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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Tropical forest tells a tale of ecological resilience and human tragedy

The sixteenth-century destruction of indigenous people left an imprint on an ecosystem.

Trees blanket Ecuador’s Quijos Valley, which was largely deforested before the arrival of Europeans in the sixteenth century. Credit: Morley Read/Shutterstock

Ecuador’s mountain forests are known as hotspots of biodiversity. A study of soil samples now suggests that this landscape was intensively cultivated for centuries — but became a rich ecosystem again after farming ended.

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Nature 559, 447 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05727-4

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