Recent paper in Nature shows that First Nations enhanced productivity of redcedar by use of clamshells that improved calcium and phosphorus in soil. Findings were featured in Quirks and Quarks on CBC.
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/quirks-quarks-for-october-15-2016-1.3803790/coastal-clamshells-1.3803872
http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12491
Intertidal resource use over millennia enhances forest productivity
Abstract
Human
occupation is usually associated with degraded landscapes but 13,000
years of repeated occupation by British Columbia’s coastal First Nations
has had the opposite effect, enhancing temperate rainforest
productivity. This is particularly the case over the last 6,000 years
when intensified intertidal shellfish usage resulted in the accumulation
of substantial shell middens. We show that soils at habitation sites
are higher in calcium and phosphorous. Both of these are limiting
factors in coastal temperate rainforests. Western redcedar (
Thuja plicata)
trees growing on the middens were found to be taller, have higher wood
calcium, greater radial growth and exhibit less top die-back. Coastal
British Columbia is the first known example of long-term intertidal
resource use enhancing forest productivity and we expect this pattern to
occur at archaeological sites along coastlines globally.
No comments:
Post a Comment