Historical Ecological Research Research Articles

The impact of ancient Mesoamerican cities on long-term environmental sustainability: the view from historical ecology

The impact of ancient urban occupations on sustainability has recently become a topic of interest for archaeologists as well as many other scholars. Much of this archaeological research has focused on documenting the longevity of ancient cities and elucidating the social and economic strategies employed at the urban and regional scales to promote urban sustainability. In this article, we add to this discussion by addressing the issue of sustainability by considering the impact of environmental legacies left by ancient cities after their abandonment. Using a series of cases from pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica [OMYK (Coba), Kiuic, Lagunas de Yalahau, and Tlaxcallan], we show through ethnoecological and historical ecological research that in some cases pre-Hispanic people, living in urban zones, affected “intermediate” disturbances that increased biodiversity, biomass, and sustainability by creating second natures that have endured for centuries.

Critical Geoarchaeology: From Depositional Processes to the Sociopolitics of Earthen Life

In the last several decades, geoarchaeological research and practice have moved well beyond their foundational concerns for site formation processes and the stratigraphic integrity of artifact associations, developing significant orientations toward archaeological and social theory. This review focuses on four overlapping research emphases that have explicitly extended the reach of geoarchaeological research within the broader social sciences and humanities, including ( a) interpretive, symbolic, and social approaches in geoarchaeological research; ( b) articulations with recent developments in posthumanist and new materialist scholarship; ( c) the application of geoarchaeological investigations to historical ecology and political ecology research programs; and ( d), building on the latter, critical engagements with ongoing transdisciplinary scholarship on the Anthropocene. Taken together, these different orientations offer new possibilities for geoarchaeological research to inform anthropological concerns for social and environmental production and the ways that archaeological and geological fields of practice and discourse contribute to shaping social, political, and environmental conditions today.

Þistil, mistil, kistil: Plants of Death, Rebirth, and Magic in Medieval Scandinavian Runic Inscriptions

<i>Þistil, mistil, kistil</i>: Plants of Death, Rebirth, and Magic in Medieval Scandinavian Runic Inscriptions

The King's aquatic desires: 16th‐century fish and crayfish introductions into Spain

AbstractHumans have introduced species out of their native areas for millennia, and characterising these historical introductions can provide insights into the long‐term progress of invasion processes. Here, archival sources and other historical documents are used to describe the motivations, negotiations and actions leading to fish and crayfish introductions into Spain in the second half of the 16th century. King Philip II of Spain brought to the Iberian Peninsula several gardening customs from central Europe, including the construction of fish ponds and their stocking with different aquatic species, many of which were naturally absent from Iberia. These interests led to the introduction of pike (Esox Lucius, Esocidae), common carp (Cyprinus carpio, Cyprinidae), tench (Tinca tinca, Cyprinidae) and Italian crayfish (Austropotamobius italicus, Astacidae). Historical documents allowed describing introduction events, their early management and their outcomes with high temporal, spatial and taxonomic precision. These results introduce a centuries‐long view on the history of the presence of these introduced species in the Iberian Peninsula, where they have all been successful invaders in different historical periods. This work exemplifies the large potential of archival documents to inform about long‐term human–nature relationships, with implications for present‐day environmental management (e.g. setting conservation targets). However, this potential has been only sparsely explored, arguably due to the lack of interactions between humanities and natural sciences. Interdisciplinary historical ecology research should be promoted in order to build robust and applicable knowledge on the long‐term variability of ecosystems and their biota.

Historical Ecology in Brazil: A Systematic Mapping of Scientific Articles (1998–2021)

Historical Ecology is a multidisciplinary field that studies long-term relationships between humanity and the environment. There is a missing synthesis effort to organize and present the state of the scholarship in Historical Ecology in Brazil. We aimed to characterize by whom, when, where, what, and how research in Historical Ecology has been conducted in Brazil. We made a systematic mapping of 118 scientific articles published in Portuguese, Spanish, and English that fit our inclusion criteria. The results showed articles from 1998 to May 2021, published in 79 different journals. We found 264 national and international authors (60% men and 40%women); 91% of all investigations were carried out in the Amazon and Atlantic Forest biomes. There are few works about Cerrado, Caatinga, and Pampa, and none for Pantanal. The most mentioned keywords were historical ecology, Amazon, forest, and archaeology. Twenty-three articles focused on a particular species, primarily plants; 37% of all articles used Historical Ecology as its central axis of research, and 63% as auxiliary. We found more than 35 methodological procedures, both from the social and natural sciences. This overview revealed achievements, research gaps, and opportunities in this field.

From Ecological Grief to Gelassenheit: Rhetorics of Sentiment and Science in Hemlock

ABSTRACT This article presents a reading of Hemlock: A Forest Giant on the Edge, a 2014 collection of essays authored by Harvard Forest ecologists that addresses the ongoing destruction of the eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis). Introduced to the eastern U.S. in the early 1950s, the hemlock woolly adelgid has been slowly but surely decimating the eastern hemlock across most of its native range. Hemlock offers an account of the species’ history of decline and recovery as well as of the Harvard Forest researchers’ relationship with this foundational species. Locating within Hemlock a rhetoric of sentiment and science, this essay considers the authors’ embrace of ecological grief and then demonstrates how they deploy historical and long-term ecological research to channel that grief into some actions rather than others. Thus, this essay unearths how sentiment and science merge and diverge in discourses concerning ecological loss and transformation.

A new local scale prediction model of Amazonian landscape domestication sites

Amazonia has drawn the interest of researchers over the last few decades as a region with evidence for extensive ancient/past indigenous landscape domestication. Among the major issues surrounding the nature of landscape domestication of pre-Columbian Amazonians, its scale is critically connected with other major problems in the history of Amazonia such as forms of urbanism, land engineering and agriculture. In recent years, some research in historical ecology has focused on developing methods to calibrate landscape domestication by interpreting the effects of human activity on the formation of the modern Amazonian landscape. This paper presents regional-scale research in the Floresta Nacional de Caxiuanã (FNC) to provide a method to trace and calibrate long-term forest management. With the data collected from the FNC and satellite images, the relationship between soils, an Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and landscape domestication are explored. The data are interpreted as indicating that zones of anthropogenic enrichment of the soil due to forest management over the last 2000 years have a positive correlation with high EVI values. The research methods have potential to be applied broadly in tropical rainforest environments where pedestrian survey is difficult to undertake.

Ancient Transformation, Current Conservation: Traditional Forest Management on the Iriri River, Brazilian Amazonia

Legislation governing strict-protection nature reserves in Brazil in principle precludes human habitation, but virtually all Amazon reserves are nonetheless inhabited. Historical ecology research reported herein assesses the impacts of occupation and resource use by beiradeiros (forest peasants) on the forests of a strictly designated nature reserve in the Iriri River basin (Brazilian Amazon). The hypothesis is that traditional beiradeiros activities are congruent with the aims of conservation of the reserve because their impacts are either neutral or enhance diversity of forest landscapes and biota. We designed the methodology underlying data collection to integrate forest inventory with archaeological techniques in two contrasting forest types (terra firme and seasonally inundated forest), faunal surveys, freelisting of tree terms by beiradeiros, and participant observation, in order to determine biological diversity indices, forest age and the parameters of traditional knowledge that encode such diversity in local vocabulary. Our research results lead us to reject the premise that traditional peasant activities lead to ecological degradation or impoverishment, and suggest that the rationale underpinning strictly protected nature reserves should be re-examined.

Exploring Qualitative Methods of Historical Ecology and Their Links With Qualitative Research

A review of the historical ecology literature led us to the realization that there was an important gap in terms of recognized methodological procedures and techniques. Contributions along these lines are sparse. However, some publications (book chapters and papers), some of them case studies, contain methodological material of great interest. Therefore, all these materials needed to be gathered together and put in a historical ecology methodological context. With this in mind, this article focuses on the methods employed to date in historical ecology when working with qualitative and graphic materials. In addition, it incorporates an exploration of the links between these methods and those used in general in qualitative research. Historical ecology requires source criticism methods (a source critical approach which offers guidelines for both source and source reliability assessment) and time line–based methods for landscape change. Some of the techniques used in historical ecology, but not originate from it, are presented (historical maps, photointerpretation, repeat photography, and oral history). The methodological links between historical ecology and qualitative research are then explored, and, finally, a method for text analysis (thematic networks) is presented.

Equipping Tomorrow's Historical Ecologist: Priorities for Documenting Conditions of the Terrestrial Fauna of Santa Cruz Island, California

Historical ecological research provides valuable insights for contemporary conservation management. Gaps in historical records, however, can limit the utility of that research. Future conservationists may therefore find themselves disadvantaged by the current societal trend of underinvestment in systematic collection of museum specimens and natural history information. To reduce that risk, we asked what managers and scientists could do today to better document the past and present conditions of Santa Cruz Island, California, as a means to improve both contemporary and future conservation. We focused our inquiry on the island's terrestrial fauna, which includes numerous taxa of conservation concern. Here we present recommendations for research and collection that will enhance not only the understanding of past and present ecological conditions on the island but also the records that will be accessible to future historical ecologists.

Estimating crown conch (Melongena corona) tissue weight from archaeological shell measurements: An allometric methodology for coastal historical ecological research

Coastal archaeologists and historical ecologists are taking an increasingly robust interest in marine shell assemblages recovered from coastal villages and civic-ceremonial sites. These assemblages must be quantified before archaeologists can make assessments of biomass flows and subsistence contributions. We present the results of an experimental allometric study on Melongena corona snails collected from the mangrove dominated shoreline of Weedon Island Preserve, Florida, USA. Our analysis produced regression constants for predicting tissue weight estimates from four independent linear shell metrics, including: length, aperture-length, height, and width. This study is unique in its integration of field and laboratory experimentation, and in the large sample size used to develop allometric constants. To exemplify the utility of our regression models, we apply our allometric constants to a late-Precolumbian (ca. 895–1268 CE) marine shell assemblage excavated from the Weeden Island site (8PI1), Pinellas County, Florida, USA.

Estimating California mussel (Mytilus californianus) size from hinge fragments: a methodological application in historical ecology

Whole shell measurements from archaeological sites increasingly have become an important component of historical ecological research in coastal zones around the world. Size variation in California mussels (Mytilus californianus), one of the dominant taxa in North American Pacific Coast shell midden assemblages, have been used to assess human impacts and natural climate change on intertidal resources over millennia. Archaeological samples are typically limited due to taphonomic processes, however, which can cause fractionation and leave precious few whole shells for measurement. Various methods have been proposed to estimate the total shell length of fragmented California mussels, but these have proved largely unreliable. Using modern samples from southern California, we developed a series of regression formulae to estimate whole California mussel sizes from hinge fragments. This allometric approach proved statistically reliable and can be applied during field or laboratory work. Here, we present our methodology to build regression formulae and our validating tests using modern samples from San Diego, California, and an archaeological sample from San Miguel Island, California.

Historic land surveys present opportunities for reconstructing frontier settlement patterns in North America

Introduction Historical frontier expansion in North America has played a foundational role in shaping contemporary landscapes, yet early-settlement patterns are poorly quantified. Historic datasets such as land surveys have been underutilized in this context as they have been primarily used for historical ecological research on vegetation patterns.

Historical ecology: past, present and future.

The term 'historical ecology' has been used with various meanings since the first half of the 20th century. Studies labelled as historical ecology have been produced in at least four academic disciplines: history, ecology, geography and anthropology. Although all those involved seem to agree that historical ecology concerns the historical interconnectedness of nature and human culture, this field of study has no unified methodology, specialized institutional background and common publication forums. Knowledge of the development of historical ecology is also limited. As a result, the current multitude of definitions of historical ecology is accompanied by divergent opinions as to where the origins of the field are to be sought. In this review, I follow the development of historical ecology from the 18th century to the present. In the first part, I briefly describe some early examples of historical ecological investigations, followed by a description of the various scientific strands in the 20th century that contributed to the formation of historical ecology. In the second part, I discuss the past five decades of historical ecological investigations in more detail, focusing mostly (but not exclusively) on works that their respective authors identified as historical ecology. I also examine the appearance and interconnectedness of the two main trends (ecological and anthropological) in historical ecological research. In the last part, I attempt to outline the future of historical ecology based on common features in existing research. It appears that at present historical ecology is at a crossroads. With rapidly growing interest in historical ecological research, it may move towards institutionalization or remain an umbrella term.

Environmental change in Garry oak (Quercus garryana) ecosystems: the evolution of an eco-cultural landscape

Globally, colonialism resulted in the suppression of aboriginal land manage- ment practices, abetted by the concept of terra nullius, ''belonging to no one''; the belief that aboriginal people had little influence on or ownership of the land. Until recently, this ideology was entrenched in resource management and policy. Traditional ecological knowledge, historical ecology, archaeology, and palaeoecological research have shown these assumptions to be wrong. In this paper we take a multidisciplinary approach (bio- geography, paleoecology, dendrochronology, and bioclimatic envelope modeling) to better understand the role of climate and fire in the formation of eco-cultural landscapes. We synthesize results from pollen and charcoal analysis in Garry oak ecosystems that indicate there were continuous and frequent prescribed burning events, with more severe fires occurring every 26-41 years in southwest British Columbia throughout the Anthropocene (*last 250 years) that substantially altered forest structure and composition. These results are consistent with stand age reconstructions in BC and Washington with Garry oak establishment beginning *1850 AD, corresponding with modern fire exclusion, aboriginal population decline, and end of the Little Ice Age. Douglas-fir recruitment has been con- tinuous since *1900, with succession of oak woodland to closed conifer forest at most sites. These findings indicate that the structure of many Garry oak ecosystems have been profoundly influenced by eco-cultural practices. Overwhelming evidence indicates that in many cases these ecosystems are dependent on prescribed fire for their open structure. In

Using historical data to assess the biogeography of population recovery

Historical ecology research is valuable for assessing long‐term baselines, and is increasingly applicable to conservation and management. In this study, we describe how historical range data can inform key aspects of protected species management, including evaluating conservation status and recovery, and determining practical management units. We examine contemporary (1973–2012) and historical (1250–1950) data on nesting beach distributions for green sea turtles Chelonia mydas in the Hawaiian Islands. Green turtle populations in Hawai‘i declined until federal and international protections began in the 1970s, but over the past four decades one index population has shown encouraging increases and broader recovery has been inferred. We find that 80% of historically major nesting populations are extirpated, or have heavily reduced nesting abundances in comparison with current estimates. Furthermore, historical nesting areas were not geographically isolated, but distributed across the archipelago. In comparison, today more than 90% of green turtle nesting in Hawai‘i occurs at a single site that is vulnerable to sea level rise. This research suggests that assessing recovery without historical data on spatial patterns may overlook important ecological dynamics at the popu lation or ecosystem level, which can result in improper or inadequate conservation assessments and recovery targets.

Preface: integrating historical ecology and ecological modeling

There is increasing consensus that not only the present structure and functioning of ecosystems, but also their response to environmental stressors and management practices is partly a legacy of the system’s history (Rhemtulla and Mladenoff 2007). Similarly, there is little dispute that in order to assess the future trajectories of ecosystems, models of some sort need to be employed (e.g., Shugart 1998). Thus, there is a clear interface between the scientific attempts to elucidate the past of ecosystems (historical ecology) and the attempts to project their future dynamics (ecological modeling). However, to date this interface has received relatively little attention in scientific research (cf. Anderson et al. 2006). On the one hand, historical ecological research usually aims at uncovering past ecosystem dynamics and their drivers, using and combining a large variety of historical data sources (Egan and Howell 2001). A comprehensive understanding of anthropogenic impacts on ecosystems is not only crucial for the accurate interpretation of current ecosystem states, but it also forms the baseline for predictions of their future development, and for more informed ecosystem management (Burgi and Gimmi 2007). Historical ecologists therefore tend to emphasize the importance of their research for other fields such as ecosystem modeling, but they preferably place such statements in the outlook sections of their papers, often without a clear concept of how such integration should be achieved. On the other hand, many modeling studies that project the future state and fate of ecosystems are using baseline assumptions regarding current ecosystem states that are not much more than guesswork because they lack a historical consideration. A case in point is the assumption in studies of the future carbon cycle, a topic of eminent scientific, practical and political relevance, that current ecosystem carbon storage is in equilibrium with an assumed constant past climate and a constant past management (e.g., Wolf et al. 2012, and many others). Under most conditions, however, both assumptions are highly questionable, and are acceptable only because reliable and accessible data on past conditions are often absent. Indeed, the quest of modeling studies for appropriate historical data to set up more realistic ‘‘spin-up’’ runs of the models is often futile, as historical data are hardly ever collected and made available with the target variables of modeling studies in mind, unless a close collaboration is sought between modelers and historical ecologists (cf. Gimmi et al. 2009). Still, modelers tend to view historical ecology mainly as a source of ‘useful’ data while they underestimate the U. Gimmi (&) Research Unit Landscape Dynamics, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland e-mail: urs.gimmi@wsl.ch

Advancing the Integration of History and Ecology for Conservation

The important role of humans in the development of current ecosystems was recognized decades ago; however, the integration of history and ecology in order to inform conservation has been difficult. We identified four issues that hinder historical ecological research and considered possible solutions. First, differences in concepts and methods between the fields of ecology and history are thought to be large. However, most differences stem from miscommunication between ecologists and historians and are less substantial than is usually assumed. Cooperation can be achieved by focusing on the features ecology and history have in common and through understanding and acceptance of differing points of view. Second, historical ecological research is often hampered by differences in spatial and temporal scales between ecology and history. We argue that historical ecological research can only be conducted at extents for which sources in both disciplines have comparable resolutions. Researchers must begin by clearly defining the relevant scales for the given purpose. Third, periods for which quantitative historical sources are not easily accessible (before AD 1800) have been neglected in historical ecological research. Because data from periods before 1800 are as relevant to the current state of ecosystems as more recent data, we suggest that historical ecologists actively seek out data from before 1800 and apply analytic methods commonly used in ecology to these data. Fourth, humans are not usually considered an intrinsic ecological factor in current ecological research. In our view, human societies should be acknowledged as integral parts of ecosystems and societal processes should be recognized as driving forces of ecosystem change.

An integrated reconstruction of recent forest dynamics in a New England cultural landscape

Broad-scale patterns of vegetation response to three centuries of human disturbance in the northeastern United States are well understood, but stand-scale (0.1–10 ha) interactions between land-use history and the ecological processes underlying these patterns are not. Enduring legacies of land-use history, though pervasive in modern forests, are not always obvious or intuitive, particularly in the regenerating stands that cover most of the region. Focusing on a second-growth, post-agricultural landscape in Petersham, Massachusetts, this study integrates (i) a stand-scale sedimentary pollen and charcoal record, (ii) survey and dendroecological data from the surrounding forest, and (iii) analysis of historical documents describing site-specific ownership and land use history. We demonstrate the strength of this multifaceted approach to vegetation reconstruction on sites with long land-use histories that are typical of the modern landscape. We infer that periods of low and high intensity agriculture commenced around 1760 and 1850, respectively, and that the agricultural era was initiated and terminated by episodes of increased fire. Dendroecological data corroborate deed records and suggest that a portion of the forest regenerated and was used for small-scale timber production during the mid to late 1800s. Most of the forest established in the early 1900s, after which time the greatest disturbance was Cryphonectria parasitica (chestnut blight) induced mortality of Castanea dentata (American chestnut) and replacement by Betula (birch) species. This study highlights the potential to expand integrated historical ecological research into landscapes with lengthy histories of human disturbance and underscores the potential of this research to generate data with spatial and temporal resolution relevant to management and conservation efforts.

Unforeseen importance of historical collections as baselines to determine biotic change of coral reefs: the Saba Bank case

Botanical and zoological collections may serve as archives for historical ecological research on the effects of global change and human impact on coral reef biota. Museum collections may harbour old specimens of reef-dwelling species that have become locally extinct. Such collections also help to determine whether early records of invasive species can be obtained from times when they were not yet recognized as such. A case study (2006) involving Saba Bank, Caribbean Netherlands (former Netherlands Antilles), suggests that the coral reef fauna here may have become impoverished when compared with data obtained during an earlier expedition in 1972. However, the 1972 sampling may have been incomplete, as it was performed by professional divers who were not trained taxonomists, whereas the collecting in 2006 was done by experienced marine biologists who knew the taxa they were sampling. As Saba Bank has been under stress due to the anchoring of large vessels, and invasive species have been a potential threat as well, future studies are needed to obtain more insights into the changing reef biota of Saba Bank. Using this Saba Bank example, we want to address the importance of natural history collections as reservoirs of valuable data relevant to coral reef biodiversity studies in a time of global change. As such, these collections are still underexplored and underexploited.