The slow demise of Easter Island: Insights from a modeling investigation

25Citations
Citations of this article
50Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

The history of Easter Island and its supposed social-ecological collapse is often taken as a grim warning for the modern world. However, while the loss of a once lush palm forest is largely uncontested, causes and timing of the collapse remain controversial, because many paleoecological and archaeological data are afflicted with considerable uncertainties. According to a scenario named ecocide, the overharvesting of palm trees triggered a dramatic population decline, whereas a contrasting view termed genocide deems diseases and enslavement introduced by Europeans as the main reasons for the collapse. We propose here a third possibility, a slow demise, in which aspects of both ecocide and genocide concur to produce a long and slow decline of the society. We use a dynamic model to illustrate the consequences of the three alternatives with respect to the fate of the paleoecological system of the island. While none of the three model scenarios can be safely ruled out given the uncertainties of the available data, the slow demise appears to be the most plausible model scenario, in particular when considering the temporal pattern of deforestation as inferred from radiocarbon dates of charcoal remains.

References Powered by Scopus

The Problem of Overfitting

2020Citations
1801Readers
Get full text

This article is free to access.

High-precision radiocarbon dating shows recent and rapid initial human colonization of East Polynesia

423Citations
382Readers
Get full text

Cited by Powered by Scopus

This article is free to access.

This article is free to access.

Get full text

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Brandt, G., & Merico, A. (2015). The slow demise of Easter Island: Insights from a modeling investigation. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 3(FEB). https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2015.00013

Readers over time

‘15‘16‘17‘18‘19‘20‘21‘22‘23‘24‘25036912

Readers' Seniority

Tooltip

PhD / Post grad / Masters / Doc 17

59%

Professor / Associate Prof. 5

17%

Researcher 5

17%

Lecturer / Post doc 2

7%

Readers' Discipline

Tooltip

Agricultural and Biological Sciences 8

35%

Environmental Science 8

35%

Social Sciences 4

17%

Earth and Planetary Sciences 3

13%

Article Metrics

Tooltip
Mentions
News Mentions: 1

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free
0