After the ice caps, tropical forests are globally the most threatened terrestrial environments. Modern trees are not just witnesses to growing contemporary threats but also legacies of past human activity. Here, we review the use of dendrochronology, radiocarbon analysis, stable isotope analysis, and DNA analysis to examine ancient tree management. These methods exploit the fact that living trees record information on environmental and anthropogenic selective forces during their own and past generations of growth, making trees living archaeological ‘sites’. The applicability of these methods across prehistoric, historic, and industrial periods means they have the potential to detect evolving anthropogenic threats and can be used to set conservation priorities in rapidly vanishing environments.

在冰盖之后，热带森林是全球受威胁最大的陆地环境。现代树木不仅是当代威胁不断增长的见证，而且是过去人类活动的遗产。在这里，我们回顾了树木年代学，放射性碳分析，稳定同位素分析和DNA分析的使用，以检查古树管理。这些方法利用了这样一个事实，即活树记录了其自身和后代生长过程中有关环境和人为选择力的信息，使树木成为考古学的“场所”。这些方法在史前，历史和工业时期的适用性意味着它们具有检测不断发展的人为威胁的潜力，可用于在迅速消失的环境中设定保护重点。