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16 - The legacy of landscape history: the role of paleoecological analysis

from PART IV - Landscape dynamics on multiple scales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2009

By
Hazel R. Delcourt  and
Paul A. Delcourt
Edited by
John A. Wiens  and
Michael R. Moss
Hazel R. Delcourt
Affiliation:
University of Tennessee USA
Paul A. Delcourt
Affiliation:
University of Tennessee USA
John A. Wiens
Affiliation:
The Nature Conservancy, Washington DC
Michael R. Moss
Affiliation:
University of Guelph, Ontario
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Summary

Present-day landscape patterns are the outcome of a number of ecological, geological, climatological, and cultural processes occurring over prehistoric and historic time frames (Delcourt and Delcourt, 1991, 2004; Delcourt, 2002). The interactions of these processes change through time and are mediated by changing natural and anthropogenic disturbance regimes (Wiens et al., 1985; Delcourt and Delcourt, 1988; Turner, 1989; Russell, 1997; Foster et al., 1998a). The legacy of long-term landscape history is a lasting overprint upon both natural and cultural landscapes, as the effects of past processes leave a mark on present landscapes that may endure long into the future. This legacy has been understood for a long time in Great Britain (Rackham, 1986) and Europe (Delcourt, 1987; Birks et al., 1988) and it is now increasingly recognized in North America (Abrams, 1992; Russell, 1997; Delcourt et al., 1998; Delcourt and Delcourt, 1998, Foster et al., 1998a, 1998b).

How we view the relevant processes involved in the development of landscape patterning is conditioned by the temporal and spatial window through which we view landscape change as well as by the techniques we use to measure landscape response to physical and biological interactions (Fig. 16.1). Physical constraints on landscape development may be depicted as a nested hierarchy of controlling factors (Urban et al., 1987; Delcourt and Delcourt, 1988). For example, on a timescale of thousands of years, large and predictable changes occur in global and regional climate.

Type
Chapter
Information
Issues and Perspectives in Landscape Ecology , pp. 159 - 166
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

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