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15 - The time dimension in landscape ecology: cultural soils and spatial pattern in early landscapes

from PART IV - Landscape dynamics on multiple scales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2009

By
Donald A. Davidson  and
Ian A. Simpson
Edited by
John A. Wiens  and
Michael R. Moss
Donald A. Davidson
Affiliation:
University of Stirling UK
Ian A. Simpson
Affiliation:
University of Stirling UK
John A. Wiens
Affiliation:
The Nature Conservancy, Washington DC
Michael R. Moss
Affiliation:
University of Guelph, Ontario
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Summary

Contributors to this volume have been invited to write personal statements and perspectives on their particular area of landscape ecology, and we accept this challenge even though we appreciate that our views may well be controversial. Our overall perspective is that landscape ecology is a science that primarily depends upon spatial analysis in order to elucidate landscape processes. The roots of the subject lie in landscape classification systems, an emphasis evident in many of the other essays in this volume. More flexible approaches are now evident, given that the notion of landscapes is largely a cultural concept. Such flexibility has been fostered by the application of GIS and image analysis techniques, and by incorporating economic methods of analysis. Nevertheless, landscape ecology is focused primarily on spatial rather than temporal differentiation as the analytical core. This is not to deny that temporal dimensions are explicitly included in the many definitions of landscape ecology, or that much research has been done on landscape change through sequential sampling, the analysis of aerial photographs, or other remote-sensed imagery.

The essential thrust of this essay is to argue that landscape ecology as a spatial science needs to find ways of interfacing with such subjects as environmental archaeology and history in order to combine spatial and temporal analysis. It is only with such a linkage to longer timescales that landscape ecologists can begin to understand long-term landscape processes and build robust models for predicting future landscapes.

Type
Chapter
Information
Issues and Perspectives in Landscape Ecology , pp. 152 - 158
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

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References

Blume, H. P. (1998). History and Landscape Impact of Plaggen Soils in Europe. Montpellier: World Congress of Soil Science.Google Scholar
Davidson, D. A. and Simpson, I. A. (1994). Soils and landscape history: case studies from the Northern Isles of Scotland. In History of Soils and Field Systems, ed. Smout, T. C. and Foster, S.. Aberdeen: Scottish Cultural Press, pp. 66–74.Google Scholar
Davidson, D. A. and Smout, C. (1996). Soil change in Scotland: the legacy of past land improvement processes. In Soils, Sustainability and the Natural Heritage, ed. Taylor, A. G., Gordon, J. E., and Usher, M. B.. Edinburgh: HMSO, pp. 44–54.Google Scholar
FAO (1988). Soil Map of the World. Reprinted with corrections. World Soil Resources Report 60. Rome: FAO.
Simpson, I. A. (1997). Relict properties of anthropogenic deep top soils as indicators of infield management in Marwick, West Mainland, Orkney. Journal of Archaeological Science, 24, 365–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, I. A. and Bryant, R. G. (1998). Relict soils and early arable land management in Lofoton, Norway. Journal of Archaeological Science, 25, 1185–1198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, I. A., Dockrill, S. J., Bull, I. D., and Evershed, R. P. (1998). Early anthropogenic soil formation at Tofts ness, Sanday, Orkney. Journal of Archaeological Science, 25, 729–746.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soil Survey Staff (1996). Keys to Soil Taxonomy, 7th edn. Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture.
Spek, T. (1992). The age of plaggen soils. In The Transformation of the European Rural Landscape: Methodological Issues and Agrarian Change 1770–1914, ed. Verhoeve, A. and Vervloet, J. A. J.. Belgium: National Fund for Scientific Research. pp. 35–54.Google Scholar
Wilson, C., Simpson, I. A., and Currie, E. J. (2002). Soil management in pre-hispanic raised field systems: micromorphological evidence from Hacienda Zuleta, Ecuador. Geoarchaeology, 17, 261–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woods, W. I., and McCann, J. M. (1999). The anthropogenic origin and persistence of Amazonian Dark Earths. Yearbook, Conference of Latin American Geographers, 25, 7–14.Google Scholar

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