Steadman, D. W., and Olson, S. L. (1985). Bird remains from an archaeological site on Henderson Island, South Pacific: Man-caused extinctions on an “uninhabited” island. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 82: 6191-6195.
Steadman, D. W., Stafford, T. W., Jr., Donahue, D. J., and Jull, A. J. T. (1990). Chronology of Holocene vertebrate extinction in the Galapagos Islands. Quaternary Research 36: 126-133.
Terrell, J. E. (1997). The postponed agenda: Archaeology and human biogeography in the twenty-first century. Human Ecology 25: 419-436.
Vavilov, N. I. (1949). The origin, variation, immunity and breeding of cultivated plants. Chronica Botanica 13: 1-6.
Weisler, M. I. (1995). Henderson Island prehistory: Colonization and extinction on a remote Polynesian island. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 56: 377-404.
Wright, H. T., Andrianalvoarivony, R., Bailiff, I., Burney, D., Haas, H., Raharijaona, V., Rakotovololona, S., Rasamuel, D., and Dewar, R. (1992). Datation absolue de sites archéologiques du centre de Madagascar--présentations des déterminations. Taloha 11: 121-146.
Wright, H. T., Vérin, P., Ramilisonina, Burney, D., Burney, L. P. and Matsumoto, K. (1996). The evolution of settlement systems in the Bay of Boeny and the Mahavavy River valley, north-western Madagascar. Azania 31: 37-73.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Burney, D.A. Tropical Islands as Paleoecological Laboratories: Gauging the Consequences of Human Arrival. Human Ecology 25, 437–457 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021823610090
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021823610090