Fires did not destroy (as fast as we thought)
Friday, January 15, 2016 - 17:21
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Today, people are major agents of landscape change and catalysts for erosion, but what did people do to the environment before the industrial revolution—before mechanized agriculture? The impact that indigenous peoples had on their landscapes, and when, are often difficult to determine. In this article for Geology, Eric W. Portenga and colleagues show that the use of fire by native Australians had little impact on the erosion of the landscapes they inhabited.