Blog – Bladen Legacy

Bladen Legacy at ATBC 2025

Post author By Sara Eshleman
Post date 07/07/2025

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!

Fieldwork

Bladen Legacy Field Season 2025

Post author By Sara Eshleman
Post date 19/06/2025

The Bladen Legacy team had a successful 2nd field season in the Bladen Nature Reserve in southern Belize. It included:

1,370,000 m² surveyed to complete the lidar-directed survey of Maya structures in both Ek Xux Valley and A/C Valley, led by Dr. Mark Robinson and Dr. Sara Eshleman
1,326 trees recorded within 13 botanical plots along environmental and anthropogenic gradients, led by Dr. Steven Brewer
19 soil test pits paired to botanical plots for geochemical and palaeobotanical analyses, led by Dr. Mark Robinson and Dr. Sara Eshleman
188 trees cored for tree ring analysis and 61 cored for wood density, led by Dr. Victor Caetano Andrade
Over 2 m of excavation depth in the Saki Tzul rock shelter, led by Dr. Keith Prufer, Nadia Neff, and Erin Ray
3 household excavations in two weeks, led by Dr. John Walden
3 excavations in the Ek Xux reservoir system, to better understand water management, led by Dr. Mark Robinson

Announcements

Welcome to the Team: Harper Dine

Post author By Sara Eshleman
Post date 01/06/2025

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.

2025 Fieldwork Preparations Underway

Post author By Sara Eshleman
Post date 06/05/2025

The Bladen Legacy team enters the Bladen Nature Reserve for their 2nd field season this Saturday, 10 May, but the advance team arrived in Belize on 2 May for preparations. The team helicopters into the reserve and camps there for one month without the ability to resupply. This means that all supplies must be accounted for ahead of time – including all fieldwork equipment and food supplies. Pictured above are a portion of these supplies, by the end of the week they will be added to a cargo net and dropped into the reserve.

The video below shows Dr. Keith Prufer attaching a cargo net of supplies to the helicopter after the 2024 field season.

Announcements

Botanical Superlatives from the 2024 Field Season

Post author By Sara Eshleman
Post date 14/04/2025

The initial results are in and the most abundant tree in the botanical plots from the 2024 field season is a tie between Astrocaryum mexicanum and Pouteria sapota – both totalling 209 stems above 5 cm dbh (diameter at breast height). Meanwhile, the species with the highest total basal area was Dialum guianense.

Astrocaryum mexicanum (pictured) is a palm with spines that have pricked more than a few tropical researchers. The palm heart can be eaten, but its uses are not as well-documented as the other two species that came out on top. Pouteria sapota, also known as mamey, has large, nutrient-rich fruits. They are a well-known food source in these tropical forests. Dialum guinanense, commonly known as ironwood, also has edible fruits, but it is best known for its dense wood that has been used for construction since prehistoric times.

Uncategorized

Joe presents Amazonian palaeoecology to HumAnE

Post author By Sara Eshleman
Post date 26/03/2025

Bladen postdoc, Joe Hirst, presented to the University of Exeter Centre for Human-Animal-Environment Bioarchaeology (HumAnE). His presentation titled, “Domestication of Amazon Rainforest by the pre-Columbian Casarabe Culture,” reviewed the palaeocology in the Llanos de Moxos region in Bolivia, part of his PhD research.

Labwork

Sediments in Process

Post author By Sara Eshleman
Post date 25/03/2025

Sediments retrieved during the 2024 field season will be analysed for pollen, charcoal, and phytolith content, along with their geochemical composition. These components reveal the environments through time present in the Bladen project area.

This week, the lab at the University of Exeter is up and running for macrocharcoal analysis. This dataset will reveal fire incidence through time. More soon!

Conferences

Bladen Legacy at ECTE

Post author By Sara Eshleman
Post date 03/03/2025

Bladen Legacy team members attended the 8th European Conference of Tropical Ecology from 24 to 28 February 2025 in Amsterdam. Sara Eshleman presented “Sensing Maya legacies in Central American forests” with Mark Robinson as a co-author. Mark presented “Human legacy on a Belizean Forest” with Sara and Keith Prufer as co-authors. Additionally, new postdoc, Joe Hirst, presented “Modelling maize agriculture by the pre-Columbian Casarabe Culture of Bolivia using palaeoclimate reanalysis and agent-based modelling” based on his prior research.

All team members engaged with new and existing colleagues around human-environment interactions in the tropics, tropical palaeoecology, and tropical ecosystem dynamics.

Announcements

Welcome to the Team: Joe Hirst

Post author By Sara Eshleman
Post date 15/02/2025

Dr. Joseph Hirst is joining the Bladen Legacy team as a palaeoecology postdoc based in Exeter. Joe earned his PhD from the School of Archaeology, Geography, and Environmental Science at the University of Reading. Joe specializes in pollen analysis and agent-based modelling, and will be applying these techniques to the Bladen project.

Big Trees in Focus: Ceiba

Post author By Sara Eshleman
Post date 20/01/2025

The Bladen Legacy team was astounded by the number and size of big trees during the 2024 field season. These trees will be the focus of directed work in the upcoming 2025 field season. One particularly astonishing specimen was a large ceiba tree. Ceiba trees are important to Maya mythology and have a strong human connection in that manner, but they also grow relatively quickly so further testing is necessary to ascertain whether the ancient Maya in the Ek Xux valley saw this same tree.

Click the point cloud image below to explore the lidar point cloud around the ceiba. The photos demonstrate the size of this Ceiba relative to different team members.