Socio-ecological History Research Articles

Landscapes of Movement Along the (Pre)Historical Libyan Sea: Keys for a Socio-Ecological History

Abstract This study examines the influence of Human Ecodynamics and Historical Ecology to understand the complexities of historical mobility. Based on Landscape Archaeology, this study considers some of these theoretical principles for studying and reconstructing the movements of past human populations. This discussion is grounded on the example of a research project focused on modelling movement and interaction patterns between the Aegean area (Crete) and northeastern African region (Marmarica) from the Late Bronze to Roman times. The project works with multivariate data representative of the routes and non-human factors that may interplay in biocultural processes. Three key aspects structure this article: (1) the emergence of Human Ecodynamics and Historical Ecology in archaeology, (2) their impact on the theoretical evolution of Landscape Archaeology, and (3) the methodological implementation of these principles through a case study. We specifically discuss the strengths of Human Ecodynamics and Historical Ecology to enhance the conceptualisation of mobility by considering the heterarchical interrelationships between human and non-human agents. Our methodological implementations showcase this by using computational approaches to model human pathways influenced by and in constant relationship with their environment. This research thus highlights the importance of transdisciplinary approaches to studying historical mobility from an archaeological and complex systems perspective.

All dried up: The materiality of drought in Ladismith, South Africa

This paper conceptualises droughts as socioecological phenomena coproduced by the recursive engagement of human and non-human transformations. Through an interdisciplinary approach that integrates political ecology, material geographies and hydroclimatology, this work simultaneously apprehends the role of politics and power in reshaping drought, along with the agency of biophysical processes – soil, vegetation, hydrology and microclimate – that co-produce droughts and their spatiotemporal patterning. The drought-stricken Ladismith in Western Cape, South Africa, is the instrumental case study and point of departure of our empirical analysis. To advance a materiality of drought that seriously accounts for the coevolution of biophysical and political transformations, we alter the spatiotemporal and empirical foci of drought analyses thereby retracing Ladismith’s socioecological history since colonial times. In turn, such extended framework exposes the agency of soil, vegetation, hydrology and microclimate and their metabolic exchanges with processes of colonisation, apartheid, capitalist and neoliberal transformations of South African economy. We argue that the narrow pursuit of profits and capital accumulation of the few has produced a fundamental disruption between nature and society which contributed to transform Ladismith’s drought into a socioecological crisis. Whilst advancing debates on materiality, we note two fundamental contributions to the study of drought. First, our approach makes hydrological accounts of droughts less politically naive and socially blind. Second, it develops a political ecology of droughts and socioecological crises more attuned to the materiality of drought. We contend that apprehending the materiality of drought and the active role of its non-human processes can further understandings of the workings of power and the production of socioecological injustices.

Environmental solutions fast-tracked: Reversing public scepticism to public engagement

Setting accomplishable goals for managing environmental health might be more effective where the environmental goals align with social interests. Engaging community stakeholders in the decision-making process allows social knowledge, expectations and concerns to inform planning. This inclusion reduces the risk of community or political backlash to environmental decisions and builds support for the solutions. We provide an account of engaging the public with the management and socio-ecological history of a coastline, a social process that reversed public scepticism (of government investment in marine infrastructure) to support for the recovery of extinct habitat (1500 km of oyster reef). The resulting social participation in the decision-making process created public stewardship of an innovative solution to revive an extinct habitat at a coastal-scale (Australia's first large-scale reef restoration). Our analysis of a shared social and governmental optimism for this revival recognises three key components: 1) a collaborative decision-making process through regular engagement with coastal residents and workers, 2) encouragement of collaborative innovation of solutions (co-designed) to benefit economic and social activities, and 3) engaging local communities on the region's forgotten socio-ecological history to reveal the opportunity to recover their natural history. This project demonstrates that ecological restoration at coastal-scales is a viable policy solution for the environment and society; illustrating how valuing the socio-ecological context with social engagement can rally support for building positive environmental legacies.

Theorizing energy landscapes for energy transition management: Insights from a socioecological history of energy transitions in Bermuda

Energy production systems all over the world are in the early stages of a structural shift from below ground fossil fuels toward above ground energy flows – i.e., solar, wind, biomass, and other forms of renewable energy. In other words, the energy transition implies a profound landscape transformation. Theories and practices in energy transition management are currently underpinned by ‘society-technology’ or sociotechnical perspectives drawn from sustainability transition studies, which foreground political-economic rhythms and institutions that contribute to infrastructure lock-in and path dependence. The significance of these dominant views notwithstanding, they are inattentive to the challenges of landscape transformation and often relegate geographic space to a backdrop upon which sociotechnical transitions take place. The purpose of this paper is to foreground a ‘society-environment’ or socioecological perspective of energy transition and, in so doing, begin to take seriously its spatial dimensions. Our approach brings the energy landscape concept into dialogue with ideas about the production of space and materiality in order to conceptualize the ways in which an energy transition is intertwined with material landscapes (e.g., landscape aesthetics and land-use patterns), territorial structures acting upon landscapes (e.g., land-use planning policy), and social values drawn from and embedded in those landscapes (e.g., emotional attachments and livelihood strategies). We apply this approach to an analysis of energy transitions on the British overseas territory of Bermuda from circa 1819 to present day. The research highlights the broader landscape transformations throughout the island's efforts to establish itself as a British Royal Navy coaling station and then as a tourist destination, and links these histories to the contemporary political ecological factors shaping renewable energy deployment on the island. Conceptually, the paper attends to the influence of society-environment relations in shaping the articulation of technological transitions in particular places and times. More specifically, the research identifies how land-use systems and landscape values contribute to ‘lock-in’ and ‘path dependency’ that must be destabilized in order to facilitate energy transitions. Practically, the paper highlights the need to integrate energy planning with collaborative land-use planning as part of energy transition management.

Influence of community-based natural resource management strategies in the resilience of social-ecological systems

Different social-ecological systems around the world are managed under community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) strategies. This paper analyses how CBNRM strategies influence the resilience of social-ecological systems to the disturbances they face, drawing upon the experience of three Latin American cases (two in Mexico and one in Colombia). The cases differ in their CBNRM approach and in the time these governance systems have been in place. By using a mixed-method approach, we review the socio-ecological history and describe each CBNRM characteristics. We then assess their resilience to socioeconomic and environmental disturbances through a set of indicators. We found that CBNRM strategies influence positively and negatively resilience and that internal decisions might address important threats. On the positive side, the social-ecological systems with longer tradition of CBNRM and more local buy-in of commonly agreed objectives appear to be more resilient to environmental challenges. But, internal governance factors such as power imbalances, poor income distribution, and gender inequities linked to CBNRM undermine resilience and foster out migration. Finally, communities appear to have limited capacities to cope with external disturbances such as global drivers of change or national policies that negatively affect their social-ecological resilience.

Mushrooming Communities: A Field Guide to Mycology in the Community Forests of Portugal

Forest community connections are crucial to ensure forest stewardship and sustainability. We explored the potential of mushrooming to enable such connections in contexts where these connections have been historically broken, alienating local people from forests. Taking the case of the recent devolution of a community forest (baldios) in central Portugal to the local population, we present a five-year pilot project to rework mycology from a mushroom-centered approach to a mushroom-in-baldios approach. Mushrooms were used as an entry-point to connect the forest ecology with the challenges of governance and community building. The devised activities provided an opportunity for people inside and outside the local community to adventure into the woods and find out more about their socio-ecological history, develop communal and convivial relationships and engage in the responsible gathering of wild mushrooms. However, the hosting of mushroomers to know, value and engage with the community forest recovery has constantly worked against the enclosure of mushrooms to provide marketable forms of leisure. The outcome of these activities depends on the relationships established between mushrooms, mycologists, local administrators, commoners and poachers, all operating within a framework that favors the eradication of resources instead of long-term relationships that sustain places.

The specific vulnerability of plant biodiversity and vegetation on Mediterranean islands in the face of global change

The numerous Mediterranean islands (>10,000) are very important from a biodiversity point of view, both in term of plant species (numerous endemics, presence of ‘climate relicts’) and of ecosystems’ assemblage. These patterns can be explained by complex interactions between a highly heterogeneous historical biogeography and ecological processes related to diverse island conditions. Furthermore, most of the ups and downs of this biodiversity were closely linked with human pressures which have changed many times through the long socio-ecological history of these island landscapes since the Neolithic period. At present, insular plant biodiversity and rural landscapes are threatened by diverse global environmental changes related to urbanization, habitat fragmentation, unsustainable tourism and other practices (e.g. overgrazing, forest fires), and by other more recent drivers such as climate warming and aridification, sea-level rise and biological invasions. Some of these impacts will be exacerbated on islands because of no (or highly limited) adjacent areas of expansion, notably on the smallest ones (i.e. size < ca. 1000 ha). With regards to the biome crisis facing the Mediterranean basin and induced by human activities, islands constitute key ecological systems and ‘current refugia’ to ensure the long-term preservation of coastal plant biodiversity. They also represent fascinating ecological systems to disentangle the role of environmental versus human pressures on spatially simplified communities of the Mediterranean coastal areas. Future detailed studies of these ‘natural island microcosms’ could greatly improve our knowledge of the functional and evolutionary processes induced by rapid environmental changes in this region.

Habits of the hunters: the biopolitics of combatting predation amongst small stock farmers in southern Namibia

ABSTRACTThe jackal is renowned for its cleverness in predating on livestock. Jackal hunting became an institutionalised practice at a time when most of Namibia’s agricultural lands were fenced under the colonial administration. By keeping the socio-ecological history of colonialism in mind, this paper introduces hunting in southern Namibia as a game of territoriality in which the jackal and the hunter always try to outmaneuver each other. Jackal hunting is also analysed as a site for social and racial differentiation, cultural capital and an embodied practice that illustrates the many contradictions embedded in the postcolonial scheme for community development through biodiversity conservation. Together these considerations attempt to introduce rural postcolonial Namibia as a biopolitical landscape in which the logics of power are shown to be manifest in the technologies involved with animal governance and killing, the semiotic currencies of animality and labour, and the agency of the notorious jackal.

Waiting for more: the performance of domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) on exchange tasks

Five domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) were tested in a cooperative exchange task with an experimenter, as previously tested in non-human primates. In the first task, the dogs exchanged to maximise payoffs when presented with food items of differing quality. All consistently exchanged lower-value for higher-value rewards, as determined by their individual food preference, and exchanges corresponded significantly with the spontaneous preferences of three dogs. Next, all subjects demonstrated an ability to perform two and three exchanges in succession, to gain both qualitative and quantitatively increased rewards (group mean=72 and 92% successful triple exchanges, respectively). Finally, the ability to delay gratification over increasing intervals was tested; the dogs kept one food item to exchange later for a larger item. As previously reported in non-human primates, there was considerable individual variation in the tolerance of delays, between 10s and 10min for the largest rewards. For those who reached longer time lags (>40s), the dogs gave up the chance to exchange earlier than expected by each subject's general waiting capacity; the dogs anticipated delay duration and made decisions according to the relative reward values offered. Compared to primates, dogs tolerated relatively long delays for smaller value rewards, suggesting that the socio-ecological history of domestic dogs facilitates their performance on decision-making and delay of gratification tasks.

Integrated Socio-ecological History: Could Looking at the Past Help Direct Society’s Future?

Integrated Socio-ecological History: Could Looking at the Past Help Direct Society’s Future?

Genetic variation between ecotypic populations of Chloris roxburghiana grass detected through RAPD analysis

Chloris roxburghiana is an important rangeland grass in Kenya. In some areas it has disappeared due to land degradation resulting from overgrazing and drought. Efforts to re-introduce the grass through re-seeding using seeds from research stations have had little success. One possible reason for low establishment is attributed to transplanting spatially separated populations that may represent genetically distinct ecotypes. To test this hypothesis, germplasm diversity within and among four populations of C. roxburghiana from four ecologically distinct sites was analysed using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. A total of 131 polymorphic markers were identified using nine RAPD primers. There was significant variation among populations, with genetic diversity (H) ranging from 0.134 to 0.206. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed most variance within populations (76%). However, the variation among populations was also significant (24%). The UPGMA of the population frequency indicated that the four populations of C. roxburghiana were genetically distinct, probably as a result of variation in soil fertility, geographical isolation and socio-ecological history of the study sites. Although there are differences for neutral genetic markers between the populations, it is difficult to relate this directly to ecotype since correlation does not imply causality. The implication for optimising future seed collection is discussed and potential areas for further studies identified.