TROPICAL FOREST DISTURBANCE - PALEOECOLOGICAL RECORDS FROM DARIEN, PANAMA

The first paleoecological data from the Darien of Panama, a remote reg ion rich in endemic species and purported to be one of the last untouc hed neotropical wildernesses, demonstrate a 4000-yr history of human d isturbance. Unstable climate is recorded as changes in precipitation i nferred from the diatom record, but a more important source of disturb ance has been human activity. Pollen, and phytoliths of Zea mays, and charcoal from grass fires confirm historical and archaeological judgme nts that the region has a long history of human settlement. The data a re consistent with depopulation and abandonment of most agriculture fo llowing the Spanish conquest, showing that the local modern forest has developed in recent centuries. Four millennia of disturbance that pre ceded the decline of human populations may have had a profound effect upon the modern forest associations. The apparently pristine forests a ppear to have regrown in just 350 yr, probably from populations fragme nted by previous agricultural disturbance. However, the modern richnes s of the Darien forests suggests that local biodiversity was maintaine d throughout 4000 yr of indigenous agriculture.