Human arrival in the northern Bahamas

By assembling Bahamian records of landscape, vegetation, and anthropogenic burning via charcoal and pollen samples from the Bahamas’ Blackwood Sinkhole, researchers determined that Lucayans–the first humans to inhabit the Bahamas–arrived in the northern Bahamas around 830 CE and expanded rapidly throughout the Bahamian archipelago in less than a century; although the Bahamas’ forest landscape rapidly transitioned from hurricane-resilient hardwoods and palms to modern pine with the arrival of Lucayans, pine forests decreased during heightened regional hurricane activity in the 16th century, suggesting that future increases in hurricane activity may endanger Bahamian pine forests.

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Article #20-15764: “Human arrival and landscape dynamics in the northern Bahamas,” by Patricia L. Fall et al.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Patricia Fall,

University of North Carolina at Charlotte, NC;

tel: 602-820-1645;

email: <

[email protected]

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Pete van Hengstum,

Texas A&M University at Galveston, TX;

tel: 409-740-4919;

email <

[email protected]

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