Past forward: Recommendations from historical ecology for ecosystem management

Abstract

In the context of accelerating environmental change, there is an urgent need to identify ecosystem conservation, restoration, and management strategies likely to support biodiverse and adaptive ecosystems into the future. The field of historical ecology has generated a substantial body of recommendations for ecosystem management, yet these insights have never been synthesized. We reviewed >200 historical ecology studies and analyzed recommendations for ecosystem management emerging from the field. The majority of studies (∼90%) derived from North American and Europe, with forests being the focus of nearly half (48%) of all papers. Papers emphasized the need to protect and restore both habitat remnants and modified ecosystems in management, the value of ecosystems as cultural landscapes, and the importance of adopting a landscape-scale perspective for ecosystem management. Nearly one-quarter contained a recommendation that challenged status quo management, underscoring the value of a historical perspective in setting management goals, strategies, and targets. Fewer than 12% of papers contained recommendations that explicitly addressed ongoing or projected climate change, suggesting opportunities to integrate findings from historical ecology with other perspectives to create forward-looking management strategies that are rooted in place and past.