How did deforestation affect Easter Island?

How did deforestation affect Easter Island?

With the loss of their forest, the quality of life for Islanders plummeted. Streams and drinking water supplies dried up. Crop yields declined as wind, rain, and sunlight eroded topsoils. Fires became a luxury since no wood could be found on the island, and grasses had to be used for fuel.

What happened to Easter Island after all the trees were cut down?

When the trees went the whole ecosystem deteriorated: soil eroded quickly; most birds vanished having no place to nest; many plants vanished; wood wasn’t available for building canoes or houses; people starved and the population crashed.

How did the destruction of the environment impact the people of Easter Island?

In a modified version of the human-impact hypothesis the colonists were not the main and only culprits of the environmental collapse, but invasive plant or animal species brought by them on the isolated island, which in fierce concurrence with native species caused their rapid decline and extinction.

What caused the downfall of the Easter Island civilization?

Around 1200 A.D., their growing numbers and an obsession with building moai led to increased pressure on the environment. By the end of the 17th century, the Rapanui had deforested the island, triggering war, famine and cultural collapse.

What happens Easter Island?

In this story, made popular by geographer Jared Diamond’s bestselling book Collapse, the Indigenous people of the island, the Rapanui, so destroyed their environment that, by around 1600, their society fell into a downward spiral of warfare, cannibalism, and population decline.

What happened to Easter Island environment?

Easter Island is one of the most extreme examples of deforestation in the world: the entire forest is gone and all tree species extinct. Evidence suggests forest harvesting started around 900 and peaked in 1400.

What is the story behind Easter Island?

The first known European visitor to Easter Island was the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who arrived in 1722. The Dutch named the island Paaseiland (Easter Island) to commemorate the day they arrived. In 1888, Chile annexed Easter Island, leasing much of the land for sheep raising.

What happened at Easter Island?

What resources would have been limited on Easter Island?

With no trees to anchor the soil, fertile land eroded away resulting in poor crop yields, while a lack of wood meant islanders couldn’t build canoes to access fish or move statues.

What happened on Easter Island and why is it significant quizlet?

The collapse of Easter Island’s environment led to a collapse of its society. When early Polynesians arrived on Easter Island, they found a remote island with limited resources in the form of large palm tree forests. The islanders cut down trees to transport the moai.

Why were the people clearing the forests in Easter Island?

Ecosystem collapse Scientists have proven that the island was covered by forests until the 17th century. It’s believed the trees were cut down by the ancestors of today’s Easter Islanders in order to transport the giant stone statues – the Moai – as well as to build canoes, houses and fires to burn the dead.

What trees grow on Easter Island?

On Rapa Nui, the more modern, and local, name for Easter Island, large palm forests flourished. Upon arrival, early Rapanui settlers would have planted the plants that they brought with them: banana trees, taro root, and perhaps even the sweet potato.

What are the theories of Easter Island?

One popular theory which has stood for many years was that the roads on Easter Island were used to drag the stones along and to take them to their spots. This was given weight by the fact that many finished old stones were found discarded at the side of many of these roads, making it seem plausible that they would have been dragged along in this fashion.

What is the environment of Easter Island?

Environment of Easter Island. Rapa Nui is a barren island, but this was not always the case. Studies of pollen cores prove that the first Polynesian settlers found an island paradise of lush, subtropical forest6. Within 400 years of colonization, deforestation was well underway5.

How old is Easter Island?

The History Of Easter Island . Easter Island is believed to have been settled between 700 to 1200 CE, around the same time that settlers first arrived in Hawaii. The first Easter Island settlement is said to have been at Anakena , the landing point on the island that provides the most protection from rough maritime weather.