In landscapes that support economic and cultural activities, human communities actively manage environments and environmental change at a variety of spatial scales that complicate the effects of continental-scale climate. Here, we demonstrate how hydrological conditions were modified by humans against the backdrop of Holocene climate change in southwestern Amazonia. Paleoecological investigations (phytoliths, charcoal, pollen, diatoms) of two sediment cores extracted from within the same permanent wetland, ∼22 km apart, show a 1,500-y difference in when the intensification of land use and management occurred, including raised field agriculture, fire regime, and agroforestry. Although rising precipitation is well known during the mid to late Holocene, human actions manipulated climate-driven hydrological changes on the landscape, revealing differing histories of human landscape domestication. Environmental factors are unable to account for local differences without the mediation of human communities that transformed the region to its current savanna/forest/wetland mosaic beginning at least 3,500 y ago. Regional environmental variables did not drive the choices made by farmers and fishers, who shaped these local contexts to better manage resource extraction. The savannas we observe today were created in the post-European period, where their fire regime and structural diversity were shaped by cattle ranching.

在支持经济和文化活动的景观中，人类社区在各种空间尺度上积极管理环境和环境变化，这些空间尺度使大陆尺度气候的影响复杂化。在这里，我们展示了人类如何在亚马逊西南部全新世气候变化的背景下改变水文条件。从相距约 22 公里的同一永久湿地内提取的两个沉积岩芯的古生态学调查（植硅体、木炭、花粉、硅藻）显示，土地利用和管理的集约化发生时间有 1,500 年的差异，包括大田农业、火灾制度和农林业。尽管在全新世中晚期降水增加是众所周知的，但人类活动操纵了气候驱动的景观水文变化，揭示人类景观驯化的不同历史。如果人类社区至少在 3,500 年前开始将该地区转变为目前的热带稀树草原/森林/湿地马赛克，则环境因素无法解释当地差异。区域环境变量并没有推动农民和渔民做出的选择，他们塑造了这些当地环境以更好地管理资源开采。我们今天观察到的稀树草原是在后欧洲时期形成的，在那里它们的火势和结构多样性是由养牛场塑造的。区域环境变量并没有推动农民和渔民做出的选择，他们塑造了这些当地环境以更好地管理资源开采。我们今天观察到的稀树草原是在后欧洲时期形成的，在那里它们的火势和结构多样性是由养牛场塑造的。区域环境变量并没有推动农民和渔民做出的选择，他们塑造了这些当地环境以更好地管理资源开采。我们今天观察到的稀树草原是在后欧洲时期形成的，在那里它们的火势和结构多样性是由养牛场塑造的。