Phytoliths and rice: from wet to dry and back again in the Neolithic Lower Yangtze

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Abstract

The cultivation of rice has had a major impact on both societies and their environments in Asia, and in China in particular. Phytolith assemblages from three Neolithic sites in the Lower Yangtze valley reveal that in early rice fields the emphasis was on drainage to limit the amount of water and force the rice to produce seed. It was only in the later third millennium BC that the strategy changed and irrigated paddies came into use. The results demonstrate that plant remains, including weed assemblages, can reveal wetter or drier growing conditions, showing changes in rice cultivation from flooded and drained fields to large, intensively irrigated paddies.

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SILICON.

Emanuel Epstein (1999)

Silicon is present in plants in amounts equivalent to those of such macronutrient elements as calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus, and in grasses often at higher levels than any other inorganic constituent. Yet except for certain algae, including prominently the diatoms, and the Equisetaceae (horsetails or scouring rushes), it is not considered an essential element for plants. As a result it is routinely omitted from formulations of culture solutions and considered a nonentity in much of plant physiological research. But silicon-deprived plants grown in conventional nutrient solutions to which silicon has not been added are in many ways experimental artifacts. They are often structurally weaker than silicon-replete plants, abnormal in growth, development, viability, and reproduction, more susceptible to such abiotic stresses as metal toxicities, and easier prey to disease organisms and to herbivores ranging from phytophagous insects to mammals. Many of these same conditions afflict plants in silicon-poor soils-and there are such. Taken together, the evidence is overwhelming that silicon should be included among the elements having a major bearing on plant life.

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Phylogenetic variation in the silicon composition of plants.

M. J. Hodson, P J White, A. Mead … (2005)

Silicon (Si) in plants provides structural support and improves tolerance to diseases, drought and metal toxicity. Shoot Si concentrations are generally considered to be greater in monocotyledonous than in non-monocot plant species. The phylogenetic variation in the shoot Si concentration of plants reported in the primary literature has been quantified. Studies were identified which reported Si concentrations in leaf or non-woody shoot tissues from at least two plant species growing in the same environment. Each study contained at least one species in common with another study. Meta-analysis of the data revealed that, in general, ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms accumulated less Si in their shoots than non-vascular plant species and horsetails. Within angiosperms and ferns, differences in shoot Si concentration between species grouped by their higher-level phylogenetic position were identified. Within the angiosperms, species from the commelinoid monocot orders Poales and Arecales accumulated substantially more Si in their shoots than species from other monocot clades. A high shoot Si concentration is not a general feature of monocot species. Information on the phylogenetic variation in shoot Si concentration may provide useful palaeoecological and archaeological information, and inform studies of the biogeochemical cycling of Si and those of the molecular genetics of Si uptake and transport in plants.

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The domestication process and domestication rate in rice: spikelet bases from the Lower Yangtze.

Yunfei Zheng, Ling Qin, Ya-Ping Sun … (2009)

The process of rice domestication occurred in the Lower Yangtze region of Zhejiang, China, between 6900 and 6600 years ago. Archaeobotanical evidence from the site of Tianluoshan shows that the proportion of nonshattering domesticated rice (Oryza sativa) spikelet bases increased over this period from 27% to 39%. Over the same period, rice remains increased from 8% to 24% of all plant remains, which suggests an increased consumption relative to wild gathered foods. In addition, an assemblage of annual grasses, sedges, and other herbaceous plants indicates the presence of arable weeds, typical of cultivated rice, that also increased over this period.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (publisher-id): applab

Title: Antiquity

Abbreviated Title: Antiquity

Publisher: Antiquity Publications

ISSN (Print): 0003-598X

ISSN (Electronic): 1745-1744

Publication date Created: October 2015

Publication date (Print): October 9 2015

Volume: 89

Issue: 347

Pages: 1051-1063

Article

DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2015.94

SO-VID: 1dc4f499-a3fd-4672-b29f-7280b3a508bb

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Phytoliths and rice: from wet to dry and back again in the Neolithic Lower Yangtze

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Abstract

Abstract

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Atomic Force Microscopy

Most cited references 20

SILICON.

Phylogenetic variation in the silicon composition of plants.

The domestication process and domestication rate in rice: spikelet bases from the Lower Yangtze.

Author and article information

Journal

Article

History

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Comment on this article

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Cited by 35