This Forest Has Remained Wild for 5,000 Years-thanks to the Soil
We sometimes think that the Amazon rainforest has not been modified by humans and can peep into the Earth’s past. In the last few years, scientists have learned that many parts of the Amazon are completely untouched. The Amazon has been cultivated by indigenous peoples for thousands of years, and only centuries ago there were cities and farmlands. But that’s not the case everywhere.In a new study at PNASResearchers have found that the rainforests of the Putumayo region of Peru have been home to relatively unaltered forests for 5,000 years, and that the people who lived there have found a long-term way to coexist with nature. .. Silica and charcoal in the soil.
“Even experienced ecologists find it very difficult to tell the difference between a 2,000-year-old forest and a 200-year-old forest,” said Nigel, an ecologist and co-author of the paper at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.・ Pitman says. PNAS paper. “There are more and more studies showing that many of the Amazon forests we consider to be wilderness are actually only 500 years old, because the people who lived there were also by Europeans. He died in a pandemic and the forest grew again. “