Human Impacts on the Maya Forest / Yucatan Jungles Are Feral Maya Gardens

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report: http://www.marc.ucsb.edu/elpilar/fieldre...report.htm




article:

Quote:Yucatan Jungles Are Feral Maya Gardens

* By Alexis Madrigal Email Author
* October 11, 2007 |


The jungles of the Yucatán peninsula look as wild as a forest can: dense, lush and filled with dozens of varieties of trees. It certainly doesn’t look cultivated in the way that Iowa does. But research suggests that the landscape was intensely managed before the
Maya civilization collapsed over a thousand years ago, and that what we see as
"wild" bears the marks of thousands of years of human intervention.

"The species you see in Yucatán jungles are Maya village community garden plants that have gone feral. That isn’t the forest that was there before humans landed in the Americas,"
said Christine Hastorf, an archaeology professor specializing in long-term human-plant relationships at
Berkeley.

Anabel Ford, a UCSB anthropologist working on a site on the
Belize/Guatemela border called El Pilar, summarized the evidence that Mayans severely changed the forest in which their civilization grew in a
2004 report. Her report states that in the Yucatán, there are less plant species spread more uniformly than you’d expect to evolve naturally. And, most importantly, it’s the economically important plants that are present in higher numbers.

"Certain taxa were the ones that humans liked. They nurtured them in the forest. They did all the caretaking and managing,"
Hastorf explained. But with the collapse of the Maya civilization about 1100
years ago, she said, "The trees just kind of took over."

So, now, the jungle looks the product of natural forces, but the Yucatan ecosystem, Ford wrote, "still bears the evidence of manipulation."

The research fits into the emerging field of historical ecology, which looks at the two-way relationship between humans and their living environments.

Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/1...z0uPmybYEu

[hilly7]

Interesting. Good read and graphs. Thanks

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you're welcome : )

[scaramanga667]

That is quite interesting. I'd like to say I often wondered about this type of thing, except I didnt.

Another very interesting thing about this is the GE video ad at top right corner, about partnering up with a bunch of other corporations for a $2,000,000 eco challenge thing.

[hilly7]

I've noticed that the corporations that push the green thing are the ones destroying everything.

GE:

* GE Capital
o GE Capital Aviation Services, GE Energy Financial Services, GE Real Estate, GE Americas, GE Asia and GE Europe, Middle East & Africa
* GE Technology Infrastructure
o GE Aviation, GE Healthcare and GE Transportation
* GE Energy
o GE Energy Services, GE Oil & Gas, GE Power & Water
* NBC Universal
* GE Home & Business Solutions
o GE Appliances & Lighting, GE Intelligent Platforms

[edit] Healthcare

* GE Healthcare
o Amersham plc
o Datex Ohmeda
o Whatman

[edit] Media

* NBC Universal
o NBC - National Broadcasting Company
+ NBC Network Television stations
# KUSA 9 - Denver
# WNBC 4 - New York
# KNBC 4 - Los Angeles
# WMAQ 5 - Chicago
# WCAU 10 - Philadelphia
# KNTV 11 - San Jose/San Francisco
# KXAS 5 - Dallas/Fort Worth²
# WRC 4 - Washington
# WTVJ 6 - Miami
# KNSD 39 (cable 7) - San Diego²
# WVIT 30 - Hartford
+ NBC Entertainment
+ NBC News
+ NBC Sports
+ NBC Studios
o NBC Universal Sports & Olympics
o NBC Universal Television
+ Universal Media Studios
+ NBC Universal Television Distribution
+ NBC Universal International Television
o EMKA, Ltd.
o NBC Universal Digital Media
o NBC Universal Cable
+ A&E Television Networks (co-owned with The Hearst Corporation and Disney/ABC):
# A&E
# The Biography Channel
# Crime & Investigation Network
# The History Channel
# The History Channel en Español
# History Channel International
# Lifetime
# Military History Channel
+ Bravo
+ Chiller (horror-themed cable channel, launched March 1, 2007) [1]
+ CNBC
+ CNBC World
+ MSNBC (co-owned with Microsoft)
+ NBC WeatherPlus
+ mun2
+ SyFy
+ ShopNBC
+ Sleuth
+ USA Network
+ Universal HD
+ The Weather Channel
+ WeatherPlus
+ NBC Universal Global Networks
# NBC Universal Global Networks
# LAPTV (Latin America) - co-owned with Paramount Pictures (Viacom), MGM and 20th Century Fox (News Corporation);
# Telecine (Brazil) - co-owned with Globosat Canais, Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks, MGM and 20th Century Fox;
# Universal Channel Latin America (except Brazil
# Universal Channel Brazil (co-owned with Globosat Canais);
# Sci Fi Channel (Latin America)
# NBC Universal Global Networks España.
o Telemundo
+ KVEA/KWHY - Los Angeles
+ WNJU - New York
+ WSCV - Miami
+ KTMD - Houston
+ WSNS - Chicago
+ KXTX - Dallas/Fort Worth
+ KVDA - San Antonio
+ KSTS - San Jose/San Francisco
+ KTAZ - Phoenix
+ KBLR - Las Vegas
+ KNSO - Fresno
+ KDEN - Longmont, Colorado
+ WNEU - Boston/Merrimack
+ KHRR - Tucson
+ WKAQ - Puerto Rico
o TiVo¹
* Universal Studios (co-owned with Vivendi)
o Universal Pictures
o Focus Features
+ Rogue Pictures
o Working Title Films
o Universal Studios Licensing
o Universal Animation Studios
o Universal Interactive
o Universal Pictures International
o Universal Home Entertainment
+ Universal Home Entertainment Productions
o United International Pictures (co-owned with Paramount Pictures/Viacom);
o Universal Operations Group
+ Universal Production Studios
+ Universal Parks & Resorts
* qubo - Qubo Venture,LLC¹

[edit] Other

* Swiss Re (8.9%)¹

¹Minority interest
²Stations which LIN Television owns a minority interest (24%) in

And we wonder why the world is so screwed up.......