Bridging archaeology and marine conservation in the Neotropics

Area of Science:

• Paleontology
• Marine Biology
• Archaeology

Background:

• Tropical and subtropical coastal ecosystems face increasing anthropogenic impacts.
• Understanding long-term marine population changes requires historical data.
• The Southern Atlantic Ocean lacks pre-industrial marine species composition data.

Purpose of the Study:

• To fill the knowledge gap on pre-industrial marine species composition in the Southern Atlantic.
• To analyze Middle and Late Holocene marine fish remains from Brazil's coast.
• To compare past and present fisheries' species composition and functional traits.

Main Methods:

• Extensive review of published data on marine fish remains.
• Analysis of archaeological sites as archives of past biodiversity.
• Assessment of species composition and relative abundances over 9500 years.
• Modeling differences in species' functional traits between archaeological and modern fisheries.

Main Results:

• Evidence of both generalist and specialist fishing practices in pre-European times.
• Consistent targeting of large-bodied fish over hundreds of years in the past.
• Significant decline in fish body size and mass in modern catches compared to archaeological records.

Conclusions:

• Pre-European fishing practices were sustainable, targeting larger fish.
• Modern fisheries show a decline in functional traits, likely due to overfishing and human impacts.
• Archaeological data provides crucial insights into long-term ecological changes in marine environments.