Holocene fires and ecological novelty in the high Colombian Cordillera Oriental

This is the final version. Available from Frontiers Media via the DOI in this record. DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT: The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation. Any queries should be directed towards the corresponding author(s).Rapid climate changes and the increasing presence of humans define the Holocene Epoch (11.6 calibrated kiloyears before present – hereafter kyr BP), when biological systems have faced the most recent and abrupt environmental changes. Understanding how biodiversity responds to extrinsic factors requires determining the effects of varying climatic conditions, changes in disturbance regimes, and increasing anthropogenic impacts. Despite being one center for biodiversity, the potential synergies of long-term anthropogenic and climate changes in shaping areas of high Andean biodiversity have yet to be explored fully. Here we present new pollen and charcoal records from the Pantano de Monquentiva (hereafter Monquentiva) on the highlands of the eastern flank of the Colombian Cordillera Oriental (CCO) to document relationships between climate, vegetation, and fire through the Holocene. We found compositional transitions at 8.7, 6.1, and 4.1 kyr BP at Monquentiva resulting from the interaction of climate, fire, and human occupation. Reduced moisture and temperature caused a compositional shift in Páramo vegetation from ca. 8.7 kyr BP. Fire activity was recorded throughout the Holocene and increased slightly during the Mid-Holocene when regional and local fire decoupling suggested human activities as the source of ignition. Mid-Holocene fires had a large effect on the vegetation composition at Monquentiva which recorded a rapid shift at ca. 6.8 kyr BP. Fire activity increased sharply from 4.1 kyr BP, promoting the reorganization of plant communities at 3.8 kyr BP. This shift in fire activity was likely related to more severe ENSO events and subsequently intensified by human activities after 3.8 kyr BP. Although high climatic sensitivity explains most Holocene vegetation changes in the eastern flank of the CCO, our study highlights the relevance of fire activity, uneven distribution of climatic variables, and human intervention to the composition of the vegetation we see today.Natural Environment Research CouncilNatural Environment Research Counci

At the Feet of the Fortress: Analysis of Inka Period (ca. AD 1430-1536) Archaeofaunal Assemblages from Residential Unit 1 (RU1), Pucara de Tilcara (Jujuy, Argentina).

This paper reports the results of a zooarchaeological analysis conducted on the occupation layer of a compound structure (Residential Unit 1) of the Pucara de Tilcara archaeological site (Jujuy Province, northwestern Argentina). Its occupation span extends between the 13th and 15th centuries AD, but evidence diagnostic of the Inka Period (AD 1430-1536) is predominant. Residential Unit 1 was a house-workshop that hosted specialized crafts like metallurgy and lapidary during the Inka Period. It was proposed in previous works that artisans living at Pucara de Tilcara were provisioned with agropastoral products by the Inka administration. This paper aims to test that hypothesis against the zooarchaeological evidence of Residential Unit 1. Three variables were used as proxies for state-sponsored distribution: taxonomic diversity (family and species ranks), and skeletal and age profiles of the predominant zoological family (Camelidae) in the assemblage. The results show a high degree of continuity with the regional record, characterized by a herding-hunting strategy focused on domestic and wild species of Camelidae and a mixed mortality pattern. The skeletal profile shows a strong and negative correlation with the desiccation potential of elements, which could be indicative of local production of chalona. Overall, faunal evidence does not show any sign of centralized distribution

Genome-wide association study of Tourette's syndrome.

Tourette's syndrome (TS) is a developmental disorder that has one of the highest familial recurrence rates among neuropsychiatric diseases with complex inheritance. However, the identification of definitive TS susceptibility genes remains elusive. Here, we report the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) of TS in 1285 cases and 4964 ancestry-matched controls of European ancestry, including two European-derived population isolates, Ashkenazi Jews from North America and Israel and French Canadians from Quebec, Canada. In a primary meta-analysis of GWAS data from these European ancestry samples, no markers achieved a genome-wide threshold of significance (P<5 × 10(-8)); the top signal was found in rs7868992 on chromosome 9q32 within COL27A1 (P=1.85 × 10(-6)). A secondary analysis including an additional 211 cases and 285 controls from two closely related Latin American population isolates from the Central Valley of Costa Rica and Antioquia, Colombia also identified rs7868992 as the top signal (P=3.6 × 10(-7) for the combined sample of 1496 cases and 5249 controls following imputation with 1000 Genomes data). This study lays the groundwork for the eventual identification of common TS susceptibility variants in larger cohorts and helps to provide a more complete understanding of the full genetic architecture of this disorder

Genome-wide association study of Tourette's syndrome.

Tourette's syndrome (TS) is a developmental disorder that has one of the highest familial recurrence rates among neuropsychiatric diseases with complex inheritance. However, the identification of definitive TS susceptibility genes remains elusive. Here, we report the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) of TS in 1285 cases and 4964 ancestry-matched controls of European ancestry, including two European-derived population isolates, Ashkenazi Jews from North America and Israel and French Canadians from Quebec, Canada. In a primary meta-analysis of GWAS data from these European ancestry samples, no markers achieved a genome-wide threshold of significance (P<5 × 10(-8)); the top signal was found in rs7868992 on chromosome 9q32 within COL27A1 (P=1.85 × 10(-6)). A secondary analysis including an additional 211 cases and 285 controls from two closely related Latin American population isolates from the Central Valley of Costa Rica and Antioquia, Colombia also identified rs7868992 as the top signal (P=3.6 × 10(-7) for the combined sample of 1496 cases and 5249 controls following imputation with 1000 Genomes data). This study lays the groundwork for the eventual identification of common TS susceptibility variants in larger cohorts and helps to provide a more complete understanding of the full genetic architecture of this disorder