Characterization of Native American vegetation disturbance in the forests of central New York State, USA during the late 18th century ce

Historic land survey records (LSRs) offer important details on local- and landscape-scale vegetation patterns related to Native American land-use practices prior to widespread Euro-American settlement. This study’s use of an expanded range of vegetation-related variables derived from LSR sources, combined with archaeological site distribution data, and analysed using complementary multivariate statistical methods, has provided new insights on the spatial and compositional dynamics of the vegetation of central New York State, USA, an area historically occupied by the Cayuga and Onondaga nations. The upland vegetation of the study area was modulated primarily by fire, followed by soil fertility, and canopy disturbance. Clear signals of Native American agriculture and silviculture were associated with a number of fire-tolerant vegetation communities that were geographically concentrated within an area most conducive to maize cultivation. Numerical classification partitioned the LSR vegetation data into distinct community types: mesophytic upland forest and xerophytic upland forest. This latter type was secondarily differentiated into an unequivocally anthropogenic landscape (Iroquoian agricultural mosaic) and a series of fire-tolerant forest and savanna communities with possible connections to silvicultural land-use practices. Distance analysis of ordination scores indicated statistically-significant spatial trends associated with the distribution of archaeological sites, with disturbance most heavily concentrated within 6 km of most sites. Given the success of this methodology, we recommend that this integrated approach become the standard for LSR-based research of Native American vegetation disturbance.