| Description |
1 online resource (300 pages) |
| Contents |
Intro -- Paleoecological Research on Easter Island: Insights on Settlement, Climate Changes, Deforestation and Cultural Shifts -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Rapanui glossary -- Introduction -- 1. Aims and scope -- 2. Book organization -- Appendix: Supplementary material -- Chapter 1 The island at present -- 1.1 Geography and geology -- 1.2 Climate and hydrology -- 1.3 Soils and land use -- 1.4 Flora and vegetation -- 1.4.1 Lichens and bryophytes -- 1.4.2 Vascular flora -- 1.4.3 Vegetation -- 1.4.4 Paleoecological implications of landscape degradation |
|
1.5 Archaeological heritage: An outdoor museum -- 1.6 Conservation: The Rapa Nui National Park -- 1.6.1 Conservation of archaeological heritage -- 1.6.2 Conservation of native and Polynesian-introduced flora -- Chapter 2 The prehistory: From human settlement to European contact -- 2.1 From exploration to research -- 2.2 Prehistoric chronology -- 2.3 The first settlers -- 2.3.1 Some terminological considerations -- 2.3.2 When and from where? -- 2.3.3 From Polynesia to America and back -- 2.3.4 Summary -- 2.4 The ancient Rapanui society -- 2.4.1 Sociopolitical organization |
|
2.4.2 The moai cult -- 2.4.3 The Birdman cult -- 2.4.4 Deforestation -- 2.4.5 Collapse or resilience? -- 2.4.6 Demography -- 2.4.7 The genocide -- 2.4.8 Summary -- 2.5 A narrative of human determinism -- Chapter 3 Introduction to Easter Island's paleoecology: Why, where, and how? -- 3.1 Why study paleoecology? -- 3.1.1 General considerations -- 3.1.2 The case of Easter Island -- 3.2 Initial proposals of prehistoric climate change on Easter Island -- 3.3 Coring sites -- 3.3.1 Rano Aroi -- 3.3.2 Rano Kao -- 3.3.3 Rano Raraku -- 3.4 Cores retrieved and main proxies studied |
|
3.5 Chronology and sedimentary patterns -- 3.6 Other paleoecological archives -- Appendix 3.1 -- Rano Aroi -- Rano Kao -- Rano Raraku -- Chapter 4 Paleoecological pioneers: The rising of the ecocidal paradigm -- 4.1 Before paleoecology -- 4.2 The first systematic pollen analyses -- 4.3 The first paleoecological synthesis -- 4.3.1 Vegetation dynamics -- 4.3.2 Paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental inferences -- 4.3.3 Human impact -- 4.3.4 General conclusions -- 4.4 The first socioecological synthesis -- 4.5 Some insights on the pioneering works -- 4.5.1 Deforestation chronology |
|
4.5.2 Paleoclimatic inference and paleoecological implications -- 4.5.3 The upper altitudinal forest limit -- 4.5.4 Human and climatic impact -- 4.5.5 The socioecological catastrophe -- Appendix 4.1 -- Chapter 5 The transitional phase: Paleoecological impasse -- 5.1 Rano Kao and the dating problem -- 5.2 Rano Raraku -- 5.2.1 Paleolimnology and the Amerindian influence -- 5.2.2 Soil and vegetation degradation -- 5.3 Rano Aroi: More dating problems -- 5.4 Other studies -- 5.5 Paleoecological impasse -- Chapter 6 The revival: An opportunity for climate change |
| Summary |
Paleocological Research on Easter Island: Insights on Settlement, Climate Changes, Deforestation and Cultural Shifts examines the area's climatic and ecological history, a topic not usually addressed in other literature. The book provides a thorough and synthetic account of all paleoecological works developed to date, including the latest discoveries. Finally, it attempts to match paleoecological evidence with the results of other disciplines creating a multidisciplinary framework. This approach to the field is ideal for researchers, university professors and graduate students in a varied range of disciplines and subdisciplines, including ecology, paleoecology, paleoclimatology, biogeography, sedimentology, and paleontology. Users will find synthesized information on Easter Island from the last millennia that will help pave the way towards an integrated interdisciplinary vision of the island's environmental-ecological-cultural system as a complex functional unit. Human and environmental deterministic views are avoided and the Easter Island enigmas are analyzed under a holistic perspective of continuous feedbacks and synergies among the different components of the system. -- Provided by publisher |
| Notes |
6.1 Coring intensification and reanalysis |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and indexes |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Paleoecology -- Easter Island
|
|
Paleoecology
|
|
Easter Island
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| ISBN |
0128227478 |
|
9780128227473 |
|
