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Environmental Conservation (2017) 44 (3): 286–297 C
Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2017 doi:10.1017/S0376892917000261
THEMATIC SECTION
Humans and Island
Environments
Archaeology, historical ecology and anthropogenic island
ecosystems
TODD J. BRAJE∗1, THOMAS P. LEPPARD2, SCOTT M. FITZPATRICK3
AND JON M. ERLANDSON4
1Department of Anthropology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182–6040, USA, 2McDonald
Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER, UK,
3Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA and 4Museum of Natural and
Cultural History, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1224, USA
Date submitted: 30 June 2016; Date accepted: 15 March 2017; First published online 11 April 2017
SUMMARY
In the face of environmental uncertainty due to
anthropogenic climate change, islands are at the
front lines of global change, threatened by sea level
rise, habitat alteration, extinctions and declining
biodiversity. Islands also stand at the forefront of
scientific study for understanding the deep history of
human ecodynamics and to build sustainable future
systems. We summarize the long history of human
interactions with Polynesian, Mediterranean, Califor-
nian and Caribbean island ecosystems, documenting
the effects of various waves of human settlement and
socioeconomic systems, from hunter–gatherer–fishers,
to agriculturalists, to globalized colonial interests. We
identify degradation of island environments resulting
from human activities, as well as cases of human
management of resources to enhance productivity
and create more sustainable systems. These case
studies suggest that within a general global pattern
of progressive island degradation, there was no single
trajectory of human impact, but rather complex
effects based on variable island physiographies,
human subsistence strategies, population densit-
ies, technologies, sociopolitical organization and
decision-making.
Keywords: human impacts, human–environmental interac-
tions, Anthropocene
INTRODUCTION
For more than 150 years, beginning with Charles Darwin
and Alfred Russel Wallace, islands have been central
to investigations of evolution, biogeography, ecology and
human–environmental interactions. Islands offer natural and
historical scientists ecological systems to test theories about
the past, present and future at scales that are smaller
and more manageable than continental systems (Kirch
1997: 30). Studying the ecological history of islands can
∗Correspondence: Dr Todd J. Braje email: tbraje@mail.sdsu.edu
help elucidate the complex interplay between humans and
environmental change, providing a framework for examining
human influence and impacts in once-pristine environments
(e.g. Erlandson & Fitzpatrick 2006;Ricket al. 2013). Records
of island responses to climatic fluctuations and human
influence span millennia of land and seascape modification,
introduction of biota, extinctions and other activities, which
are often more clearly visible on island versus continental
systems (Steadman & Martin 2003; Wroe et al. 2006;Rick
et al. 2013).
Even as scientists debate its genesis, the growing magnitude
of human-driven environmental changes makes it increasingly
clear that we now live in the Anthropocene, the geologic
age of humans (e.g. Erlandson & Braje 2013;Braje2015;
Lewis & Maslin 2015; Ruddiman et al. 2015; Zalasiewicz
et al. 2015;Waterset al. 2016). Most geoscientists argue
that the ‘age of humans’ began sometime in the last
50 years, but many archaeologists and other historical
scientists recognize the millennia-long, complex interplay
between humans and their local, regional and global
environments that shaped the Anthropocene. Today,
many islands are threatened by accelerating environmental
instability and uncertainty. Sea level rise, declining
biodiversity, extinctions, landscape clearance and invasions
by non-native species have fundamentally reshaped
island ecosystems. Archaeological, palaeoenvironmental and
historical ecological research, especially over the last two
decades, demonstrates that anthropogenic alterations of
terrestrial and marine ecosystems are not recent phenomena,
but extend into deep antiquity (e.g. Jackson & Hobbs 2009;
Erlandson & Rick 2010; Boivin et al. 2016). Evidence for
human impacts on islands and archipelagos continues to
rapidly accumulate, suggesting that the available data may
represent the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Nonetheless,
archaeology and other historical sciences now play a critical
role in understanding the modern state of these ecosystems,
predicting future outcomes and managing natural resources
(Wolverton et al. 2016; Barnosky et al. 2017).
Research has produced cases of ecosystem degradation
resulting from human activities and introductions (purposeful
or accidental) of invasive plants and animals and cases of
active management of resources to enhance productivity and
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Anthropogenic island ecosystems 287
Figure 1 Location map of the
island regions discussed in the text
(drafted by S.M. Fitzpatrick).
build long-term sustainable systems. These demonstrate the
complexity of human–environmental interactions and offer
perspectives on building future sustainable systems.
Most basically, historical ecology integrates ecology and
historical sciences (Rick & Lockwood 2013: 46) into a
multifaceted discipline that is focused on the evolution of
ecosystems, the effects of anthropogenic and natural changes
and the relationship between humans and their environments.
Archaeology is an increasingly essential component of
historical ecology, offering important insights into past biotic
abundances and distributions, the structure and function
of ecosystems, system variability, harvest thresholds and
desired future conditions (see Lotze et al. 2011; Braje &
Rick 2013: 310). While much historical ecological research
comes from continental systems, island research has produced
numerous examples of how understanding long-term human–
environmental interactions and legacies of land and sea use can
help guide future resource management.
We begin by reviewing the global history of human island
colonization, then summarize changes to island systems after
initial settlement by agriculturalists or sedentary foragers
(or by hunter–gatherer–fishers, where relevant) and post-
fifteenth century Euro–American colonialism. We focus
on four case studies, including the initial colonization
of Near Oceania by Pleistocene hunter–gatherer–fishers
and the later settlement of remote Pacific Islands by
maritime agriculturalists; Mediterranean and Caribbean
islands by hunter–gatherer–fishers, horticulturalists and
agriculturalists; and California’s Northern Channel Islands
by hunter–gatherer–fishers (Fig. 1). Each case study explores
how ancient people impacted island ecosystems, and how
such impacts varied spatially, temporally and culturally. We
explore the lessons that archaeological and other historical
perspectives offer for the future management of island
ecosystems.
These case studies include examples of colonization and
human impacts on both oceanic and continental islands.
Differences in physiography – from the size and isolation
of islands to their status as continental versus remote
oceanic islands – may play a central role in predicting
the structure and degree of human impacts. Since species
richness increases with island area and decreases with island
isolation, for example, a complex mix of factors influenced
the degree of human forcing on island landscapes and
seascapes through time. Some small, remote islands in the
Pacific were quickly and irrevocably transformed by initial
human colonization, then abandoned after human settlement
became unsustainable. Processes of extinction, erosion and
ecological transformation are often easier to decode and link to
anthropogenic activities in smaller, remote islands than larger
continental islands. These factors were especially influential
during initial prehistoric colonizations. While we touch on
these, future research can explore the often subtle (but at
times dramatic) differences across islands in order to better
understand how translocation, isolation and circumscription
influenced ancient human–environmental ecodynamics.
FROM COLONIZATION TO COLONIALISM
Human colonization of many islands began early, with oceans
and coastlines around the globe serving as pathways for the
spread of anatomically modern humans (AMHs) (Erlandson
2010). Homo erectus colonized Flores and other Southeast
Asian islands even earlier, by c. 1,000,000 years ago (Brumm
et al. 2010), although whether this resulted from active
seafaring or passive dispersal remains unknown (Dennell
et al. 2014). Extensive evidence of island colonization by
AMHs is found shortly after their spread out of Africa,
however, perhaps along a coastal ‘southern dispersal’ corridor,
with the colonization of Island Southeast Asia, Australia and
New Guinea c. 50,000 years ago and western Melanesia and
the Ryukyu Islands c. 35,000–40,000 years ago (Erlandson
2010; Fujita et al. 2016). Winds, currents and technology
influenced the timing and nature of island colonization,
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288 Braje T. J. et al.
and understanding these variables contributes to decoding
the timing of human–island interactions. Variation in the
subsistence practices of island explorers also resulted in
very different impacts on island ecosystems. Colonization by
hunter–gatherer–fishers generally resulted in less sweeping
changes than colonization by agriculturalists, who tended to
introduce a wider range of exotic (domesticated and wild)
plants and animals, both intentionally and unintentionally. In
many cases, humans created new anthropogenic ecologies,
causing extinctions, trophic cascades and no-analogue
ecological states.
Generally, anthropogenic changes resulting from initial
human colonization pale in comparison to those from post-
colonial contacts. European colonialism quickly overwhelmed
island ecosystems (Mann 2011), which had already been
influenced by indigenous peoples for centuries to millennia.
Islands were integrated into global economies and transformed
into agrarian plantation and production centres, long-distance
trade and whaling stations and mercantile networks (Lightfoot
et al. 2013). The scale and intensity of island transformations
during this period far outpaced indigenous impacts, resulting
in novel systems far removed from a ‘natural’ state. In the case
studies below, we concentrate on broad patterns of human
impacts and highlight the complexities of unravelling human
impacts given physical variation in island size, location and
isolation, as well as the nature of cultural adaptations.
TRANSPORTED LANDSCAPES OF THE PACIFIC
Around the world, human dispersal to islands often involved
translocation of plants and animals. The human presence on
the islands of Near Oceania as early as c. 32,000 years ago was
largely no different, although the number of Pleistocene sites
is relatively small and the data ephemeral (Summerhayes et al.
2016). Late Pleistocene peoples who colonized islands within
the circum-New Guinea Archipelago (CNG) – including the
Moluccas, Sulawesi, Lesser Sundas, Bismarcks and Solomons
– translocated animals between c. 20,000 and 3000 years
ago, including the Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) and species
of cuscus (family: Phalangeridae) and pademelon (Thylogale
spp.) (e.g. Flannery et al. 1988;White2004). Northern Sahul
and the CNG also provide evidence for the exploitation
and translocation of tropical plants such as the Galip nut
(Canarium indicum) as long as 14,000 years ago (Summerhayes
et al. 2016). Regarding extinctions and extirpations, research
has focused on megafaunal disappearances across Sahul
(Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania during the last glacial
maximum (LGM)), with debates surrounding the human
agency of such changes (e.g. Johnson et al. 2016;Saltréet al.
2016). For Pleistocene New Ireland, Steadman et al. (1999)
noted bird taxa now absent on the Bismarcks and tentatively
suggested human-driven extirpation. Given the clear evidence
for human impacts on insular avifaunas elsewhere in the Pa-
cific, the Bismarck data may indicate that modern CNG biotas
are the survivors of a Late Pleistocene disturbance event.
Human ecodynamics in Remote Oceania have operated
on scales that are different from those of Near Oceania,
structured in many ways by the immensity of the Pacific
and the constraints isolation imposes on ecological and
evolutionary organization. The relative spatial constriction
of truly ‘oceanic’ islands (i.e. those with submarine volcanic
origins) also renders Oceanic ecosystems highly sensitive to
external influence.
Due to the sheer distance between landmasses, the
settlement of Remote Oceania was late compared to our other
case studies. First evidence for human settlement in the region
comes from Lapita sites that stretch from the Reef/Santa
Cruz Islands in the west through several major island groups,
including Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji and then eventually
to S¯
amoa and Tonga in the east. These population dispersals
are generally contemporaneous with non-Lapita sites in the
Marianas and Palau, which may date between c. 3400 and
2900 before present (BP) (see Fitzpatrick 2003;Clarket al.
2006; Sheppard et al. 2015). Long-distance migrations were
enabled by outrigger and sailing technology (Irwin 1994).
After nearly two millennia, eastward colonization occurred
in pulses – possibly related to El Niño/Southern Oscillation
cycling (Anderson et al. 2006; Montenegro et al. 2016)–into
central and eastern Micronesia and central Polynesia and then,
by 1200–800 BP, to Rapa Nui/Easter Island, Hawai’i and
Aotearoa/New Zealand (Wilmshurst et al. 2011;Athenset al.
2014; Goodwin et al. 2014).
The natural biotas of Remote Oceania were comprised
solely of successful long-distance colonists that evolved
in isolation from continental taxa. The arrival of humans
and associated species had transformative effects. Avifaunal
extinctions are well documented (e.g. Steadman & Martin
2003; Anderson 2009), driven by direct predation, habitat
destruction and the introduction of predatory commensals
such as dogs (Canis spp.) and the Pacific rat. Extirpation
of endemic birds drove broader environmental change,
especially affecting nutrient cycling (Kirch 1996). Long-term
effects of these anthropogenic ecological reorganizations –
occurring as variations on a theme across Remote Oceania –
were exacerbated by land clearance and the introduction of
successful domesticates. Initial Lapita colonization, and later
post-Lapita movements, carried into island environments
a suite of domesticates that changed little from 3500
to 800 BP, including taro (Colocasia esculenta), coconut
(Cocos nucifera), breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis), yam (Dioscorea
spp.), banana (Musa spp.), pigs (Sus spp.), dogs, chickens
(Gallus spp.) and rats (e.g. Anderson 2009). Later, the
sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) was brought from South
America into East Polynesia and became a major staple.
These ‘transported landscapes’ were imposed on islands
already experiencing post-colonization ecological trauma,
resulting in similarly organized anthropogenic ecosystems.
In their eastward expansion, colonizing humans also escaped
some demographic constraints common to their homelands,
including pathogens and their vectors not native to Remote
Oceania, such as Plasmodium-bearing anopheline mosquitoes.
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Anthropogenic island ecosystems 289
This may have accelerated human population growth rates in
Remote Oceania.
The human presence on previously unoccupied tropical
islands implanted with successful horticultural systems also
encouraged rapid growth among Pacific Islander populations.
Demographic reconstructions are fraught with uncertainty,
but a general pattern across Remote Oceania – clearly
exemplified in Hawai‘i with Dye and Komori’s (1992)
modelling of cumulative radiocarbon dates – involved steep
initial r-type growth, with curves flattening as carrying
capacity (K) was approached (Kirch & Rallu 2007). Combined
with the geography of the Pacific, rapid population growth
exerted profound pressure on Oceanic societies and fragile
island ecosystems. Strategies to mitigate this pressure drove a
series of socioecological and sociopolitical outcomes.
Subsistence intensification – a means of artificially
increasing K– is evident across Remote Oceania, frequently
in the form of landscape modification. Terracing and
hydrological management are conspicuous in the Hawaiian
archipelago as well as the Marquesas, Society Islands and
S¯
amoa (e.g. Quintus et al. 2016). Divergence in horticultural
intensification and management specific to the immediate
environment is also apparent: wetland cultivation of Colocasia
on O’ahu was matched by extensive dryland field systems
on the arid portions of Hawai‘i Island (e.g. Ladefoged et al.
2009). Attempts to control resources can also be seen in
Hawaiian fishpond aquaculture. Such management efforts
notwithstanding, the pulsing of colonization events into
remote Polynesia may also be understood as responses to
resource stress, combined with environmental conditions that
facilitated eastward sailing (Anderson et al. 2006). This is
underscored by oral histories that tie moments of social tension
to long-distance voyages (Firth 1967: 24).
The supply problems posed by population growth
(Bocquet-Appel 2011) and environmental limitations can be
related to the apparent florescence of hierarchical forms of
social organization across the Pacific during the last two
millennia. The emergence of ranked societies relates to
demands placed on circumscribed anthropogenic ecologies
(Field et al. 2011). Along with driving colonization events,
competition for resources is often framed ethnohistorically
as an explanation for political change and consolidation
(Kirch 2010: 77–124). Such competition is also implicated
in Polynesian and Micronesian monumental architecture.
Diverse megalithic traditions such as Yap’s stone money
(Fitzpatrick 2008) and Rapa Nui’s huge moai statues are
most readily interpreted as cases of competitive emulation
and display (see also Kolb 2006).
The socioecological trauma of contact between Eurasian
and Pacific populations has been exhaustively studied,
and we cannot review the extent to which the arrival of
Europeans (and their domesticates and commensals, parasites
and viruses) radically altered the health and organization
of indigenous Pacific societies (e.g. Kirch & Rallu 2007).
Rather, we emphasize the disruptive ecodynamic processes
that accompanied colonization of the Pacific by European
colonial interests. The arrival of exotic biota has driven
pervasive biophysical cascades, affecting trophic systems,
nutrient cycling, hydrology and soils (see D’Antonio et al.
2011; Chynoweth et al. 2013). In terms of conserving genetic
diversity and mitigating the impacts of introduced biota, the
Pacific situation is precarious (Jupiter et al. 2014).
Pacific Island biophysical systems have been (and continue
to be) fundamentally transformed by human arrival and
settlement. However, the physiographic organization of
Remote Oceania – relatively minute patches separated by
relatively massive expanses of ocean – is unmatched in
its fragmentation, rendering the Pacific’s endemic ecologies
highly vulnerable to human colonization.
After colonization, emerging from the intensive manage-
ment of productive anthropogenic landscapes, demographic
growth and the existence of productivity thresholds, this
fragmentation also drove the adoption of varied strategies,
many of which resulted in highly inequitable political and
social systems prior to and after European contact. Such
political fragmentation, along with the pervasive nature of
ecological changes over the millennia, also poses formidable
challenges for restoration and conservation efforts across the
Pacific.
MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS THROUGH DEEP
HISTORY
The environmental organization of the Mediterranean results
from its unique physiographic and biotic structure, combined
with deep historical anthropogenic processes. These have
resulted in ecosystems with constituents that evolved under
massive selective pressure from human activity.
For the Mediterranean islands, the antiquity of human
settlement continues to be a contentious issue complicated
by: (1) a hominin dispersal and occupation history that spans
a million years or more; and (2) major palaeogeographic
changes between glacials and interstadials over this time.
Generally accepted models of Mediterranean human–island
ecodynamics involve no significant occupation by archaic
hominins and only sporadic exploitation by AMHs until
the terminal Pleistocene or Early Holocene. Recent finds on
Crete of possible Acheulean tools may challenge this (Runnels
2014), but the age and nature of these remain uncertain
(Broodbank 2014). Leppard’s (2014) survey of Pleistocene
insular ecodynamics also found little evidence for substantial
ecosystem changes potentially associated with colonization by
archaic humans. There is little evidence for an anthropogenic
influence on Mediterranean island ecosystems before the
terminal Pleistocene (Palombo 2008); however, future surveys
could reveal evidence for late Pleistocene colonization and
occupation that is now largely obscured by rising sea levels
since the LGM.
The apparent failure of archaic Homo to permanently
settle most Mediterranean islands may be a function of
the biogeographic constraints that sea gaps placed on early
hominin dispersal. For early AMHs, most Mediterranean
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290 Braje T. J. et al.
islands may have been relatively unattractive due to the
comparatively lower productivity of marine waters (declining
to the east), including low tidal amplitudes that limit intertidal
productivity, and the generally depauperate nature of island
terrestrial faunas. These environmental factors, combined
with the calorific demands of mobile Upper Palaeolithic
groups and the implications of these demands in relation to K
(gross scaling of Kwith area and decreasing latitude) may have
limited Upper Palaeolithic occupation (Cherry & Leppard
2017). The greater diversity of Mesolithic subsistence
strategies (see Sampson 1998) and the more expansive
evidence for Mesolithic occupation support this model.
Endemism on Mediterranean islands declined catastrophic-
ally across the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary, with an 88.9%
extinction rate (Alcover et al. 1998: 916). This is attributed,
in part, to the sensitivity of Mediterranean Pleistocene biotas
to climatic stress associated with the interstadial transition
and surface area loss to sea level rise that affected taxa
viability because of the relationship between area and food web
complexity (Brose et al. 2004). The accelerating impacts of
Epipalaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic colonists were also
driving forces in these extinctions. These impacts resulted
from human hunting, as exemplified by possible mass-kill
sites (e.g. Cypriot Aetokremnos; Knapp 2013: 52–59), and
indirectly via the introduction of numerous domesticated
plants and animals that competed with native biotas (e.g.
the very late extinction of cave goats (Myotragus balearicus)
on the Balearics; Bover et al. 2016). Some Southwest Asian
xeric-tolerant domesticates (e.g. goats (Capra hircus), barley
(Hordeum vulgare) and various pulses) carried westward by
colonizing farmers between c. 10,000 and 4500 BP were pre-
adapted to arid Mediterranean islands. Dependence on a more
diverse suite of species circumvented the intrinsic trophic
limitations of the island Mediterranean, making even very
small and marginal island environments (e.g. Formentera and
Pantelleria) viable for human settlement. The prevalence of
more aridity-tolerant ovicaprids over cattle (Bos spp.) and
pigs at sites on smaller, ecologically liminal islands lends
corroborating evidence (Ramís 2014).
Elsewhere, the introduction of domesticated species into
island ecosystems has been catastrophic (Chynoweth et al.
2013). In the Mediterranean, a relative paucity of data
makes identifying and quantifying these impacts challenging,
although there is a growing number of palynological studies
with the time depth needed to help reconstruct ecodynamics
throughout the Holocene (e.g. Sadori et al. 2008;DiRita
& Melis 2013). Despite the difficulty in identifying basin-
wide patterns from local records, a Holocene reorganization
of regional vegetation regimes is evident and at least partially
anthropogenic. Nonetheless, a single clear signature of
Neolithization is hard to grasp. Considering various pathways
through which ovicaprids affect insular ecosystems, for
example, we might expect that predation on preferred food
sources would drive woodland fragmentation (via goat browse)
in the short term and exert selective effects on preferred versus
non-preferred species over evolutionary time.
These transformations would also affect other aspects of
environmental organization (such as biogeochemical systems;
e.g. soil nutrient cycling), as well as the trophic neighbours
of such species, stimulating ecological cascades and driving
evolutionary processes in associated species. The relatively
woody morphologies of Mediterranean oaks (Quercus spp.),
mastic (Pistacia lentiscus) and juniper (Juniperus phoenicea),
with their retention of unpalatable secondary metabolites, may
be explained, in part, as adaptions to millennia of selective
pressure exerted by the herbivory of not only endemic,
but also human-introduced ungulates. Mediterranean island
floras have been subject to selective pressure from herbivores
since their isolation after the Zanclean Flood, but the
radical (and rapid) reorganization of trophic structures during
Neolithization may have exerted selective pressure that was
unusual in degree, if not in type (see Leppard & Pilaar
Birch 2016). One way or another, the Late Holocene biotic
organization of the Mediterranean is generally disturbance
adapted and resilient (Allen 2003; Butzer 2005).
Anthropogenic effects influenced both terrestrial and
marine ecosystems ranging from coastal foraging to targeting
species such as the bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus). Prehistoric
impacts of such activities on prey demography may have
been significant for some relatively sessile species, but
probably minor for migratory species like tuna, although
Holocene Atlantic bluefin stocks have declined substantially.
Large-scale changes in environmental organization were also
not limited to biota. Vegetation clearance and overgrazing
associated with agropastoralism from c. 9000 to 4000
BP decreased slope stability and drove soil runoff. To
alleviate soil loss and expand space for polycropping, various
Mediterranean islanders implemented terracing regimes
during the Early to Mid-Holocene (Bevan & Conolly 2011).
Such systems require intensive management, and episodic
abandonment could result in the mass sediment transport that
is evident in fluvial sedimentary records (Butzer 2005).
Globally, the Columbian exchange was a watershed in the
ecology of islands, but in the Mediterranean – where the
societies that initiated such contacts originated – there is
much less evidence for such disruptions. Broodbank (2013), in
fact, traced the origin of many textually recorded ecodynamic
relationships to the initial Late Holocene and the aridification
of the Sahara. Contact with the Americas and Oceania created
significant changes in species composition, including the
introduction of the tomato, maize, beans and peppers to
the Mediterranean. Such introductions transformed human
subsistence patterns and altered biophysical relationships
from pollination dynamics to providing new niches for
symbionts and parasites, but they did not traumatize already
disturbance-adapted biotas in ways comparable to many other
islands.
The historical ecology of the Mediterranean exemplifies
how humans can, through short-term decision-making, create
productive ecosystems in otherwise marginal environments.
The deleterious impacts of hunter–gatherer–fishers and
especially later Neolithic peoples – although partially
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Anthropogenic island ecosystems 291
mitigated by strategies such as fallowing, manuring and
terracing – created productive anthropogenic ecosystems
that were relatively resilient in their capacity to tolerate
variation. Environmental change, including the gradual
and variable establishment of Late Holocene climatic
conditions, challenged human social organizations that were
reliant on certain subsistence regimes. This suggests an
exaggerated sensitivity of anthropogenic island ecologies to
changing climate and ocean systems when compared to
adjacent continental areas. This has implications beyond
the Mediterranean for the maintenance of biodiversity,
sustainability and sociopolitical stability.
MARITIME HUNTER–GATHERER–FISHERS ON
CALIFORNIA’S CHANNEL ISLANDS
California’s Channel Islands, divided into northern and
southern groups, were home to Native Americans for at least
13,000 years. Some of the earliest islanders had sophisticated
maritime capabilities focused on shellfishing, fishing and the
hunting of birds and marine mammals (Erlandson et al.
2011). Unlike Pacific, Mediterranean and Caribbean islands
occupied by ancient agriculturalists, Channel Islanders never
introduced domesticates, save dogs, relying on a mix of
marine and terrestrial foods, technological innovations and
complex cultural adaptations to sustain large, sedentary
populations. Recent Channel Islands research documents
a variety of ways that foragers, often assumed to have a
relatively light environmental footprint, transformed islands.
Archaeological and palaeoecological data reveal patterns of
human overexploitation and ancient management, providing
insights for understanding and managing island ecosystems
today.
The Channel Islands, located between 20 and 98 km off
southern California’s coast, range between 2.6 and 249 km2
in size. During the LGM, the northern islands (Anacapa,
Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and San Miguel) coalesced into one
landmass, Santarosae, separated from the mainland by c. 8
km (Reeder-Myers et al. 2015). The southern islands (Santa
Barbara, San Clemente, San Nicolas and San Clemente) were
larger during the LGM but were isolated by sizable water
gaps. Isolation created unique island ecosystems and endemic
and relict species with relatively impoverished terrestrial
biodiversity. Exceptionally productive marine ecosystems
supported diverse resources, however, including seaweeds,
shellfish, fishes, sea mammals and birds.
Nearshore marine ecosystems were a major focus of
Native American subsistence. Mussels (Mytilus californianus),
abalone (Haliotis spp.), limpets (Lottia spp.), sea urchins
(Strongylocentrotus spp.) and turban snails (Chlorostoma spp.)
were especially important, and trans-Holocene studies show
decreasing average sizes through time, linked to growing
human predation pressure (Erlandson et al. 2008,2011).
Human depression of high-ranked shellfish species resulted
in overexploitation and resource switching to lower-ranked
taxa (Braje et al. 2007). Erlandson et al. (2005) argued that
human depletion of local sea otter (Enhydra lutris) populations
may have triggered trophic cascades beginning c. 7500 BP,
releasing key shellfish resources and helping sustain viable
shellfisheries for millennia (see Braje et al.2009). The most
dramatic impacts correlate with spikes in human populations
and the formation of large coastal villages during the Late
Holocene (<3500 BP). Shellfish contributed an increasingly
small percentage of dietary protein through time, but the
overall intensity of harvest accelerated without evidence of
extinctions or other long-term consequences.
Less is known about pre-Columbian human impacts on
marine mammals, finfishes and seabirds. Fishing intensified
significantly after the development of circular shell fishhooks
c. 3500 years ago, and marine mammal hunting appears to have
accelerated dramatically c. 1500 BP, roughly when the bow and
arrow and plank canoe first appeared. These new technologies
allowed islanders greater access to pinniped communities on
offshore islets, as well as large pelagic fish.
Today, massive pinniped haul-outs located on or near
ancient villages suggest that local distributions and behaviours
of these animals have shifted since their release from ancient
and historical hunting (Braje et al. 2011). Guadalupe fur seals
(Arctocephalus townsendi) were the focus of native hunting
during much of the Holocene (Rick et al. 2009), with elephant
seals (Mirounga angustirostris) being rare in archaeological
sites (Rick et al. 2011). Today, the situation is reversed,
with abundant elephant seals and virtually no Guadalupe fur
seals. The recent identification of sea mammal bone fragments
from 9000–12,000-year-old sites show that elephant seals
were hunted by some of the earliest islanders, who may have
altered the structure of pinniped populations millennia ago.
This suggests that multiple shifts in pinniped communities
occurred on the Channel Islands – after initial human arrival,
again during the colonial 18th- and 19th-century fur/oil
trade and finally as a by-product of modern management and
conservation.
The long-term ecodynamics of humans, finfishes and
seabirds are more obscure. One clear example of prehistoric
human-influenced extinction on the islands comes from a
flightless duck (Chendytes lawi) that was driven to extinction
on the islands and mainland by c. 2400 BP (Jones et al. 2008).
Impacts to ground-nesting bird species were likely caused by
the human introduction of dogs and foxes (Urocyon spp.) to
the islands starting at least 6000 years ago (Rick 2013;Hofman
et al. 2015). Preliminary studies also suggest that the average
size of some prey fish species was significantly larger in the
past than they are today (Braje et al. 2012,2017).
We know less about the importance of terrestrial habitats
for Channel Islander diets, but recent palaeobotanical research
suggests that humans shaped and managed island landscapes
for millennia. Fires occurred on the islands during the late
Pleistocene and Holocene, and many of these may have been
set by native peoples to expand grassland habitats that were
rich in geophytes and other economically important plants
(Gill 2013,2015). Anderson et al. (2010) identified evidence
for accelerated island burning during the human population
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292 Braje T. J. et al.
increases of the Late Holocene (c. 3000 BP), which may be
related to such landscape management systems.
By the mid-19th century, indigenous communities had
been removed from the islands by Spanish colonizers, and
the islands converted into commercial ranching, hunting and
fishing outposts. Historically, the most dramatic changes
swept across the islands with the introduction of numerous
exotic herbivores, including horses (Equus spp.), cattle, sheep
(Ovis aries), pigs, goats, rabbits and cervids such as elk (Cervus
canadensis) and deer that caused widespread devegetation, soil
erosion and changes in freshwater hydrology. Other exotic
animals were also introduced, including domestic cats, rats
and birds (e.g., turkeys (Meleagris spp.), chickens and quails
(family: Odontophoridae)). Numerous exotic plants were also
introduced, and local populations of pinnipeds and sea otters
were devastated by the commercial fur trade. These changes
transformed island ecosystems so extensively that it can be
difficult to decode the pre-Columbian state and establish
appropriate restoration baselines or benchmarks.
CARIBBEAN ISLANDS IN FLUX
The Caribbean has received less archaeological attention
with regards to human impacts on island environments,
particularly for landscape modification resulting from food
production. Amerindian groups settled Trinidad as early as
c. 8000 BP (although it was in close proximity or partially
connected to the Venezuelan coast in the Early Holocene),
and Cuba, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico perhaps as early as
c. 6000–5000 BP (Fitzpatrick 2015), introducing a suite of
non-native plants and animals in a process that accelerated
beginning c. 2000–1500 BP (Hofman et al. 2008; Giovas et al.
2012; Mickleburgh & Pagán-Jiménez 2012).
If the degree of impact to Caribbean terrestrial
environments is still poorly known, research has shown
that humans began to effect native terrestrial and marine
fauna in biologically impoverished and highly endemic island
environments (Fitzpatrick & Keegan 2007). These may have
included sloths during the Archaic, whose extinctions seem
independent of climatic changes, but not human arrival
(Steadman et al. 2005). Other signs of human impacts
involved the extinction or extirpation of reptile, mammal
and bird species (Soto-Centeno & Steadman 2015; Steadman
& Franklin 2015; Steadman et al. 2015). Several Ceramic
Age archaeological assemblages show an early emphasis on,
and then major decline of, rice rats (family: Cricetidae)
and land crabs, with a commensurate increase in mollusc
species (Newsom & Wing 2004: 100, 102–104), suggesting
overexploitation of terrestrial fauna and a move towards
heavier reliance on marine foods. Larger marine mammals
such as the manatee, the Caribbean monk seal (Monachus
tropicalis) or migrating cetaceans seem not to have been a
focus of prehistoric predation.
Zooarchaeological research in the northern Antilles shows
changes in marine predation and consumption patterns,
with carnivorous fishes such as groupers dominating earlier
phases of occupation compared to herbivorous species such as
surgeonfish (family: Acanthuridae) and parrotfish (subfamily:
Scarinae). Nearshore taxa also become less dominant as pelagic
fishes (e.g. jacks (family: Carangidae), flying fish (family:
Exocoetidae) and tuna) increase (Newsom & Wing 2004: 111–
112). There is also a general decline in the mean trophic level
of reef fishes with a subsequent increase (or decrease) in the
mean trophic level of inshore and pelagic fishes (Wing 2001:
112). In one case, the mean size of nearshore (reef) fishes
declined between c. 1850–1280 and 1415–560 BP occupations,
correlating with increased dependence on smaller fishes such
as herrings (family: Clupeidae) and reduced mean trophic
level. The shift towards more pelagic species and changes in
the sizes of fish suggest that native peoples impacted nearshore
environments, which may have resulted in an increased
reliance on horticulture and new fishing technologies.
While some Caribbean evidence points to marine
overexploitation, other data suggest that groups lived
sustainably. Analysing fish assemblages from Anguilla, Carder
et al. (2007) found no indication for overfishing over a
period of 700–900 years. At a late Ceramic Age site on
Nevis, a study of a large mollusc assemblage (n=58,000)
showed no signs of overharvest from c. 1200 to 500 BP,
despite increased exploitation of some species (Poteate et al.
2015). Measurement of >2700 nerites (Nerita tessellata) from
this collection showed a significant increase in shell size
through time, despite elevated harvest levels (Giovas et al.
2013). Additional research is needed in order to examine
the effects of native groups on Caribbean ecosystems, but
these case studies suggest that even small human populations
can affect fish populations and that mollusc harvesting may
have compensated for declining fisheries (including sea turtles
(superfamily: Chelonioidea)) in some areas.
If the level of impact on Caribbean biota prehistorically
is still uncertain in many places, the arrival of Europeans
was clearly disastrous to native groups and island ecologies.
The ‘Columbian Exchange’ (Crosby 1972) – a transfer of
people, pathogens, plants and animals between the Old and
New Worlds – led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of
Amerindians, widespread land clearance for subsistence crops
and trade such as coffee, sugarcane and tobacco and the decline
or extirpation of numerous endemic species, including sea
turtles and the Caribbean monk seal (see Fitzpatrick & Keegan
2007). Competition by European powers for commercial and
strategic control accelerated environmental impacts to such a
degree that many Caribbean islands are ecological shadows of
their pre-Columbian states.
ISLANDS IN THE ANTHROPOCENE
Around the world, archaeological and other records show
that human transformation of island ecosystems has a deep
history that often began with initial human arrival. In many
cases, burning, landscape clearance and the introduction
of exotic plants and animals drove significant ecological
changes during the early stages of human settlement. Human
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Anthropogenic island ecosystems 293
Figure 2 Conceptual model
depicting the influences of humans
on island ecosystems after initial
colonization and the
epiphenomenal drivers of
anthropogenic ecosystems (drafted
by T.P. Leppard).
impacts accelerated as populations increased and economies
intensified, often resulting in extinctions, soil erosion and
increasingly anthropogenic landscapes.
The scale of human impacts on island ecosystems varied,
however, based on many factors (Fig. 2). Hunter–gatherer–
fisher colonizations on the Channel Islands and (initially)
some Caribbean and Mediterranean islands seem to have left a
relatively light footprint, with ecological changes that are often
more difficult to discern in archaeological and palaeoecological
records. Later settlement of islands by agricultural peoples
in the Mediterranean, Caribbean and the remote Pacific
resulted in relatively rapid landscape clearance, burning,
biotic introductions, extinctions of endemic species and other
changes that created anthropogenic island ecosystems that
were actively managed by people for millennia.
Focusing on these broad patterns, however, obscures
incredible variability in human ecodynamics on islands
around the world. Hunter–gatherer–fishers on the Channel
Islands introduced dogs, foxes, deer mice and possibly
other organisms, burned scrublands to create favourable
conditions for grasslands and geophytes for millennia, altered
pinniped and shellfish populations and triggered trophic
cascades in kelp ecosystems as much as 8000 years ago.
Polynesian maritime agriculturalists colonized the Pacific
and successfully managed their populations and subsistence
strategies on some islands, but were less successful at avoiding
ecological disaster on others. The scale of human impacts
depended on a number of complex, intersecting variables,
from island physiography to human subsistence strategies,
population densities, technology, sociopolitical organization
and human decision-making (see Kirch 2007). On Californian,
Pacific, Caribbean and other islands, however, the impacts of
indigenous peoples pale in comparison to those associated
with historical Euro–American and Asian settlement and the
introduction of many more exotic plant and animal species.
This is the one pattern that may be universal – the rapid and
transformative effects of colonial expansion and occupation.
Whether islands were small or large, continental or oceanic,
isolated or not, their colonization by Europeans and other
groups and their integration into global economic systems
resulted in the introduction of no-analogue ecological systems
and devastatingly swift changes to island habitats.
Ultimately, this differential timing and scale of the human
modification of island ecosystems poses one of the central
challenges of historical ecology. Understanding long-term
processes of human–island interactions can help reconstruct
the evolution of island ecosystems, but creates a dilemma
for conservation scientists: what are the preferred temporal
and spatial baselines for restoration and management? Like
all ecological communities, islands have been (and are) in
a nearly constant state of flux (Graham 1988), although
anthropogenic climate change is now accelerating the pace
of change. For some, we should establish baselines at a pre-
human colonization temporal scale; for others pre-European
colonialization; and for others something in between. If the
target time period is too shallow, long-term environmental
disturbances may be overlooked, and we risk restoring
ecosystems to already-degraded and no-analogue states. If the
temporal target is too old, benchmarks may be unobtainable
within current or future ecological states (Landres 1992).
Archaeological perspectives offer multi-scalar records of
island ecological changes and view humans as integral to
these processes. If conservation biology is to succeed over
the longue durée, deep historical (archaeological) data offer
critical records of long-term change and human ecodynamics.
Historical data can identify a range of ecological states that
once existed and provide multiple benchmarks to help guide
conservation efforts. Deciding which temporal baselines, if
any, are most appropriate is inherently political, driven
by assessments of desired future conditions. We cannot
rewind the clock to past ecological states, but deep historical
perspectives may help us to create more practical and
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294 Braje T. J. et al.
successful management plans. Our review suggests that there
is no single or global solution, but that practical restoration
choices will best be made by considering the implications
of the deep time perspective for rebuilding ecosystems and
resiliency in individual islands or archipelagos.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank the Foundation for Environmental Conservation for
inviting this review, and John Cherry, Tim Rieth, the editors
and three reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts.
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