Impact of climate change on human occupation in the ecuadorian Amazon 4,500 years (BP)

<jats:p>This study examines the impact of El Niño events on human occupation and abandonment in the Ecuadorian Amazon over the last 4,500 years BP, focusing on the Pashimbi site. Seventeen calibrated radiocarbon dates and probability density functions were used to define settlement periods. Climatic influence was evaluated through principal component analysis (PCA) applied to X-ray fluorescence (XRF) data from a core taken from Lake Llaviucu, where the first component explained 98.42 % of the variance. Wavelet analysis revealed periodicities of 2-8 years, consistent with ENSO. Results indicate that the earliest Pashimbi settlements (ca. 4089 BP) were associated with El Niño phases, whereas those after 3000 BP showed no correlation. Although two patterns were observed, Bartlett’s test (p = 0.9026) demonstrates that there are no significant differences between ENSO impacts during occupation and abandonment periods.</jats:p>