Paleoclimatologists analyzing speleothem oxygen isotope ratios from subterranean caves in the Amazon basin have posited that a prolonged megadrought precipitated the collapse of pre-Columbian urban settlements around 1350 CE. Proponents of this climate-deterministic model point to a sharp, synchronous elevation in signatures across multiple cave sites as unequivocal evidence of widespread precipitation failure. However, recent high-resolution palynological evidence from adjacent lacustrine sediment cores reveals that agricultural cultivation and forest clearing continued unabated throughout the purported drought interval. This persistence of intensive land use strongly suggests that indigenous socio-ecological systems possessed sufficient hydrologic resilience to buffer against regional rainfall deficits. Consequently, attributing the abandonment of these complex settlements primarily to exogenous climatic forcing oversimplifies the intricate interplay between anthropogenic environmental modification and institutional governance.
Which sentence in the passage presents empirical evidence that directly counters the climate-deterministic explanation for the settlement collapse?
Cevap: Sentence 3 / 3 / the third sentence / However, recent high-resolution palynological evidence from adjacent lacustrine sediment cores reveals that agricultural cultivation and forest clearing continued unabated throughout the purported drought interval.