ONEPlanet DTP - Palaeoenvironmental investigation into the origin of the domesticated landscapes of southwestern Amazonia (OP2137)

Contrary to popular conceptions, the Amazon was not a pristine landscape prior to European arrival but contained large human populations that created complex landscape management systems for the production of food and industrial crops. Southwestern Amazonia is a proposed hotspot for the domestication of crops, including sweet potato and manioc [1], and features the Llanos de Moxos sub-basin, which is a vast seasonally-inundated floodplain characterized by forest-savannah mosaic. The Llanos de Moxos is covered in Pre-European earthworks associated with past landscape management, including raised field complexes, forest islands, fish weirs, earth mounds and canals and causeways [2,3]. Although these archaeological features are well-mapped, numerous questions remain over their origin and use, and the extent to which the ecology and hydrology of the landscape has been shaped by past societies. In this project, you will reconstruct the origin, use and impact of these domesticated landscapes using palaeoenvironmental techniques. In conjunction with archaeological and archaeobotanical colleagues at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, you will be supported in the development of a multi-disciplinary research strategy to address the overall project aims, whilst focusing on your choice of proxies, including pollen, charcoal, phytoliths, diatoms, geochemistry, so that you can apply your own subject expertise to the project. Financial support will allow you to conduct field sampling (if appropriate), and you will also have access to several existing and dated sediment cores to commence the project. You will be supported to attend international conferences, advance your training in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction techniques, and disseminate research through peer-reviewed publication in international journals. Through ONE Planet, you will also benefit from sustained interaction with other postgraduates undertaking complementary research that addresses grand challenges of the Anthropocene. [1] Lombardo et al. (2020) Nature 581, 190; [2] Mann (2008) Science 321, 1148; [3] Whitney et al., (2014) Holocene 24, 231.