Natural Landscape Patterns Research Articles

Multiscale effects and drivers of landscape heterogeneity for water‐related ecosystem services in urban agglomerations

AbstractUnderstanding the multiscale impacts and drivers of urban agglomeration landscape patterns for ecosystem services (ESs), especially water‐related ecosystem services (WESs), is essential for the development of regional ecological management. However, the multiscale impacts and driving mechanisms of urban agglomeration landscape patterns for ESs have not been adequately explained. In this study, multivariate data were employed, and the InVEST model, trend test method, coupled GeoDetector and geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) method were utilized to comprehensively explore the spatial and temporal changes in landscape patterns and WESs in the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration (PRDUA) at various grid and administrative scales from 1990 to 2020 and to determine the driving mechanisms affecting WESs. The results indicated that the variation characteristics of landscape patterns and WESs in the PRDUA were consistent, forming a binary spatial structure of core and peripheral areas in an inverted “U” shape around the estuary of the Pearl River. The relationship between landscape patterns and WESs weakened with the increase of scale, and the correlation coefficient decreased by approximately 0.10 from 5 km to 10 km grid scale. Additionally, precipitation (PRE) was the main factor controlling WESs changes in the PRDUA, explaining more than 50% of the changes in WESs, and the regression coefficients ranged from 0.0825 to 0.1584. Changes in WESs were the result of the combined effects of natural factors, including PRE, landscape pattern, elevation, slope, and socioeconomic factors, such as population and gross domestic product (GDP). Overall, these findings could contribute to optimizing regional landscape patterns and fostering sustainable development of the ecological environment in urban agglomerations.

The spatiotemporal evolution of rural landscape patterns in Chinese metropolises under rapid urbanization.

Understanding the evolution of rural landscapes in metropolises during rapid urbanization is crucial for formulating policies to protect the rural ecological environment. In this study, remote sensing and geographical information system data, as well as applied landscape index analysis, are used to examine the spatiotemporal evolution of rural landscape patterns in the Beijing-Tianjin region of China, which has experienced rapid urbanization. The relationships between land use/land cover changes and changes in rural landscape patterns are explored. The results revealed significant spatial differences in the rural landscapes in the Beijing-Tianjin region; farmland and forestland were the main types of landscapes, creating a "mountain-field-sea" natural landscape pattern. The conversion of rural landscapes in the Beijing-Tianjin region involved mainly the conversion of farmland to urban areas, with few exchanges between other landscape types. The urban areas in the Beijing-Tianjin region increased by 3% per decade; farmland decreased at the same rate. Additionally, the rural landscape patterns in the Beijing-Tianjin region were dominated by fragmentation, dispersion, and heterogeneity and moved from complex to regular. Water bodies displayed the most fragmented natural landscape; their number of patches increased by 36%, though their network characteristics were maintained. Forestland was the most concentrated natural landscape. In this study, theoretical support and a scientific reference for the optimization of rural landscape patterns and the improvement in rural living environments in rapidly urbanizing areas are provided.

Study on the spatial changes in land use and landscape patterns and their effects on ecosystem services in Ghana, West Africa

Changes in land use significantly affect the environment by disrupting the natural landscape patterns. These changes may alter the ecological processes that affect the flow and provision of ecosystem services. In this study, we quantified land-use changes and the effects of landscape patterns on estimated Ecosystem Service Values (ESVs) at spatial and temporal scales in Ghana for four different years: 1995, 2005, 2015, and 2020. Using Fragstats spatial software, we computed landscape metrics to calculate the landscape patterns of the study area. We established a relationship between ecosystem services and landscape patterns by using correlation and regression analyses. The dominant land use in Ghana found in decreasing order were agriculture, forest, and savannah. The proportions covered by settlement and bare land were relatively small. The estimated ESVs for the study periods were US$172.11 billion in 1995, US$166.38 billion in 2005, US$166.07 billion in 2015 and US$166.59 in 2020. The entire decline observed was very significant (US$5.52 billion) because of the huge reduction in wetlands during this period. Linear multiple regression and correlation analyses revealed the relationships between ecosystem services and landscape patterns. According to the regression models, the landscape metrics of landscape composition and configuration had a net effect on the individual ecosystem services. This study provides useful reference material for land use policy makers, managers, and institutions involved in the implementation of policies and conservation practices to enhance the provision of ecosystem services.

Fine grid scale increases or decreases the trade-off effect between ES in mountain protected areas?

A crucial challenge in ecosystem management is the identification of trade-off effects among multiple ecosystem services (ESs), particularly in complex and ecologically vulnerable mountainous protected areas. Nevertheless, investigations into the spatio-temporal dynamics of trade-offs and synergies among ES within such protected regions remain limited. This study concentrated on the Qilian Mountain, a critical ecologically fragile protected area, utilized the Invest model to comprehensively analyze six ESs over the period 1985–2020. Employed Pearson correlation coefficient, we scrutinized trade-off and synergy relationships of these ES across varying grid scales (30 m, 1 km, and 10 km). Furthermore, GeoDetector, in tandem with multi-source data, is employed to unveil the potential drivers influencing the patterns of ES. Our findings revealed that: (1) Increasing data spatial resolution refines grid scales, yielding smoother spatial distributions of ES, and accentuates spatial disparities. (2) Synergistic relationships prevailed among protected area ES from 1985 to 2020, with correlations between carbon storage - water yield and habitat quality - water yield shifted from synergy to trade-off in 2015. (3) Distinct grid scales exert non-linear impacts on ES correlations, affecting both the magnitude and direction of these relationships. (4) Interactions among natural factors, climate, and landscape patterns are principal drivers of spatial heterogeneity in ES, with the contributions of dominant drivers exhibiting temporal variability. Remarkably, factors with stronger driving forces demonstrate greater temporal instability in their contribution rates. Our research underscores the necessity for comparative assessments of ES and their interrelations at diverse data spatial resolutions, advocating for enhanced ES management strategies.

Tourist landscape vulnerability assessment in mountainous world natural heritage sites: The case of Karajun-Kurdening, Xinjiang, china

The landscape is one of the bases of tourism development. Natural heritage sites are the pinnacle of natural areas with outstanding universal value, but the landscapes are diverse and fragile. Heritage sites needs to be moderately utilized to protect the landscape. Based on the aesthetic value of the heritage site, this study proposed an evaluation system for the tourist landscape vulnerability of a mountainous natural area in three aspects “Integration-Ecology-Coordination”. The results are as follows: (1) The factors influencing the integrated vulnerability of the landscape of Karajun-Kurdening were natural conditions, landscape patterns, and human activities in descending order of strength. In terms of spatial distribution, the integrated vulnerability of the study area was high, and the vulnerability in the south was higher than that in the north. (2) The forest landscape and grassland landscape are the carriers of the aesthetic value of the Karajun-Kurdening heritage site. The vulnerability of patch integrity and structural abundance of the forest landscape were low, while the forest density had strong heterogeneity. In addition, the patch integrity of the grassland landscape was strong, while the area of low grassland coverage was large. (3) The current tourism development was compatible with the landscape. Through the quantitative and qualitative comprehensive assessment of tourist landscape vulnerability, this study can usefully inform local policy-, plan-, and decision-making for future landscape conservation in mountainous natural heritage sites.

Identification of priority areas for ecological restoration based on ecological security and landscape elements.

Accurate identification of priority areas for ecological restoration is an important prerequisite for ecological protection and restoration, but it is a current challenge in landscape planning. Northern Shaanxi, which is located in the middle of the Loess Plateau in China, was selected as a study area in this paper. A three-dimensional framework including natural potential, human disturbance, and landscape pattern factors was used to construct an ecological security evaluation index system, and spatial principal component analysis (SPCA) was used to quantitatively evaluate the ecological security levels of the study area. The ecological security assessment result was used as a resistance surface, and landscape elements were identified by morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA), minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) model and the gravity model. On this basis, priority areas for ecological restoration were identified by considering ecosystem security and the matching degree of landscape elements. The resulting area with low and moderately low security levels was 27,574.87 km2 in size, accounting for 34.48% of the total study area, and the ecological security situation was not ideal. We identified seventeen ecological sources with an area of 5789.36 km2, and the important ecological sources were mainly distributed in the south of the study area. We identified one hundred and thirty-six potential ecological corridors with a total length of 7431.12km, including 16 important ecological corridors with a length of 1279.43km. We also identified 83 ecological nodes, including 17 important ecological nodes. We found that the high matching degree of landscape elements included four watersheds with an area of 7571.17 km2, mainly distributed in the southern part of the study area. Fifty-one basins with a low matching degree of landscape elements were identified, covering an area of 50,399.44 km2 and mainly distributed in the west and north of the study area. We identified three levels of areas to be restored, of which the level I ecological restoration priority area was the smallest, at 7047.61 km2. The areas of the level II ecological restoration priority area and the level III ecological restoration priority area were 20,379.35 km2 and 27,866.35 km2, respectively. The two areas were large and mainly distributed in the west and north of the study area. We discussed ecological restoration strategies for different levels of ecological restoration priority areas and provided new methods for identifying priority ecological restoration areas in the future.

Mapping Soil Organic Carbon in Low-Relief Farmlands Based on Stratified Heterogeneous Relationship

Accurate mapping of farmland soil organic carbon (SOC) provides valuable information for evaluating soil quality and guiding agricultural management. The integration of natural factors, agricultural activities, and landscape patterns may well fit the high spatial variation of SOC in low-relief farmlands. However, commonly used prediction methods are global models, ignoring the stratified heterogeneous relationship between SOC and environmental variables and failing to reveal the determinants of SOC in different subregions. Using 242 topsoil samples collected from Jianghan Plain, China, this study explored the stratified heterogeneous relationship between SOC and natural factors, agricultural activities, and landscape metrics, determined the dominant factors of SOC in each stratum, and predicted the spatial distribution of SOC using the Cubist model. Ordinary kriging, stepwise linear regression (SLR), and random forest (RF) were used as references. SLR and RF results showed that land use types, multiple cropping index, straw return, and percentage of water bodies are global dominant factors of SOC. Cubist results exhibited that the dominant factors of SOC vary in different cropping systems. Compared with the SOC of paddy fields, the SOC of irrigated land was more affected by irrigation-related factors. The effect of straw return on SOC was diverse under different cropping intensities. The Cubist model outperformed the other models in explaining SOC variation and SOC mapping (fitting R2 = 0.370 and predicted R2 = 0.474). These results highlight the importance of exploring the stratified heterogeneous relationship between SOC and covariates, and this knowledge provides a scientific basis for farmland zoning management. The Cubist model, integrating natural factors, agricultural activities, and landscape metrics, is effective in explaining SOC variation and mapping SOC in low-relief farmlands.

Quantification of Effects of Natural Geographical Factors and Landscape Patterns on Non-point Source Pollution in Watershed Based on Geodetector: Burhatong River Basin, Northeast China as An Example

Quantification of Effects of Natural Geographical Factors and Landscape Patterns on Non-point Source Pollution in Watershed Based on Geodetector: Burhatong River Basin, Northeast China as An Example

Assessing levels, trade-offs and synergies of landscape services in the Iranian province of Qazvin: towards sustainable landscapes

ContextEvidence-based knowledge is crucial for place-based knowledge production and learning towards sustainable landscapes through stewardship and integrated spatial planning.ObjectivesWe focus on the landscape service concept as a tool, and three fundamental challenges for its use: (1) how to monitor benefits provided by different landscapes; (2) to demonstrate trade-offs and synergies among benefits in a landscape; and (3) to discuss how to incorporate results from analyses into landscape stewardship and planning.MethodsAs a case study we chose the Iranian Qazvin province with diverse natural and anthropogenic landscapes, and top-down societal steering. Five landscape services (water yield, water regulation, pollination, actual net primary production (NPPact) and social-cultural connectivity) were assessed and compared.ResultsAll landscape services were significantly correlated. Major trade-offs and synergies among services were between NPPact and water yield and regulation. Trade-off and synergy clusters showed that landscape functions depend on both natural and anthropogenic landscape patterns and processes.ConclusionsProviding transparent data about trade-offs and synergies among landscape services can facilitate learning about which services are important among landscapes. For each of six settings we suggest action plans. We discuss the role of Iranian landscape stewardship and planning, and integrative research needs.

Assessing the Health of Inland Wetland Ecosystems Over Space and Time in China

Wetland is a unique natural landscape pattern, which provides a variety of important functions and services for human societies. With the rapid develop of the economy and accelerated urbanization, the inland wetlands are faced with series of problems, including reduced area, weakened wetland functions, and deterioration of the wetland ecosystem environment. Therefore, it is necessary to quantitatively assess the ecological health of China's inland wetlands, which is key to the sustainable development of ecosystems. However, most assessments of wetland ecosystems only examine single wetlands or watershed wetlands, and there are few assessments of wetland health at the national level. In this paper, based on land cover data, climate data, and social and economic data, an assessment system of inland wetland health is established by using the Pressure-State-Effect-Response (PSER) model, which includes 15 assessment indicators. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to define the indicator weights. Then we assessed the ecosystem health of the inland wetlands of China in 2010 and 2018, which produced three main results. (1) Unlike ecosystem health evaluated by administrative districts, wetland ecosystem health (WEH) evaluation based on the grid could provide additional details of wetland health. (2) The area of inland wetlands increased by 16328 km2 in 2018 compared to 2010, and the average wetland ecosystem health index in 2018 was 3.45, compared to an index value of 3.24 in 2010. (3) In 2018, wetlands in the better, good, moderate and poor conditions represented about 26.3%, 46.4%, 26.9% and 0.5% of the total, respectively. These results provide a practical guide for protecting and managing wetland system resources and reliable information for land use planning and development.

Landscape-Ecological Approach to Spatial Planning as a Tool to Minimize Socio-Ecological Conflicts: Case Study of Agrolandscape in the Taiga Zone of Russia

Landscape heterogeneity generates significant influences on economic activity. Present-day publications in landscape planning focus more and more on a participatory approach and a communication process. By contrast, we focus on nature-based criteria aimed at proper adaptation of planning decisions to natural landscape patterns. The paper proposes the framework aimed at considering geographical context, matter flows, and dynamic processes in projecting ecological network and perfect sites for various land use types as well as for choosing appropriate technologies. We use the example of a river basin in the taiga zone of European Russia, partially used for forestry and traditional agriculture. A landscape map, space images, and geochemical data are used to provide rationales for the necessary emergent effects resulting from proper proportions, neighborhoods, buffers, and shapes for lands use units. The proposed spatial arrangement of land use types and technologies ensures the coordination of socio-economic and ecological interests and preserves zonal background conditions, including runoff, soils, migration routes, and biodiversity. The allocation of arable lands and cutovers is aimed at minimizing undesirable matter flows that could cause qualitative changes in the geochemical environment.

Negative effects of farmland expansion on multi-species landscape connectivity in a tropical region in Southwest China

The expansion of farmland has negative effects on the natural landscape patterns supporting ecological processes, which in turn can be reflected in changes in the landscape connectivity for animal movements. There is an urgent need to address the issue of the changes to landscape connectivity caused by farmland expansion, especially in tropical areas in Southwest China that have high biodiversity levels and intense human cultivation. Using Menghai County in Xishuangbanna as the study area, six landscape pattern indexes were used to evaluate the landscape patterns and fragmentation based on land use data, and a multi-species circuit theory method was used to quantitatively analyze the changes and spatial variability in landscape connectivity. The results showed that the encroachment of farmland greatly increased the degree of landscape fragmentation. Current density maps of circuit connectivity based on multi-species showed that the spatial differences in the landscape ecological networks were obvious. The key corridors identified by the Zonation model showed that the landscape connectivity in the western area of Menghai County was higher than that in the central area. Comparing the changes between different periods, the maximum current declined the most, with a loss of nearly 25%, from 1995 to 2000. By 2000, the key corridors in the central region had almost completely disappeared. The above information indicated that the farmland expansion led to fragmentation, influenced the movement processes of the regional wild species and reduced the degree of landscape connectivity. This study on the evaluation of the impact of farmland expansion will improve the understanding of the effects of human activities on regional landscape connectivity and provide an operational approach to conservation planning.

Remote sensing and geochemical monitoring of soils and vegetation cover of industrial waste dumping site (Kursk region)

The paper summarizes results of long-term remote sensing and geochemical monitoring of soils and vegetation cover influenced with abandoned industrial waste dumping site at the southern periphery of Kursk city. Analysis of prolonged image time series (19542018) has resulted in the reconstruction of natural landscape pattern in study area, mapping the expansion of waste deposit area under the period of active exploitation, delineation of five historic-functional zones of the dumping site. These zones are featured with different age and type of technogenic transformations in landscape structure, particular levels of heavy metals content and their distribution in soils and vegetation. Studies of spatial pattern and long-term (20002017) changes in contamination of soils and technogenic surface formations with heavy metals revealed that the maximum level of soil and vegetation pollution with heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Ni, Zn, Cu, Sb) is fixed for the zone of excavation, mixing and secondary burying of industrial wastes in 2000s. Increased concentrations of Sb and Zn still persist in surface soil layers of chernozems outside the territory of abandoned dumping site.

English

The goal of land reclamation after oil sands mining in the boreal forest of northern Alberta, Canada is to re-establish functioning forest ecosystems, including the development of a natural plant community. Reclamation practices include the use of operational reclamation soils derived from upland forest soils (referred to as forest floor-mineral mix (FFMM)), which has higher plant diversity, and lowland based peat-mineral mix (PMM), which has greater tree regeneration. Building from experience in forest harvesting practices and natural landscape patterns, the reclamation concept was put into practice in a new reclamation area established in 2015 with patches or islands of differing sizes and shapes of FFMM placed within a matrix of the more abundant PMM. These islands of FFMM are intended to serve as lifeboats and colonization centres for native biota. Initial studies are focusing on determining the optimal size and spacing of the FFMM patches. Plant species area curves were developed and show that patch sizes of at least 671 - 960 m 2 are recommended to allow initial establishment of native plant species, and in particular woody species, with smaller patch sizes favouring non-native weedy species. Initial spatial patterns indicate no relationship between plant species richness and distance to FFMM - PMM soil boundary with the rate and distance of spread of native plants from the FFMM patches being an important monitoring consideration in future years. This work on the Islands approach will help in the development of more efficient and effective reclamation practices which take advantage of the ecological differences in available reclamation soils.

English

Landscape planners and designers are interested in replicating natural landscape patterns to reclaim degraded landscapes to blend with existing conditions. One approach that shows promise is the use of fractal geometry to create natural landscape patterns. While the measurement of the actual fractal dimension of an object is difficult, the box-counting method (developed at Agrocampus Ouest, Angers, France) approximates the fractal dimension of an object. This process is illustrated by measuring and replicating a stand of trees in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and applying the method for a planting plan on a Northern Michigan surface mine. The estimated fractal dimensions for the tree species are calculated: 0.329 for Tsuga canadensis Carriere, 0.674 for Thuja occidentalis L., 0.607 for Acer rubrum L, 0.345 for Acer saccharum Marshall, 0.442 for Pinus strobus L., and 0.359 for Picea glauca (Moench) Voss. and were applied in the design of a revegetation plan.

Landscape Evaluation for Restoration Planning on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, USA

Land managers in the western US are beginning to understand that early 20th century forests displayed complex patterns of composition and structure at several different spatial scales, that there was interplay between patterns and processes within and across scales, and that these conditions have been radically altered by management. Further, they know that restoring integrity (see Definition of Terms) of these conditions has broad implications for the future sustainability (see Definition of Terms) of native species, ecosystem services, and ecological processes. Many are looking for methods to restore (see Definition of Terms) more natural landscape patterns of habitats and more naturally functioning disturbance regimes; all in the context of a warming climate. Attention is turning to evaluating whole landscapes at local and regional scales, deciphering recent changes in trajectories, and formulating landscape prescriptions that can restore ecological functionality and improve landscape resilience (see Definition of Terms). The business of landscape evaluation and developing landscape prescriptions is inherently complex, but with the advent of decision support systems, software applications are now available to conduct and document these evaluations. Here, we review several published landscape evaluation and planning applications designed with the Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) software, and present an evaluation we developed in support of a landscape restoration project. We discuss the goals and design of the project, its methods and utilities, what worked well, what could be improved and related research opportunities. For readability and compactness, fine and broad-scale landscape evaluations that could be a part of multi-scale restoration planning, are not further developed here.

Informing landscape planning and design for sustaining ecosystem services from existing spatial patterns and knowledge

Over the last decade we have seen an increased emphasis in environmental management and policies aimed at maintaining and restoring multiple ecosystem services at landscape scales. This emphasis has resulted from the recognition that management of specific environmental targets and ecosystem services requires an understanding of landscape processes and the spatial scales that maintain those targets and services. Moreover, we have become increasingly aware of the influence of broad-scale drivers such as climate change on landscape processes and the ecosystem services they support. Studies and assessments on the relative success of environmental policies and landscape designs in maintaining landscape processes and ecosystem services is mostly lacking. This likely reflects the relatively high cost of maintaining a commitment to implement and maintain monitoring programs that document responses of landscape processes and ecosystem services to different landscape policies and designs. However, we argue that there is considerable variation in natural and human-caused landscape pattern at local to continental scales and that this variation may facilitate analyses of how environmental targets and ecosystem services have responded to such patterns. Moreover, wall-to-wall spatial data on land cover and land use at national scales may permit characterization and mapping of different landscape pattern gradients. We discuss four broad and interrelated focus areas that should enhance our understanding of how landscape pattern influences ecosystem services: (1) characterizing and mapping landscape pattern gradients; (2) quantifying relationships between landscape patterns and environmental targets and ecosystem services, (3) evaluating landscape patterns with regards to multiple ecosystem services, and (4) applying adaptive management concepts to improve the effectiveness of specific landscape designs in sustaining ecosystem services. We discuss opportunities as well as challenges in each of these four areas. We believe that this agenda could lead to spatially explicit solutions in managing a range of environmental targets and ecosystem services. Spatially explicit options are critical in managing and protecting landscapes, especially given that communities and organizations are often limited in their capacity to make changes at landscape scales. The issues and potential solutions discussed in this paper expand upon the call by Nassauer and Opdam (Landscape Ecol 23:633–644, 2008) to include design as a fundamental element in landscape ecology research by evaluating natural and human-caused (planned or designed) landscape patterns and their influence on ecosystem services. It also expands upon the idea of “learning by doing” to include “learning from what has already been done.”

Landscape Pattern Metrics: An Empirical Study from 2-D to 3-D

Analysis of landscape patterns, as an important means of studying landscape ecological functions and processes, is a key part of landscape ecology. The traditional patch-corridor-matrix paradigm, ignoring the differences between real three-dimensional (3-D) landscapes and two-dimensional (2-D) landscape maps, quantifies and describes 2-D landscape maps using landscape pattern metrics. Such simplification of the real landscape will lead to differences between 2-D landscape pattern metrics and real values, especially in mountainous areas. This study seeks to examine whether these differences are significant in natural landscape patterns. Fourteen small watersheds in a mountainous area were selected as sample landscape units. Two metrics at the patch level, five metrics at the class level, and four metrics at the landscape level were chosen as representative metrics. The results indicated that there were significant differences between the 2-D and 3-D landscape pattern metrics at the patch level, landscape level, and class level. We interpret the differences as errors in the 2-D metrics. The errors depend on the metric and the landscape type, and the errors for different landscape types were inconsistent. Whether these errors affect further interpretation of the role of pattern in landscape ecology remains uncertain.

Measuring the impact of urban sprawl on natural landscape pattern of the Western Taihu Lake watershed, China

Most of landscape metrics measure the connectivity of vegetation in natural landscape rather than taking the interaction between natural and urban landscape into account. The metrics of Insulation degree ( ID), described by the distance of urban patches (interference patches) to the natural patch (object patch) and the area of urban patches within a specified radius of the object patch, assesses the interference effect of urban sprawl on natural landscape connectivity in Western Taihu Lake watershed, China. Using the metrics, we could easily identify the most critical natural landscape elements for the maintenance of overall connectivity such as forests, grassland and water body adjacent to cites, mountain tourist area, Yangtze River, Yao and Ge Lake. In addition, we found that urban has a fancy for sprawling along the inner edge of buffer belt and the edge of object patches, and revealed the drive forces of interference effects by the analysis of ID. Spatial differences of the metrics, in major cities areas, town areas, the area along Yangtze River and Taihu Lake and the southern and eastern mountain region, may guide the process of the Main Function Zoning project in China. Future researches should stress on spatial concepts design for urban and landscape planning in combination with the metrics. The metrics would be complemented with empirical or expert-based methods, using empirical data of local ecological dynamics.

Settlement, Environment, and Politics in the San Bartolo-Xultun Territory, El Peten, Guatemala

AbstractThis article examines the cultural and ecological history of a single Maya territory from circa 1000 B.C. to A.D. 1100. An ancient Maya territory is defined as an area of land and population under the jurisdiction of a particular capital. In addition to the capital, there are minor centers, household groups, and temporary settlements, which together comprise the population of a territory. Here, the San Bartolo-Xultun territory in the northeastern Department of the Peten, Guatemala is used as a case study. During more than two thousand years of occupation the natural landscape and cultural settlement pattern changed dramatically. This study isolates major factors contributing to broad changes in local culture history by employing data from archaeology, geography, remote sensing, epigraphy, and iconography. It is argued that reconstructing regional culture histories using a conjunctive approach should be a major goal of Maya archaeology in the coming years as we strive for a more holistic understanding of the past.