Anthropological contributions to historical ecology: 50 questions, infinite prospects

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  • Armstrong, Chelsey Geralda
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Archaeology; Simon Fraser University
  • Shoemaker, Anna C.
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History; Uppsala University
  • McKechnie, Iain
    • Other Affiliation: Hakai Institute
  • Ekblom, Anneli
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History; Uppsala University
  • Szabó, Péter
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Vegetation Ecology; Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences
  • Lane, Paul J.
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History; Uppsala University
  • McAlvay, Alex C.
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Botany; University of Wisconsin - Madison
  • Boles, Oliver J.
    • Other Affiliation: Institute of Archaeology; University College London
  • Walshaw, Sarah
    • Other Affiliation: Department of History; Simon Fraser University
  • Petek, Nik
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History; Uppsala University
  • Gibbons, Kevin S.
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Anthropology; University of Maryland
  • Morales, Erendira Quintana
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Anthropology; Rice University
  • Anderson, Eugene N.
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Anthropology; University California Santa Barbara
  • Ibragimow, Aleksandra
    • Other Affiliation: Polish-German Research Institute; Adams Mickiewicz University in Poznań; European University
  • Podruczny, Grzegorz
    • Other Affiliation: Polish-German Research Institute; Adams Mickiewicz University in Poznań; European University
  • Vamosi, Jana C.
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences; University of Calgary
  • Marks-Block, Tony
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Anthropology; Stanford University
  • LeCompte, Joyce K.
    • Other Affiliation: Independent Scholar
  • Awâsis, Sakihitowin
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Geography; Western University
  • Nabess, Carly
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Anthropology; University of Northern British Columbia
  • Sinclair, Paul
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History; Uppsala University
  • Crumley, Carole L.
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Anthropology
    • Other Affiliation: Integrated History of Future of People on Earth (IHOPE) Initiative
Abstract
  • This paper presents the results of a consensus-driven process identifying 50 priority research questions for historical ecology obtained through crowdsourcing, literature reviews, and in-person workshopping. A deliberative approach was designed to maximize discussion and debate with defined outcomes. Two in-person workshops (in Sweden and Canada) over the course of two years and online discussions were peer facilitated to define specific key questions for historical ecology from anthropological and archaeological perspectives. The aim of this research is to showcase the variety of questions that reflect the broad scope for historical-ecological research trajectories across scientific disciplines. Historical ecology encompasses research concerned with decadal, centennial, and millennial human-environmental interactions, and the consequences that those relationships have in the formation of contemporary landscapes. Six interrelated themes arose from our consensus-building workshop model: (1) climate and environmental change and variability; (2) multi-scalar, multi-disciplinary; (3) biodiversity and community ecology; (4) resource and environmental management and governance; (5) methods and applications; and (6) communication and policy. The 50 questions represented by these themes highlight meaningful trends in historical ecology that distill the field down to three explicit findings. First, historical ecology is fundamentally an applied research program. Second, this program seeks to understand long-term human-environment interactions with a focus on avoiding, mitigating, and reversing adverse ecological effects. Third, historical ecology is part of convergent trends toward transdisciplinary research science, which erodes scientific boundaries between the cultural and natural.
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DOI
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Resource type
  • Article
Rights statement
  • In Copyright
Journal title
  • PloS One
Journal volume
  • 12
Journal issue
  • 2
Page start
  • e0171883
Language
  • English
ISSN
  • 1932-6203

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