Ichthyo-archaeofauna quantitative data.

Anthropogenic impacts on tropical and subtropical coastal environments are increasing at an alarming rate, compromising ecosystem functions, structures and services. Understanding the scale of marine population decline and diversity loss requires a long-term perspective that incorporates information from a range of sources. The Southern Atlantic Ocean represents a major gap in our understanding of pre-industrial marine species composition. Here we begin to fill this gap by performing an extensive review of the published data on Middle and Late Holocene marine fish remains along the southern coast of Brazil. This region preserves archaeological sites that are unique archives of past socio-ecological systems and pre-European biological diversity. We assessed snapshots of species compositions and relative abundances spanning the last 9500 years, and modelled differences in species’ functional traits between archaeological and modern fisheries. We found evidence for both generalist and specialist fishing practices in pre-European times, with large body size and body mass caught regularly over hundreds of years. Comparison with modern catches revealed a significant decline in these functional traits, possibly associated with overfishing and escalating human impacts in recent times.人为活动对热带及亚热带沿海环境的影响正以惊人速度加剧，持续损害生态系统的功能、结构与服务。要精准把握海洋种群衰退与多样性丧失的规模，需依托涵盖多源信息的长期研究视角。当前我们对工业革命前海洋物种组成的认知存在重大空白，南大西洋区域正是这一空白的核心所在。本研究通过系统性梳理巴西南部沿海全新世（Holocene）中晚期海洋鱼类遗骸的已发表数据，着手填补这一认知缺口。该区域留存的考古遗址，是还原过往社会-生态系统与欧洲殖民前生物多样性的独特档案。我们对过去9500年间的物种组成与相对丰度快照展开评估，并对考古渔业与现代渔业中物种功能性状（functional traits）的差异进行了建模分析。研究发现，欧洲殖民前的捕捞实践兼具广食性与特化性特征，数百年来人类始终持续捕捞大型个体与高体重鱼类。与现代捕捞数据对比后可见，这类功能性状已出现显著衰退，这或与近期过度捕捞及不断升级的人类活动影响密切相关。