Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Feb;7(2):152-158.
doi: 10.1038/s41477-020-00835-4. Epub 2021 Jan 25.

'White gold' guano fertilizer drove agricultural intensification in the Atacama Desert from AD 1000

Francisca Santana-Sagredo  1   2   3   4 , Rick J Schulting  5 , Pablo Méndez-Quiros  6 , Ale Vidal-Elgueta  7 , Mauricio Uribe  8 , Rodrigo Loyola  9   10 , Anahí Maturana-Fernández  8 , Francisca P Díaz  11 , Claudio Latorre  12   13   14 , Virginia B McRostie  15   12 , Calogero M Santoro  16 , Valentina Mandakovic  17 , Chris Harrod  18   19   20 , Julia Lee-Thorp  5
Affiliations

'White gold' guano fertilizer drove agricultural intensification in the Atacama Desert from AD 1000

Francisca Santana-Sagredo et al. Nat Plants. 2021 Feb.

Abstract

The archaeological record shows that large pre-Inca agricultural systems supported settlements for centuries around the ravines and oases of northern Chile's hyperarid Atacama Desert. This raises questions about how such productivity was achieved and sustained, and its social implications. Using isotopic data of well-preserved ancient plant remains from Atacama sites, we show a dramatic increase in crop nitrogen isotope values (δ15N) from around AD 1000. Maize was most affected, with δ15N values as high as +30‰, and human bone collagen following a similar trend; moreover, their carbon isotope values (δ13C) indicate a considerable increase in the consumption of maize at the same time. We attribute the shift to extremely high δ15N values-the highest in the world for archaeological plants-to the use of seabird guano to fertilize crops. Guano-'white gold' as it came to be called-thus sustained agricultural intensification, supporting a substantial population in an otherwise extreme environment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Ugalde, P. C. et al. 13,000 years of sociocultural plant use in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. Veget. Hist. Archaeobot. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-020-00783-1 (2020).
    1. Santoro, C. et al. Proyectos de irrigación y la fertilización del desierto. Estud. Atacameños. 16, 321–336 (1998).
    1. Parcero-Oubiña, C. et al. Sistemas agrohidráulicos en el Loa Superior: el caso de Topaín. Boletín de. la Soc. Chil. de. Arqueología 46, 23–42 (2016).
    1. Sandor, J. A. & Homburg, J. A. Anthropogenic soil change in ancient and traditional agricultural fields in arid to semiarid regions of the Americas. J. Ethnobiol. 37, 196–217 (2017). - DOI
    1. Segura, C., Vidal-Elgueta, A., Maldonado, A., Uribe, M. Soil use in pre-Hispanic and historical crop fields in the Guatacondo Ravine, northern Chile (2400 y bp): a geoarchaeological and paleobotanic approach. Preprint at Geoarchaeology https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.21833 (2020).

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources