Humans have been modifying ecosystems since before the Holocene began ca. 12,000
years ago, even in Neotropical regions. The Amazon was once thought to be 'pristine'and …

Maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) diverged from one of its wild relatives, the teosinte Zea mays
ssp. parviglumis, in the lowlands of southwest Mexico~ 9000 years ago. Following this …

Aim Combining different biodiversity dimensions can reveal new diversity patterns
disclosing the relative roles of historical, environmental and anthropogenic factors in …

Since Darwin, studies of human evolution have tended to give primacy to open 'savannah'
environments as the ecological cradle of our lineage, with dense tropical forests cast as …

People have modified landscapes throughout the Holocene (the last c. 11,700 years) by
modifying soils, burning forests, cultivating and domesticating plants, and directly and …

Aim Pollen assemblages are commonly used to reconstruct past climates yet have not yet
been used to reconstruct past human activities, including deforestation. We aim to assess (i) …

Amazonian forest plots are used to quantify biodiversity and carbon sequestration, and
provide the foundation for much of what is known about tropical ecology. Many plots are …

Aim How the ability of plants to move towards newly favourable habitats (dispersal limitation)
impacts the change of biome distribution and transition under fast climate warming is still …

Wildfires are considered to have played an important role in the land plants crisis during the
Permian–Triassic (P–T) transition. However, the nature and impact of wildfires in the P–T …

Few paleoecological records are available to document the history of mid-elevation
montane forests in the tropical Andes between 1500 and 2500 m above sea level …