APPLIED HISTORICAL ECOLOGY: USING THE PAST TO MANAGE FOR THE FUTURE

作者：Thomas W. Swetnam, Craig D. Allen, Julio L. Betancourt · 发表于：Ecological Applications · 年份：1999 · DOI：10.1890/1051-0761(1999)009[1189:aheutp]2.0.co;2 · 被引用次数：1392 · 研究领域：Fire effects on ecosystems、Tree-ring climate responses、Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies

Applied historical ecology is the use of historical knowledge in the management of ecosystems. Historical perspectives increase our understanding of the dynamic nature of landscapes and provide a frame of reference for assessing modern patterns and processes. Historical records, however, are often too brief or fragmentary to be useful, or they are not obtainable for the process or structure of interest. Even where long historical time series can be assembled, selection of appropriate reference conditions may be complicated by the past influence of humans and the many potential reference conditions encompassed by nonequilibrium dynamics. These complications, however, do not lessen the value of history; rather they underscore the need for multiple, comparative histories from many locations for evaluating both cultural and natural causes of variability, as well as for characterizing the overall dynamical properties of ecosystems. Historical knowledge may not simplify the task of setting management goals and making decisions, but 20th century trends, such as increasingly severe wildfires, suggest that disregarding history can be perilous. We describe examples from our research in the southwestern United States to illustrate some of the values and limitations of applied historical ecology. Paleoecological data from packrat middens and other natural archives have been useful for defining baseline conditions of vegetation communities, determining histories and rates of species range...