Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-2jptb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-25T09:51:06.041Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Why history matters in ecology: an interdisciplinary perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 November 2010

PÉTER SZABÓ
PÉTER SZABÓ*
Affiliation:
Institute of Botany of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Department of Vegetation Ecology, Poříčí 3b, CZ-603 00 Brno, Czech Republic
*
*Correspondence: Dr Péter Szabó e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

In recent decades, the interconnectedness of history and ecology has received increasing attention. Although necessarily interdisciplinary, efforts to study this interconnectedness had their roots either in the humanities and social sciences or in the natural sciences: scholars have tried either to understand more about nature with the help of history, or, about human history with the help of natural phenomena. As a result, theoretical studies about the integration of ecology and history try to answer two relatively distinct questions: ‘why ecology matters in history’ and ‘why history matters in ecology’. This paper sets out to systematize current knowledge on the latter question and to highlight those issues that have so far received less attention. The arguments can be grouped into three major themes. First, history matters in ecology because it aids understanding of current patterns and processes in nature. Second, because it fosters better informed management and policy decisions; and third, because it places ecology and conservation in a wider interdisciplinary context. Besides dealing with the perspectives of ecologists and conservationists, this paper also includes material from historians, anthropologists and archaeologists, that is, from scholars whose primary interest does not lie in ecological investigations, but who have, nonetheless, embraced the need for the integration of ecology and history.

Keywords

complex ecosystemsconservationhistorical ecologyhistoryinterdisciplinarity
Type
THEMATIC ISSUE: Interdisciplinary Progress in Environmental Science & Management
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 37 , Issue 4: Thematic section. Interdisciplinary Progress in Environmental Science and Management , December 2010 , pp. 380 - 387
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aplet, G. & Keeton, W.S. (1999) Application of historical range of variability concepts to biodiversity conservation. In: Practical Approaches to the Conservation of Biological Diversity, ed. Baydack, R.K., Campa, H., & Haufler, J.B., pp. 71–86. New York, NY, USA: Island Press.Google Scholar
Balée, W. (2006) The research program of historical ecology. Annual Review of Anthropology 35: 75–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balée, W. & Erickson, C.L. (2006) Time, complexity, and historical ecology. In: Time and Complexity in Historical Ecology: Studies in Neotropical Lowlands, ed. Balée, W. & Erickson, C.L., pp. 1–12. New York, NY, USA: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beevor, H. (1924) Norfolk Woodlands, from the evidence of contemporary chronicles. Transactions of Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ Society 11: 448–508.Google Scholar
Begon, M., Townsend, C.R. & Harper, J.L. (2006) Ecology: From Individuals to Ecosystems. Fourth edition. Malden, MA, USA: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Bilsky, L.J., ed (1980) Historical Ecology: Essays on Environment and Social Change. Port Washington, NY, USA: Kennikat Press.Google Scholar
Birks, H.H., Birks, H.J.B., Kaland, P.E. & Moe, D., eds (1988) The Cultural Landscape: Past, Present and Future. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Boyd, W.E. & Hall, V.A. (1998) Landmarks on the frontiers of palynology: an introduction to the IX. International Palynological Congress Special Issue on New Frontiers and Applications in Palynology. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 103: 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowman, D.M.J.S. (2001) Future eating and country keeping: what role has environmental history in the management of biodiversity? Journal of Biogeography 28: 549–564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradbury, R.H., Green, D.G. & Snoad, N. (2000) Are ecosystems complex systems? In: Complex Systems, ed. Bossomaier, T.R.J. & Green, D.G., pp. 339–366. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandt, J., Primdahl, J. & Reenberg, A. (1999) Rural land-use and dynamic forces: analysis of ‘driving forces’ in space and time. In: Land-Use Changes and Their Environmental Impact in Rural Areas in Europe, ed. Krönert, R., Baudry, J., Bowler, I.R. & Reenberg, A., pp. 81–102. Paris, France: UNESCO.Google Scholar
Brooks, D.R. (1985) Historical ecology: a new approach to studying the evolution of ecological associations. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 72: 660–685.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks, D.R. & McLennan, D.A. (1999) Phylogeny, Ecology, and Behaviour: A Research Programme in Comparative Biology. Chicago, IL, USA: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bürgi, M. & Russell, E.W.B. (2001) Integrative methods to study landscape changes. Land Use Policy 18: 9–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bürgi, M. & Schuler, A. (2003) Driving forces of forest management: an analysis of regeneration practices in the forests of the Swiss Plateau during the 19th and 20th century. Forest Ecology and Management 176: 173–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bürgi, M., Hersperger, A.M. & Schneeberger, N. (2004) Driving forces of landscape change: current and new directions. Landscape Ecology 19: 857–868.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bürgi, M. & Gimmi, U. (2007) Three objectives of historical ecology: the case of litter collecting in Central European forests. Landscape Ecology 22: 77–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chase, A. (1986) Playing God in Yellowstone: The Destruction of America's First National Park. Boston, MA, USA: Atlantic Monthly Press.Google Scholar
Christensen, N. (1989) Landscape history and ecological change. Journal of Forest History 33: 116–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, R.L. (1990) Ecological history for environmental management. Proceedings of the Ecological Society of Australia 16: 1–21.Google Scholar
Crompton, G. & Sheail, J. (1975) The historical ecology of Lakenheat Warren in Suffolk, England: a case study. Biological Conservation 8: 299–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cronon, W. (1993) The uses of environmental history. Environmental History Review 17 (3): 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crosby, A.W. (1995) The past and present of environmental history. American Historical Review 100: 1177–1190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crumley, C.L. (1994) Historical ecology: a multidimensional ecological orientation. In: Historical Ecology: Cultural Knowledge and Changing Landscapes, ed. Crumley, C.L., pp. 1–16. Santa Fe, NM, USA: School of American Research Press.Google Scholar
Crumley, C.L. (1998) Foreword. In: Advances in Historical Ecology, ed. Balée, W., pp. ix–xiv. New York, NY, USA: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Crumley, C.L. (2007) Historical ecology: integrated thinking at multiple temporal and spatial scales. In: The World System and the Earth System: Global Socioenvironmental Change and Sustainability since the Neolithic, ed. Hornborg, A. & Crumley, C.L., pp. 15–28. Walnut Creek, CA, USA: Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
Crumley, C.L. & Marquardt, W.H., eds (1987) Regional Dynamics: Burgundian Landscapes in Historical Perspective. San Diego, CA, USA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Dambrine, E., Dupouey, J.L., Laüt, L., Humbert, L., Thinon, M., Beaufils, T. & Richard, H. (2007) Present forest biodiversity patterns in France related to former Roman agriculture. Ecology 88: 1430–1439.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
de Blois, S., Domon, G. & Bouchard, A. (2002) Landscape issues in plant ecology. Ecography 25: 244–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Vries, D. (2005) Choosing your baseline carefully: integrating historical and political ecology in the evaluation of environmental intervention projects. Journal of Ecological Anthropology 9: 35–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dietl, G.P. & Flessa, K.W., eds (2009) Conservation Paleobiology: Using the Past to Manage for the Future. Paleontological Society Papers Volume 15. Houston, TX, USA: Paleontological Society.Google Scholar
Dupouey, J.L., Dambrine, E., Laffite, J.D. & Moares, C. (2002) Irreversible impact of past land use on forest soils and biodiversity. Ecology 83: 2978–2984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Egan, D. & Howell, E.A. (2001) Introduction. In: The Historical Ecology Handbook: A Restorationist's Guide to Reference Ecosystems, ed. Egan, D. & Howell, E.A., pp. 1–23. Washington, DC, USA: Island Press.Google Scholar
Eriksson, O., Cousins, S.A.O. & Bruun, H.H. (2002) Land-use history and fragmentation of traditionally managed grasslands in Scandinavia. Journal of Vegetation Science 13: 743–748.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Etter, A.G. (1953) Wildwood: a study in historical ecology. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 40: 227–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ewers, R.M. & Didham, R.K. (2006) Confounding factors in the detection of species responses to habitat fragmentation. Biological Reviews 81: 117–142.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Foster, D.R. (2000) Conservation lessons and challenges from ecological history. Forest History Today (fall): 2–11.Google Scholar
Foster, D.R., Orwig, D.A. & McLachlan, J.S. (1996) Ecological and conservation insights from reconstructive studies of temperate old-growth forests. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 11: 419–424.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Foster, D., Swanson, F., Aber, J., Burke, I., Brokaw, N., Tilman, D. & Knapp, A. (2003) The importance of land-use legacies to ecology and conservation. BioScience 53: 77–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fule, P.Z., Covington, W.W. & Moore, M.M. (1997) Determining reference conditions for ecosystem management of southwestern ponderosa pine forests. Ecological Applications 7: 895–908.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haila, Y. (1999) Socioecologies. Ecography 22: 337–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haila, Y. (2000) Beyond the nature-culture dualism. Biology and Philosophy 15: 155–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harper, J.L. (1987) The heuristic value of ecological restoration. In: Restoration Ecology: A Synthetic Approach to Ecological Research, ed. Jordan III, W.R., Gilpin, M.E. & Aber, J.D., pp. 35–46. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hayashida, F.M. (2005) Archaeology, ecological history, and conservation. Annual Review of Anthropology 34: 43–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herben, T., Münzbergová, Z., Mildén, M., Ehrlén, J., Cousins, O. & Eriksson, O. (2006) Long-term spatial dynamics of Succisa pratensis in a changing rural landscape: linking dynamical modelling with historical maps. Journal of Ecology 94: 131–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hermy, M. & Verheyen, K. (2007) Legacies of the past in the present-day forest biodiversity: a review of past land-use effects on forest plant species composition and diversity. Ecological Research 22: 361–371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hessburg, P.F., Smith, B.G. & Salter, R.B. (1999) Detecting change in forest spatial patterns from reference conditions. Ecological Applications 9: 1232–1252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, J.D. (1995) Ecology and development as narrative themes of world history. Environmental History Review 19: 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ingerson, A.E. (1994) Tracking and testing the nature/culture dichotomy in practice. In: Historical Ecology: Cultural Knowledge and Changing Landscapes, ed. Crumley, C.L., pp. 43–66. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press.Google Scholar
Jackson, S.T. (2006) Vegetation, environment, and time: the origination and termination of ecosystems. Journal of Vegetation Science 17: 549–557.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, S.T. & Hobbs, R.J. (2009) Ecological restoration in the light of ecological history. Science 325: 567–569.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jackson, S.T., Betancourt, J.L., Booth, R.K. & Gray, S.T. (2009) Ecology and the ratchet of events: climate variability, niche dimensions, and species distributions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106: 19685–19692.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keane, R.E., Hessburg, P.F., Landres, P.B. & Swanson, F.J. (2009) The use of historical range and variability (HRV) in landscape management. Forest Ecology and Management 258: 1025–1037.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirby, K.J. & Buckley, G.P., eds (1994) Ecological Responses to the 1987 Great Storm in the Woods of South-East England. Peterborough, UK: English Nature.Google Scholar
Lambert, J.M., Jennings, J.N., Smith, C.T., Green, C. & Hutchinson, J.N. (1960) The Making of theBroads. London, UK: Royal Geographic Society.Google Scholar
Landres, P.B., Morgan, P. & Swanson, F.J. (1999) Overview of the use of natural variability concepts in managing ecological systems. Ecological Applications 9: 1179–1188.Google Scholar
Lentz, D.L., ed (2000) Imperfect Balance: Landscape Transformation in the Pre-Columbian Americas. New York, NY, USA: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levin, S.A. (1998) Ecosystems and the biosphere as complex adaptive systems. Ecosystems 1: 431–436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lloret, F. & Marí, G. (2001) A comparison of the medieval and the current fire regimes in unmanaged pine forests of Catalonia (NE Spain). Forest Ecology and Management 141: 155–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowenthal, D. (2005) Natural and cultural heritage. International Journal of Heritage Studies 11: 81–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lunt, I.D. & Spooner, P.G. (2005) Using historical ecology to understand patterns of biodiversity in fragmented agricultural landscapes. Journal of Biogeography 32: 1859–1873.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcucci, D.J. (2000) Landscape history as a planning tool. Landscape and Urban Planning 49: 67–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsh, G.P. (1874) The Earth as Modified by Human Action. New York, NY, USA: Scribner, Armstrong, and Co.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonnell, M.J. & Pickett, S.T.A., eds (1993a) Humans as Components of Ecosystems: The Ecology of Subtle Human Effects and Populated Areas. New York, NY, USA: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonnell, M.J. & Pickett, S.T.A (1993b) Introduction: the scope and need for an ecology of subtle human effects and populated areas. In: Humans as Components of Ecosystems: The Ecology of Subtle Human Effects and Populated Areas, ed. McDonnell, M.J. & Pickett, S.T.A., pp. 1–6. New York, NY, USA: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNeill, J.R. (2000) Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the 20th-Century World. New York, NY, USA: Norton.Google Scholar
Meine, C. (1999) It's about time: conservation biology and history. Conservation Biology 13: 1–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, R.J. & Duncan, S.L. (2009) Range of variability in southern coastal plain forests: its historical, contemporary, and future role in sustaining biodiversity. Ecology and Society 14 (1): 17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, P., Aplet, G.H., Haufler, J.B., Humphries, H.C., Moore, M.M. & Wilson, W.D. (1994) Historical range of variability: a useful tool for evaluating ecosystem change. Journal of Sustainable Forestry 2: 87–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nash, R. (1967) Wilderness and the American Mind. New Haven, CT, USA: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Newell, B. & Wasson, R. (2002) Social system vs. solar system: why policy makers need history. In: Conflict and Cooperation Related to International Water Resources: Historical Perspectives, ed. Castelein, S. & Otte, A., pp. 3–17. Paris, France: UNESCO.Google Scholar
Newell, B., Crumley, C.L., Hassan, N., Lambin, E.F., Pahl-Wostl, C., Underdal, A. & Wasson, R. (2005) A conceptual template for integrative human-environment research. Global Environmental Change 15: 299–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oelschlaeger, M. (1991) The Idea of Wilderness: From Prehistory to the Age of Ecology. New Haven, CT, USA & London, UK: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Pärtel, M., Mändla, R. & Zobel, M. (1999) Landscape history of calcareous (alvar) grasslands in Hanila, western Estonia, during the last three hundred years. Landscape Ecology 14: 187–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterken, G.F. (1969) Development of vegetation in Staverton Park, Suffolk. Field Studies 6: 1–39.Google Scholar
Peterken, G.F. (1981) Woodland Conservation and Management. London, UK: Chapman and Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickett, S.T.A. & Parker, V.T. (1994) Avoiding the old pitfalls: opportunities in a new discipline. Restoration Ecology 2: 75–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plue, J., Hermy, M., Verheyen, K., Thuillier, P., Saguez, R. & Decocq, G. (2008) Persistent changes in forest vegetation and seed bank 1,600 years after human occupation. Landscape Ecology 23: 673–688.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rackham, O. (1975) Hayley Wood: Its History and Ecology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridgeshire & Isle of Ely Naturalists' Trust.Google Scholar
Rackham, O. (1986) The History of the Countryside. London. UK: Dent.Google Scholar
Rackham, O. (1994) The Illustrated History of the Countryside. London, UK: Weidenfeld and Nicholson.Google Scholar
Rackham, O. (1998) Implications of historical ecology for conservation. In: Conservation Science and Action, ed. Sutherland, W.J., pp. 152–175. Malden, MA, USA: Blackwell Science.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rackham, O. (2003) Ancient Woodland: Its History, Vegetation and Uses in England. New edition. Colvend, UK: Castlepoint Press.Google Scholar
Rackham, O. (2006) Woodlands. London, UK: Collins.Google Scholar
Rice, D.S. (1976) The Historical Ecology of Lakes Yaxhá and Sacnab, El Petén, Guatemala. Ph.D. thesis, Pennsylvania State University, PA, USA.Google Scholar
Romme, W.H. & Despain, D.G. (1989) Historical perspective on the Yellowstone fires of 1988. BioScience 39: 695–699.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, E.W.B. (1997) People and the Land Through Time: Linking Ecology and History. New Haven, CT, USA: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Rymer, L. (1974) The Palaeoecology and Historical Ecology of the Parish of North Knapdale, Argyllshire. PhD thesis, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.Google Scholar
Rymer, L. (1979) Historical ecology and environmental conservation. Environmental Conservation 6: 199–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandor, J.A., Gersper, P.L. & Hawley, J.W. (1990) Prehistoric agricultural terraces and soils in the Mimbres Area, New Mexico. World Archaeology 22: 70–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santayana, G. (1906) The Life of Reason, or The Phases of Human Progress. Volume 1. Introduction and Reason in Common Sense. London, UK: Archibald Constable & Co.Google Scholar
Saunders, D.A., Hobbs, R.J. & Margules, C.R. (1991) Biological consequences of ecosystem fragmentation: a review. Conservation Biology 5: 18–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwappach, A. (1886) Handbuch der Forst- und Jagdgeschichte Deutschlands. Berlin, Germany: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snow, C.P. (1959) The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Swetnam, T.W., Allen, C.D. & Betancourt, J.L. (1999) Applied historical ecology: using the past to manage for the future. Ecological Applications 9: 1189–1206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szabó, P. (2009) Open woodland in Europe in the Mesolithic and in the Middle Ages: can there be a connection? Forest Ecology and Management 257: 2327–2330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szabó, P. (2010) Driving forces of stability and change in woodland structure: a case-study from the Czech lowlands. Forest Ecology and Management 259: 650–656.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, J.R., Duncan, S.L. & Johnson, K.N. (2009) Is there potential for the historical range of variability to guide conservation given the social range of variability? Ecology and Society 14 (1): 18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tubbs, C. (1968) The New Forest: An Ecological History. Newton Abbot, UK: David & Charles.Google Scholar
Vale, T.R. (1998) The myth of the humanised landscape: an example from Yosemite National Park. Natural Areas Journal 18: 231–236.Google Scholar
Vale, T.R., ed (2002) Fire, Native Peoples, and the Natural Landscape. Washington, DC, USA: Island Press.Google Scholar
Verheyen, K., Bossuyt, B., Hermy, M. & Tack, G. (1999) The land use history (1278–1990) of a mixed hardwood forest in Western Belgium and its relationship with chemical soil characteristics. Journal of Biogeography 26: 1115–1128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verheyen, K., Honnay, O., Bossuyt, B. & Hermy, M. eds (2004) Forest Biodiversity: Lessons from History for Conservation. Wallingford, UK: CABI Publishing.Google Scholar
Watt, A.S. (1931) Preliminary observations on Scottish beechwoods (continued). Journal of Ecology 19: 321–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wear, D.N. (1999) Challenges to interdisciplinary discourse. Ecosystems 2: 299–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitlock, C. & Bartlein, P.J. (1993) Spatial variations of Holocene climatic change in the Yellowstone region. Quaternary Research 39: 231–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winiwarter, V. & Knoll, M. (2007) Umweltgeschichte: eine Einführung. Köln, Germany, Weimar, Germany & Wien, Austria: UTB Böhlau.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Worster, D. (1988) Doing environmental history. In: The Ends of the Earth: Perspectives on Modern Environmental History, ed. Worster, D., pp. 289–308. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Worster, D. (1990) Transformations of the Earth: toward an agroecological perspective in history. The Journal of American History 76: 1087–1106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Worster, D. (1993) History as natural history. In: The Wealth of Nature: Environmental History and the Ecological Imagination, ed. Worster, D., pp. 30–44. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar