Hook a Worm to Catch a Man: Tracking Historical and Recent Human Settlement, Land use & Migration in Neotropical Rainforests using Ecosystem Engineers

'Learning from the past to inform the present and inspire the future' - Atkins Group

The anthropologic and archaeological study of pre-Columbian people of the Amazon Basin has revealed sophisticated agricultural practices. Notwithstanding the absence of historical written records, the biological evidence of these practices remains in the remarkable soils referred to as Amazonian 'dark earths' (ADEs), or "Terra Preta do Indio", produced by these ancient civilisations to promote highly productive and sustainable agriculture. With increasing global demand for food, energy and carbon, it is crucial to understand and learn from past land use systems. We can also learn from the influence of these historical practices on the associated biodiversity in order to appropriately manage the current and plan the future land uses. This understanding is essential for both economic and environmental sustainability, and to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations, while simultaneously conserving the ecological fidelity of the resource base on which they depend. This is particularly important with respect to soils and their intrinsic and diverse living organisms, because they sustain plant production (thus, they are at the base of the human food production chain), and have important consequences for water quality and availability. Furthermore, soils are a vast storehouse for biodiversity including many invertebrate species that contribute a number of essential ecosystem services, although most of these species remain mostly unknown, unseen and disregarded. By promoting the interdisciplinary connection between anthropology/archaeology, soil ecology and genomics, we will be able propose to integrate and harness the research expertise of internationally renowned scientists to investigate both the relationship of ADEs to the associated extant biodiversity, reveal details of past and current anthropogenic impact on the natural surroundings, as well as new clues regarding settlement dynamics over a large part of Brazil. Therefore, this project's intention is to contribute to the knowledge of soil animal biodiversity and its relationship with soil fertility and land use changes in a mega-diverse biome (Amazonia). Our objectives will be accomplished by:

1. Assessing the current soil biodiversity assemblages to gain knowledge about the functioning and potential role of soil ecosystem engineers, organic matter and nutrients to the formation of these extremely fertile soils; this novel approach will aid in understanding the origin and sustainable management of ADEs as well as highly weathered and acid soils under humid tropical conditions.

2. Using DNA barcoding to describe the diversity of the ecosystem engineer community associated with past and recent settlements throughout the Amazonian Basin.

3. Using genomics of a peregrine species closely related with human landscape domestication to mirror the human exchanges and flow among the Neotropical rainforest associated with the migration of Amazonian Indians.

This will be achieved by integrating the state-of-the-art methods in The state-of-the-art 'tools' that the collaborating network of scientists will bring to bear on the study objectives include invertebrate morphology, molecular genetics, and computational analyses with incorporation of pre-existent and new ecological, anthropological and environmental metadata. Furthermore, the proposed project will establish a collaborative network involving a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional team of researchers in different areas of Brazil and, therefore, solidifying the connection between the European Community and Brazil, in particular between Cardiff University and Embrapa.

The key impact of the proposed project is to use collaborative secondment of an expert in environmental genomics, Dr Luis Cunha, to build a long-term partnership between centers of excellence in the UK and Brazil, Cardiff and EMBRAPA Forestry institute, with a view to: developing a long-term and expanding research collaboration by accessing complementary skills, utilizing and enhancing long term datasets related to 'Dark Earths' (ADEs) and Amazonian ecology, and building the relationship and infrastructure that will enhance both Brazilian and UK research capacity.
The direct impacts of addressing the scientific objectives will be delivered to the established 'Dark Earth Network' research although through wider engagement with ongoing research at EMBRAPA we aim to provide an 'omics context to the wider Amazonian ecological research community. Recent advances in the capture and analysis of ancient DNA fuel the potential of scientific archaeology to reveal more about past events that we can use to inform and understand modern interactions between the physical environmental and living systems. Through the 'Dark Earth Network' we will aim to engage with the archaeological community interested in Amazonian Indians and assist them to forge appropriate collaboration with the UK archaeogenomic community.
The societal benefits of the project will be within two sphere's: (a) impacts associated with the advocacy and training of Environmental 'Omics within the Brazilian Ecological and Archaeological communities; and, (b) better understanding of the origin and use of 'Dark Earths' in order to support sustainable land-use intensification. We hope that insights into 'Dark Earth' ecology will provide tractable solutions to optimize the yield of Amazonian rain forest areas currently under cultivation, thus reducing the demand for further deforestation.
The originality and innovative highlights of our impact plan include the following activities:

i) by conducting high quality interdisciplinary research on soil biodiversity and ecology of Amazon Dark Earths and by connecting it to past land use legacies will help determine to which extent it is possible to recreate some properties of such highly fertile soils in today's agricultural settings;

ii) the research will enable the proposal of a new model for ADE genesis;

iii) the project will establish a collaborative framework virtually connected by an online interface, making the resources available to the community and general public;

iv) it will describe the soil biodiversity associated with human presence in the Amazon in areas that are currently unknown;

v) it will transfer genomics and computational tools developed by the applicant to students and colleagues at EMBRAPA, the hosting institution, and Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), using small group workshops and seminars;

vi) the genomic resources raised and expertise in applying environmental genomics into the context of a tropical rainforest has the potential to provide tools to assist projects globally that are attempting to understand soil ecology in tropical regions under threat from growing agricultural demands.