Climate Variability, An Afterthought

In relation to my last post on whether climate variability and change could have been a contributing factor to the deforestation of the Jubaea chilensis palm on Easter Island, i thought it was important to share with you a couple of graphs that support this hypothesis.

There is controversy over whether ENSO could have affected deforestation, whereby some studies have found no evident correlation between both variables. However, Stenseth and Voje (2009) show that there is an interesting 'coincidence' between the most intense ENSO (El Nino-Southern Oscillation) activity during the last millennia and the period of deforestation on Easter Island, as shown by the graph below. Could this be more that coincidence? 

It is exceptionally complicated to reconstruct past climatic changes and provide evidence for its relationship to deforestation due to the sheer complexities assocated with the climate system and its relations to bioloy, as shown specifially for Easter Island below.

Again, this reinforces the fact that further research is required on Easter Island before we can be making such claims, which could have significant consequences on the reasons as to why Easter Island was so severely deforested and why its society collapsed.