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.
1. Introduction - p. page_xiii 2. Chapter 1: The island at present - p. page_1 3. Chapter 2: The prehistory: From human settlement to European contact - p. page_41 4. Chapter 3: Introduction to Easter Island’s paleoecology: Why, where, and how? - p. page_89 5. Chapter 4: Paleoecological pioneers: The rising of the ecocidal paradigm - p. page_137 6. Chapter 5: The transitional phase: Paleoecological impasse - p. page_169 7. Chapter 6: The revival: An opportunity for climate change - p. page_183 8. Chapter 7: Contributions of paleoecology to Easter Island’s prehistory - p. page_217 9. Chapter 8: From human determinism to environmental, ecological, and social complexity - p. page_237 10. Epilogue: A plea for true interdisciplinarity - p. page_249 11. References - p. page_251 12. Species index - p. page_271 13. Subject index - p. page_275
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.
1. Introduction - p. page_xiii 2. Chapter 1: The island at present - p. page_1 3. Chapter 2: The prehistory: From human settlement to European contact - p. page_41 4. Chapter 3: Introduction to Easter Island’s paleoecology: Why, where, and how? - p. page_89 5. Chapter 4: Paleoecological pioneers: The rising of the ecocidal paradigm - p. page_137 6. Chapter 5: The transitional phase: Paleoecological impasse - p. page_169 7. Chapter 6: The revival: An opportunity for climate change - p. page_183 8. Chapter 7: Contributions of paleoecology to Easter Island’s prehistory - p. page_217 9. Chapter 8: From human determinism to environmental, ecological, and social complexity - p. page_237 10. Epilogue: A plea for true interdisciplinarity - p. page_249 11. References - p. page_251 12. Species index - p. page_271 13. Subject index - p. page_275
