Bladen Legacy
The Bladen Legacy project directors and partners met last week in Exeter with the Exeter-based postdocs and virtual appearances from other project members. The multi-day meeting overviewed the existing datasets for the Bladen Legacy project and the current project trajectory and methods. As always, it was wonderful to gather as a group and bring our varied expertise together to shape this transformative project.
Dr. Mark Robinson presented a research update for the Bladen project as a research seminar for the Department of Archaeology at the University of Exeter. The presentation, titled “The human legacy on a Belizean tropical forest,” overviewed previous findings from the Bladen Nature Reserve, as well as the methodologies and preliminary results for the Bladen Legacy project.
Bladen Legacy is hiring a postdoctoral researcher in plant evolutionary genomics! This position is based at the University of Gothenburg with Dr. Christine Bacon. Find the full details in the job posting.
Members of the Bladen Legacy team, led by Dr. Christine Bacon, recently published “Human Legacies on Palms in Belize” in Palms, the Journal of the International Palm Society. They include initial results from the 2024 field season and a conceptual overview of how Bladen Legacy uses palms and other species to assess human legacies.
Drs. Mark Robinson, Sara Eshleman, and Keith Prufer co-authored an article titled “Rapid Lidar Assessment and Validation in the Bladen Nature Reserve” in Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology. This work is based on the lidar-based methods to guide Bladen Legacy’s survey efforts, as well as the survey results from the 2024 field season. Check out the publication below!
The first project phytolith identification is in! Dr. Harper Dine identified a spheroid echinate phytolith from Arecaceae (the palm family) after processing the first batch of Bladen Legacy sediments. A palm (Asytrocaryum mexicanum) was one of the most abundant trees in the 2024 botanical plots, including the botanical plot that this phytolith came from, so this identification goes hand-in-hand with ecological observations on the ground.
Phytoliths are produced by plants within and between their cells. Made up of biogenic silica, these structures can often survive in soils long after the plant that produced them has decayed.
Contributed by Dr. Harper Dine
Phytolith processing of soils collected during the 2024 field season has begun at the University of Exeter Chem Lab! To maximize phytolith visibility under the microscope, the soils must undergo an extensive sequence of steps including deflocculation (breaking up clumps), sieving, clay removal, and digestion of carbonates and organics. Here you can see the dramatic before-and-after from clay removal.
Phytolith datasets from these samples will contribute to our understanding of long-term ecology, plant management, and agriculture in the region. Keep an eye out for exciting updates!
Five Bladen Legacy members presented at the 61st Annual Meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) in Oaxaca, Mexico. Sara Eshleman and Mark Robinson organized a symposium on “Exploring long-term human legacies on tropical forests via diverse proxies.” The talks given by Bladen Legacy members were as follows:
Mark Robinson “Human legacies on Neotropical forests”
Christine Bacon “Detecting human legacies imprinted in plant genomes”
Sara Eshleman “Coupling ecological and archaeological lidar reveals the lasting impact of humans on tropical landscapes”
Victor Caetano Andrade “The Legacy of Human Management on Brazil Nut Growth Dynamics and Genetics”
Jose Mes “Collaborations with local communities for sustainable futures in the Maya lowlands”
All members benefited from new and continued conversations with the tropical ecology community and Oaxaca was a wonderful host city!
The Bladen Legacy team had a successful 2nd field season in the Bladen Nature Reserve in southern Belize. It included:
Dr. Harper Dine is joining the Bladen Legacy team as a palaeobotany postdoc based in Exeter. Harper earned her PhD from the Department of Anthropology at Brown University. Harper specializes in phytolith analysis and palaeoethnobotanical techniques, and will be applying these techniques to the Bladen project.
Read more about Harper in her profile.