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Drought, vegetation change, and human history on Rapa Nui (Isla de Pascua, Easter Island)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Daniel Mann ,
James Edwards ,
Julie Chase ,
Warren Beck ,
Richard Reanier ,
Michele Mass ,
Bruce Finney  and
John Loret
Daniel Mann*
Affiliation:
Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA
James Edwards
Affiliation:
Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA
Julie Chase
Affiliation:
New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA
Warren Beck
Affiliation:
AMS Facility, Department of Physics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Richard Reanier
Affiliation:
Reanier and Associates, Inc. 1215 SW 170th St, Seattle WA 98166, USA
Michele Mass
Affiliation:
Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA
Bruce Finney
Affiliation:
Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA
John Loret
Affiliation:
Science Museum of Long Island, Manasset, NY 11030, USA
*
*Corresponding author.E-mail address:d.mann@uaf.edu (D. Mann).
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Abstract

Stratigraphic records from lake sediment cores and slope deposits on Rapa Nui document prehistoric human impacts and natural environmental changes. A hiatus in sedimentation in Rano Raraku suggests that this lake basin dried out sometime after 4090–4410 cal yr BP and refilled only decades to centuries before AD 1180–1290. Widespread ecosystem changes caused by forest clearance by Polynesian farmers began shortly after the end of this drought. Terrestrial sections show a chronology of burning and soil erosion similar to the lake cores. Although changing sediment types and shifts in the pollen rain suggest that droughts occurred earlier in the Holocene, as yet there is no evidence for droughts occurring after AD 1180–1290. The timing of the agricultural colonization of Rapa Nui now seems well established at ca. AD 1200 and it was accompanied by rapid deforestation that was probably exacerbated by the island's small size, its droughty climate, and the rarity of primeval fires. Detailed records of a large interval of Rapa Nui's ecological history remain elusive due to the drought hiatus in the Rano Raraku sediment record. We find no evidence for a "rat outbreak impact" on Rapa Nui's vegetation preceding anthropogenic forest clearance.

Keywords

Easter IslandRapa NuiIsland ecologyPolynesian archaeologyPollen analysisFire historyDroughtIsland microcosmRat impacts
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 69 , Issue 1 , January 2008 , pp. 16 - 28
Copyright
Elsevier B.V.

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