Anthropogenic Heathlands in Prehistoric Atlantic Europe: Review and Future Prospects

Ombashi, Havananda; Løvschal, Mette

doi:10.1017/eaa.2022.42

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 58 publications

(85 reference statements)

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“…Few scholars have explicitly addressed when, how and why heathlands emerged and persisted as a cultural landscape for so long. Most consider heathland persistence as primarily the unintended consequence of soil exhaustion and poor soil conditions, rather than a purposive and integrated part of agro‐pastoral regimes (Ombashi & Løvschal, 2022 ). This has marginalised heathlands somewhat in relation to other kinds of landscapes such as croplands and grass pastures.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping the ecological resilience of Atlantic postglacial heathlands

Løvschal

Damgaard

2022

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Anthropogenic heathlands are semi‐natural ecosystems with a unique cultural and biodiversity value, considered worthy of preservation across most of the world. Their rate of loss, however, is alarming. Currently, we know little about the heathlands' actual span of resilience affordances and their association with abiotic and anthropogenic factors, including how much additional intervention they need to persist. Consequently, we are missing out on vital knowledge for conservation, management and the historical persistence of heathlands. This paper develops a method to assess the ecological resilience affordances of Atlantic postglacial heaths in the absence of human management. We use 12 existing cases of heathland succession to establish a four‐step resilience grade for each site, which we regress onto a series of explaining factors and use it in predicting heath resilience across postglacial Atlantic Northern Europe. We find that temperature, humidity, elevation and sandiness have a positive correlation with high heathland resilience. Our predictive mapping shows an uneven distribution of ecological heath resilience across Atlantic Northern Europe within an area of 1,000 × 1,200 km of 5 × 5 km resolution. Historic heathland distributions far exceed areas that afford high heath resilience, suggesting that heath distribution and persistence depend on both abiotic and anthropogenic factors. Policy implications: The map predicting the ecological resilience of Atlantic postglacial heaths can be used by managers working towards heath preservation and restoration to prioritize conservation efforts and to plan management practices across Atlantic Northern Europe. Together with the predictive model, it provides an important initial screening tool to assess heathland resilience in the absence of management as well as the impact of atmospheric nitrogen. The results are equally relevant for scholars who are interested in humans' role in increasing and decreasing ecosystem resilience. Our predictive method can be applied in other regions across the world by adding regionally specific variables.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping the ecological resilience of Atlantic postglacial heathlands

Løvschal

Damgaard

2022

Journal of Applied Ecology

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“…Heathlands were once abundant and interconnected across Northern Europe (Ombashi and Løvschal, 2022). Remaining heathlands face threats including loss of traditional management and increased atmospheric nitrogen deposition.…”

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confidence: 99%

Editorial: Conserving cultural ecosystems: the biodiversity and ecosystem service provision of semi-natural anthropogenic ecosystems versus natural ecosystems

Diaz,

Morán-Ordóñez,

Hodder

et al. 2023

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Editorial on the Research TopicConserving cultural ecosystems: the biodiversity and ecosystem service provision of semi-natural anthropogenic ecosystems versus natural ecosystems Many ecosystems across the world are cultural ecosystems that have been shaped by human activities, traditions and practices through millennia of farming and resource extraction. This has resulted in a range of plagioclimax habitats that have long been recognized as of high ecological conservation value (Green, 1972). These include the mountain pastures, meadows, heathlands and wood pastures that together comprise many of the habitats designated as the most valuable and threatened in Europe within the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC). Through the papers presented in this Research Topic, we highlight the value of these cultural ecosystems and discuss the threats they face, as well as potential conservation solutions. The major threat they all face is change in rural land use so we draw comparisons with alternative land covers including the more natural later successional forest ecosystems that arise following abandonment of traditional cultural practices across Europe.Changes to agroforests, one of the most ancient and previously widespread cultural ecosystems across Europe, are explored by Gonzaĺez Dıáz et al. in a case study that demonstrates a major reduction in area and increase in fragmentation of hay meadows and grazed pastures since the mid 20 th century following the abandonment of farming and the rural exodus to urban and industrial areas. The meadows and pastures have been succeeded by dense shrublands and forests. This expansion of forests due to ecological succession of Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution frontiersin.org 01

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Connecting Posthumanist Thinking with GIS Practice: Explorations of a Prehistoric Heathland Landscape in Jutland, Denmark

Haughton

2023

J Archaeol Method Theory

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Anthropogenic Heathlands in Prehistoric Atlantic Europe: Review and Future Prospects

Cited by 4 publications

References 58 publications

Mapping the ecological resilience of Atlantic postglacial heathlands

Mapping the ecological resilience of Atlantic postglacial heathlands

Editorial: Conserving cultural ecosystems: the biodiversity and ecosystem service provision of semi-natural anthropogenic ecosystems versus natural ecosystems

Connecting Posthumanist Thinking with GIS Practice: Explorations of a Prehistoric Heathland Landscape in Jutland, Denmark

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