Abstract
The fluviokarst Rio Bravo watershed of Belize Central America is about 400 km2. More importantly, it has global implications for the long-term human alteration of a tropical forest. We have studied this watershed’s geomorphology and archaeology since 1995. We have documented many ancient Maya modifications like terraces, wetland canals and fields, and reservoirs. We have recently been able to quantify canals and wetland field complexes. We have found four main agricultural zones that date back as early as 2000 BP but came to fruition from 1300 to 1000 BP, at the end of Maya Classic and the beginnings of the Post Classic. These canal complexes extended the known area of wetlands and altered river and karst geomorphology in this watershed.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Beach, T., Luzzadder-Beach, S., Cook, D., Krause, S., Doyle, C., Eshleman, S., Wells, G., Dunning, N., Brennan, M., Brokaw, N., Cortes-Rincon, M., Hammond, G., Terry, R., Trein, D., Ward, S.: Stability and instability on maya lowlands tropical hillslope soils. Geomorphology 305, 185–208 (2018)
Luzzadder-Beach, S., Beach, T., Dunning, N.: Wetland fields as mirrors of drought and the Maya abandonment. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 109, 3646–3651 (2012)
Beach, T., Luzzadder-Beach, S., Cook, D., Dunning, N., Kennett, D., Krause, S., Terry, R., Trein, D., Valdez, F.: Ancient Maya impacts on the earth’s surface: an early anthropocene analog? Quat. Sci. Rev. 124, 1–30 (2015)
Beach, T., Luzzadder-Beach, S., Krause, S., Walling, S., Dunning, N., Flood, J., Guderjan, T., Valdez, F.: ‘Mayacene’ floodplain and wetland formation in the Rio Bravo Watershed of Northwestern Belize. The Holocene 25(10), 1612–1626 (2015)
Beach, T., Luzzadder-Beach, S., Dunning, N., Jones, J., Lohse, J., Guderjan, T., Bozarth, S., Millspaugh, S., Bhattacharya, T.: A review of human and natural changes in Maya Lowlands wetlands over the Holocene. Quat. Sci. Rev. 28, 1710–1724 (2009)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Beach, T., Luzzadder-Beach, S., Krause, S., Doyle, C. (2019). An Early Anthropocene Analog: The Geomorphology and Hydrology of the Rio Bravo Watershed in the Belize Tropics. In: Boughdiri, M., Bádenas, B., Selden, P., Jaillard, E., Bengtson, P., Granier, B. (eds) Paleobiodiversity and Tectono-Sedimentary Records in the Mediterranean Tethys and Related Eastern Areas. CAJG 2018. Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01452-0_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01452-0_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-01451-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-01452-0
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)