Climate change underlies global demographic, genetic, and cultural transitions in pre-Columbian southern Peru.

ABSTRACT: Several archaeological studies in the Central Andes have pointed at the temporal coincidence of climatic fluctuations (both long- and short-term) and episodes of cultural transition and changes of socioeconomic structures throughout the pre-Columbian period. Although most scholars explain the connection between environmental and cultural changes by the impact of climatic alterations on the capacities of the ecosystems inhabited by pre-Columbian cultures, direct evidence for assumed demographic consequences is missing so far. In this study, we address directly the impact of climatic changes on the spatial population dynamics of the Central Andes. We use a large dataset of pre-Columbian mitochondrial DNA sequences from the northern Rio Grande de Nasca drainage (RGND) in southern Peru, dating

SUBMITTER: Fehren-Schmitz L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4084453 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature