The first Caribbean settlers were Amerindians from South America. Great Abaco and Grand Bahama, the final islands colonized in the northernmost Bahamas, were inhabited by the Lucayans when Europeans arrived. The timing of Lucayan arrival in the northern Bahamas has been uncertain because direct archaeological evidence is limited. We document Lucayan arrival on Great Abaco Island through a detailed record of vegetation, fire, and landscape dynamics based on proxy data from Blackwood Sinkhole. From about 3,000 to 1,000 y ago, forests dominated by hardwoods and palms were resilient to the effects of hurricanes and cooling sea surface temperatures. The arrival of Lucayans by about 830 CE (2σ range: 720 to 920 CE) is demarcated by increased burning and followed by landscape disturbance and a time-transgressive shift from hardwoods and palms to the modern pine forest. Considering that Lucayan settlements in the southern Bahamian archipelago are dated to about 750 CE (2σ range: 600 to 900 CE), these results demonstrate that Lucayans spread rapidly through the archipelago in less than 100 y. Although precontact landscapes would have been influenced by storms and climatic trends, the most pronounced changes follow more directly from landscape burning and ecosystem shifts after Lucayan arrival. The pine forests of Abaco declined substantially between 1500 and 1670 CE, a period of increased regional hurricane activity, coupled with fires on an already human-impacted landscape. Any future intensification of hurricane activity in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean threatens the sustainability of modern pine forests in the northern Bahamas.

第一批加勒比定居者是来自南美洲的美洲印第安人。大阿巴科岛和大巴哈马岛是巴哈马最北端最后殖民的岛屿，当欧洲人到达时，卢卡亚人就居住在那里。由于直接的考古证据有限，卢卡亚人到达巴哈马北部的时间一直不确定。我们根据布莱克伍德天坑的代理数据，通过植被、火灾和景观动态的详细记录，记录了卢卡亚人抵达大阿巴科岛的情况。大约 3,000 至 1,000 年前，以硬木和棕榈树为主的森林能够抵御飓风和海面温度下降的影响。卢卡亚人于公元 830 年左右（2σ 范围：公元 720 至 920 年）到来，其标志是燃烧加剧，随后是景观扰动，以及从硬木和棕榈树到现代松林的时间跨越性转变。考虑到巴哈马群岛南部的卢卡亚人定居点可追溯到公元 750 年左右（2σ 范围：公元 600 至 900 年），这些结果表明卢卡亚人在不到 100 年的时间内迅速在整个群岛传播。尽管接触前的景观会受到风暴和气候趋势的影响，但最明显的变化更直接地来自卢卡亚到达后的景观燃烧和生态系统变化。公元 1500 年至 1670 年期间，阿巴科的松树林大幅减少，这一时期区域飓风活动增多，加上已经受到人类影响的景观发生火灾。热带北大西洋飓风活动的任何未来加剧都会威胁巴哈马北部现代松林的可持续性。