The Importance of Land-Use Legacies to Ecology and Conservation
2003/01/01 by DAVID FOSTER, David R. Foster, Frederick J. Swanson +11 · 39 citations
Environmental Science · Arts and Humanities · #Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management #Land Use and Ecosystem Services #Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory
paper · pdf · doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2003)053[0077:tiolul]2.0.co;2
Abstract
Recognition of the importance of land-use history and its legacies in most ecological systems has been a major factor driving the recent focus on human activity as a legitimate and essential subject of environmental science. Ecologists, conservationists, and natural resource policymakers now recognize that the legacies of land-use activities continue to influence ecosystem structure and function for decades or centuries—or even longer—after those activities have ceased. Consequently, recognition of these historical legacies adds explanatory power to our understanding of modern conditions at scales from organisms to the globe and reduces missteps in anticipating or managing for future conditions. As a result, environmental history emerges as an integral part of ecological science and conservation planning. By considering diverse ecological phenomena, ranging from biodiversity and biogeochemical cycles to ecosystem resilience to anthropogenic stress, and by examining terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in temperate to tropical biomes, this article demonstrates the ubiquity and importance of land-use legacies to environmental science and management.
Citations
Cited by
- Using Hydrogeomorphic Features to Quantify Structural and Functional Hydrologic Connectivity in a Coastal Plain Headwater Stream
- The Ecological Significance of the Herbaceous Layer in Temperate Forest Ecosystems
- Land‐use history alters contemporary insect herbivore community composition and decouples plant–herbivore relationships
- Hierarchical filters determine community assembly of urban species pools
- Effects of tree species richness on topsoil carbon and fungal diversity in European planted mixed forests are modulated by environmental conditions
- Space use of a diverse megafauna community in a rewilding area in the southwestern Carpathians
- Historical racial redlining and contemporary patterns of income inequality negatively affect birds, their habitat, and people in Los Angeles, California
- Resilient Biodiversity Conservation: Working with Social–Ecological Connections to Navigate Crises
- Plant composition dynamics following non‐native ungulate removal: Convergence, divergence, and novel ecosystems
- Nineteenth-century land use shapes the current occurrence of some plant species, but weakly affects the richness and total composition of Central European grasslands
- Ghost of land-use past in the context of current land cover: evidence from salamander communities in streams of Blue Ridge and Piedmont ecoregions
- Biocultural Refugia: Combating the Erosion of Diversity in Landscapes of Food Production
- Same, but different: similar states of forest structure in temperate mountain regions of Europe despite different social-ecological forest disturbance regimes
- Why history matters in ecology: an interdisciplinary perspective
- Contemporary forest restoration: A review emphasizing function
- Multiscale drivers of water chemistry of boreal lakes and streams. [europepmc]
- Use of the palm Euterpe edulis martius in landscape units managed by migrants of German origin in Southern Brazil. [europepmc]
- Connecting soil organic carbon and root biomass with land-use and vegetation in temperate grassland. [europepmc]
- Multiple-factor classification of a human-modified forest landscape in the Hsuehshan Mountain Range, Taiwan. [europepmc]
- Science for the sustainable use of ecosystem services. [europepmc]
- Hydrological legacy determines the type of enzyme inhibition in a peatlands chronosequence. [europepmc]
- Warming deferentially altered multidimensional soil legacy induced by past land use history. [europepmc]
- Quantitative Palynology Informing Conservation Ecology in the Bohemian/Bavarian Forests of Central Europe. [europepmc]
- Microplastic in riverine fish is connected to species traits. [europepmc]
- Restoring dryland old fields with native shrubs and grasses: Does facilitation and seed source matter? [europepmc]
- Long-lasting effects of historical land use on the current distribution of mammals revealed by ecological and archaeological patterns. [europepmc]
- Building houses and managing lawns could limit yard soil carbon for centuries. [europepmc]
- Impacts of past abrupt land change on local biodiversity globally. [europepmc]
- Plant community assembly in suburban vacant lots depends on earthmoving legacy, habitat connectivity, and current mowing frequency. [europepmc]
- Macroinvertebrate assemblages from a stream-wetland complex: a case study with implications for assessing restored hydrologic functions. [europepmc]
- Land use modification causes slow, but predictable, change in soil microbial community composition and functional potential. [europepmc]
- Precipitation, Not Land Use, Primarily Determines the Composition of Both Plant and Phyllosphere Fungal Communities. [europepmc]
- Distribution and habitat use patterns of the endangered Central American clouded oncilla (Leopardus pardinoides oncilla) in Costa Rica. [europepmc]
- Current status of the remaining Mexican cloud forests: landscape findings and conservation initiatives. [europepmc]
- Tropical dry woodland loss in India since 1880 and its relation to current megafauna distributions. [europepmc]
- Does re-wilding contribute to biodiversity conservation in Mediterranean cultural landscapes? [europepmc]
- Homogenization of Northern Belgian landscapes through centuries of reclamation, agricultural transition, and urbanization. [europepmc]
- Archived Historical Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Specimens Suggest Connections Between Microplastic Abundance Patterns, Trophic Traits, and Land Use. [europepmc]
- An example of land-use relaxation and its effect on soil stabilization in the catchment of Lake Lavijärvi, Russian Karelia: insights from multi-proxy sediment analysis. [europepmc]
Related