Rapid landscape transformation in South Island, New Zealand, following initial Polynesian settlement

Rapid landscape transformation in South Island, New Zealand, following initial Polynesian settlement.

Humans have altered natural patterns of fire for millennia, but the impact of human-set fires is thought to have been slight in wet closed-canopy forests. In the South Island of New Zealand, Polynesians (Māori), who arrived 700-800 calibrated years (cal y) ago, and then Europeans, who settled ∼150 cal y ago, used fire as a tool for forest clearance, but the structure and environmental consequen...

Rapid deforestation of South Island , New Zealand , by early Polynesian fires

A High-Resolution Chronology of Rapid Forest Transitions following Polynesian Arrival in New Zealand

Human-caused forest transitions are documented worldwide, especially during periods when land use by dense agriculturally-based populations intensified. However, the rate at which prehistoric human activities led to permanent deforestation is poorly resolved. In the South Island, New Zealand, the arrival of Polynesians c. 750 years ago resulted in dramatic forest loss and conversion of nearly h...

The Polynesian Settlement of New Zealand in Relation to Environmental and Biotic Changes

Polynesian settlement of New Zealand (c. 1000 yr B.P.) led directly to the extinction or reduction of much of the vertebrate fauna, destruction of half of the lowland and montane forests, and widespread soil erosion. The climate and natural vegetation changed over the same time but had negligible effects on the fauna compared with the impact of settlement. The most severe modification occurred ...

Polynesian settlement of New Zealand and the impacts of volcanism on early Maori society: an update

Models of settlement Various lines of evidence indicate that the ‘homeland’, or Hawaiiki, of the early Polynesian settlers of Aotearoa was eastern Polynesia (e.g. see Sutton, 1994; Howe, 2003). Establishing the timing of settlement has been problematic, however. The most recent and reliable evidence, both from archaeological and natural sites, points consistently to initial settlement between c...