Long-lasting effects of historical land use on the current distribution of mammals revealed by ecological and archaeological patterns

Keita Fukasawa,Takumi Akasaka

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-46809-1

Abstract

Past land-use activity has massively altered the environment and vegetation over centuries, resulting in range contractions and expansions of species. When habitat recovery and species recolonization require a long time, the fingerprint of past land use can remain on the current distribution of species. To evaluate millennial-scale effects of land use in Japan, we explained the current ranges of 29 mammalian genera based on three types of archaeological land-use patterns (settlement, ironwork and kiln) considering potential confounding factors. The results indicate that archaeological human activity associated with ironwork and pottery production had severe negative effects on many genera of small and medium-sized mammals. Despite positive effects on some genera, the magnitudes were less than those of the negative effects. The relative importance of archaeological factors on small mammals was greater than those for medium- to-large mammals. The persistent imprint of past land-use patterns was non-negligible, explaining current mammalian diversity. Spatial ecological and archaeological information can provide meaningful insights into long-term socio-ecological processes, which are crucial for the development of sustainable societies in the Anthropocene.

Highlights

Understanding the long-term consequences of land-use patterns on global biodiversity is one of the ultimate goals in ecological research and is crucial for the development of a sustainable society
We found that past land use had significant effects on multiple genera; the direction of the effect differed among genera (Fig. 1)
Long-lasting effects of past land use on the current ranges of mammals could have several explanations: (1) long-term environmental changes caused by past land use[31,32], (2) recruitment limitations after local extirpation[13] and (3) regime shifts[33]

Summary

Introduction

Understanding the long-term consequences of land-use patterns on global biodiversity is one of the ultimate goals in ecological research and is crucial for the development of a sustainable society. Examining current biodiversity patterns in relation to long-term human interventions thereby offers valuable insight into the temporal scale of land-use legacies[2]. Studying the relationship between past land use and current ecological patterns is a fundamental approach to evaluate legacy effects of past land use[2,13,14,15], and archaeological sites provide useful information on ancient human activity[16]. The spatial patterns of human populations and land-use intensity were temporally heterogeneous owing to natural, cultural and political factors, such as the northward expansion of agriculture, development of highroads and capital relocation[27,28]. Japan provides a good case study for understanding the contributions of different archaeological cultures and lifestyles to current patterns. This database records the latitude, longitude, historical period and type of archaeological sites, and spatiotemporal patterns in land-use intensity can be recovered

Methods

Results

Conclusion