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Historical ecology reveals landscape transformation coincident with cultural development in central Italy since the Roman Period

Journal Article · · Scientific Reports
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [6]
  1. Univ. of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States). Dept. of Geography
  2. Univ. of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States). Dept. of History
  3. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States). Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry
  4. Univ. of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States). Dept. of Geological Sciences and Engineering
  5. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Rome (Italy)
  6. DAFNE Univ. degli Studi della Tuscia, Viterbo (Italy). Dendrology Lab.
+ Show Author Affiliations
Knowledge of the direct role humans have had in changing the landscape requires the perspective of historical and archaeological sources, as well as climatic and ecologic processes, when interpreting paleoecological records. People directly impact land at the local scale and land use decisions are strongly influenced by local sociopolitical priorities that change through time. A complete picture of the potential drivers of past environmental change must include a detailed and integrated analysis of evolving sociopolitical priorities, climatic change and ecological processes. However, there are surprisingly few localities that possess high-quality historical, archeological and high-resolution paleoecologic datasets. We present a high resolution 2700-year pollen record from central Italy and interpret it in relation to archival documents and archaeological data to reconstruct the relationship between changing sociopolitical conditions, and their effect on the landscape. Here, we found that: (1) abrupt environmental change was more closely linked to sociopolitical and demographic transformation than climate change; (2) landscape changes reflected the new sociopolitical priorities and persisted until the sociopolitical conditions shifted; (3) reorganization of new plant communities was very rapid, on the order of decades not centuries; and (4) legacies of forest management adopted by earlier societies continue to influence ecosystem services today.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
1460938
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL--736167; 889074
Journal Information:
Scientific Reports, Journal Name: Scientific Reports Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 8; ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (7)

Influences of Native American land use on the Colonial Euro-American settlement of the South Carolina Piedmont journal March 2018
The Justinianic Plague: An inconsequential pandemic? journal December 2019
Geographical adaptation prevails over species‐specific determinism in trees’ vulnerability to climate change at Mediterranean rear‐edge forests journal February 2019
From influence to impact: The multifunctional land use in Mediterranean prehistory emerging from palynology of archaeological sites (8.0-2.8 ka BP) journal February 2019
Shaping Mediterranean landscapes: The cultural impact of anthropogenic fires in Tyrrhenian southern Tuscany during the Iron and Middle Ages (800–450 BC / AD 650–1300) journal June 2020
Shaping Mediterranean landscapes: the cultural impact of anthropogenic fires in Tyrrhenian southern Tuscany during the Iron and Middle Ages (800-450 BC / AD 650-1300) text January 2020
Shaping Mediterranean landscapes: The cultural impact of anthropogenic fires in Tyrrhenian southern Tuscany during the Iron and Middle Ages (800–450 BC / AD 650–1300) text January 2020

Figures / Tables (3)

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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES