The Maya Forest Garden by Anabel Ford & Ronald Nigh

Author:Anabel Ford & Ronald Nigh
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781315417912
Publisher: Routledge

Paleoenvironmental Pollen Data

Fossil pollen data provide significant insight into the Maya forest, but as the record is largely limited to the wind-pollinated plants, these data represent only a small subset of flowering plants in the world: 10 percent of all flowering plants (Machtmes 2011; Ollerton et al. 2011; Smithsonian Institution 2014), 8 percent of the edible plants (Fedick and Islebe 2012), and only 2 percent of all plants in tropical latitudes (Turner 2001). The paucity of wind-borne plants in the tropics frustrates efforts to identify refugia, areas where tropical plants survived the ice ages (Kellman and Tackaberry 1997:18). When we consider what the record holds, we are fortunate that the megathermal taxa are distinct and that the palynologist can identify the temperate-tropical transitions in the early Holocene, some 8,000 years ago. Yet the shift from a temperate to a tropical context is striking with the rise of the Brosimum-type Moraceae pollen in the lakecore records. The presence of Brosimum pollen, presumed to be B. alicastrum (Leyden 2002; Piperno 2006), is considered key to the change from a cool, dry climate to a warm, wet climate; this shift marks the dawn of the tropical Maya (Figure 3.4).

While ramon must have been dominant throughout the ancient Maya forest, its soil requirements and its competition would have restricted it primarily to the well-drained limestone upland hills and ridges of the area, where the trees are today (cf. Tables 5.1 and 5.2; Lambert and Arnason 1982; Schulze and Whitacre 1999:191). The plants of the poorly drained lowlands, however, are distinct, as can be seen in the recent pollen studies at Aguada Zacatal and Laguna Yaloch (Wahl et al. 2007; Wahl et al. 2013). In these humid lowland and wetland locations, species such as Cladium sp. and Bucida burseras, representing lowland forests as characterized by Schulze and Whitacre (1999:231–247), appear during the Maya expansion.

Ramon pollen and its fluctuations through prehistory have been the source of much speculation. It is the only wind-pollinated species among the dominant upland mature forests (Campbell et al. 2006; Ford 2008). Furthermore, since it is abundant in the mature forest and the understory of the uplands, as noted by Bush and Rivera (1998), it is a poor indicator of the mature forest canopy. Bush and Rivera consider ramon an aggressive pioneer of the forest gaps. Clearly ramon, as a megathermal plant, demonstrates the major environmental shift from temperate to tropical ecology in the Early Holocene. It is not, however, the best indicator of the composition of the mature forest, since birds, bees, and bats are largely responsible for pollination of tropical forest plants. What is more, it is intensively managed for food and forage in the area today; fluctuations in the presence of ramon pollen will more likely reflect human intentions rather than natural processes.

As a pioneer and a canopy tree, ramon was well positioned to dominate the emergent Holocene tropical forest ecosystem. Its expansion is understandable, given its affinity to rocky limestone soil (Lambert and Arnason 1982). Yet, as human

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