Are we now living in the Anthropocene

Zalasiewicz, Jan; Williams, Mark; Smith, Alan Р.; Barry, T. L.; Coe, Angela L.; Bown, Paul R.; Brenchley, P. J.; Cantrill, David J.; Gale, Andrew S.; Gibbard, Philip L.; Gregory, F. John; Hounslow, Mark W.; Kerr, Andrew C.; Pearson, Paul Nicholas; Knox, R. W. O’B.; Powell, J. H.; Waters, Colin N.; Marshall, John F.; Oates, Michael; Rawson, Peter F.; Stone, P.

doi:10.1130/gsat01802a.1

Cited by 556 publications

(304 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Although there are still some large tracts of relatively intact land in some places, the reality is that the majority of the earth's surface has been substantially altered by humans, and continues to be altered, in a modern epoch now labelled as the Anthropocene (Zalasiewicz et al, 2008;Kueffer and Kaiser-Bunbury, 2013). Modern, human-dominated ecosystems typically comprise mixed land-uses including urbanisation, forestry, mining, hunting, recreation, agriculture (crops and/or livestock production) or other areas fragmented by roads, railways and fences, and containing exotic plant and animal species and artificial water sources (Linnell, 2011;Mech, 2012).…”

Section: Logical Fallacies Underpin Much Of the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Can we save large carnivores without losing large carnivore science?

Allen

Allen²,

Andrén

et al. 2017

Food Webs

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a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f oLarge carnivores are depicted to shape entire ecosystems through top-down processes. Studies describing these processes are often used to support interventionist wildlife management practices, including carnivore reintroduction or lethal control programs. Unfortunately, there is an increasing tendency to ignore, disregard or devalue fundamental principles of the scientific method when communicating the reliability of current evidence for the ecological roles that large carnivores may play, eroding public confidence in large carnivore science and scientists. Here, we discuss six interrelated issues that currently undermine the reliability of the available literature on the ecological roles of large carnivores: (1) the overall paucity of available data, (2) reliability of carnivore population sampling techniques, (3) general disregard for alternative hypotheses to top-down forcing, (4) lack of applied science studies, (5) frequent use of logical fallacies, and (6) generalisation of results from relatively pristine systems to those substantially altered by humans. We first describe how widespread these issues are, and given this, show, for example, that evidence for the roles of wolves (Canis lupus) and dingoes (Canis lupus dingo) in initiating trophic cascades is not as strong as is often claimed. Managers and policy makers should exercise caution when relying on this literature to inform wildlife management decisions. We emphasise the value of manipulative experiments and discuss the role of scientific knowledge in the decision-making process. We hope that the issues we raise here prompt deeper consideration of actual evidence, leading towards an improvement in both the rigour and communication of large carnivore science.

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Section: Logical Fallacies Underpin Much Of the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Can we save large carnivores without losing large carnivore science?

Allen

Allen²,

Andrén

et al. 2017

Food Webs

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“…But the idea inspired many geologists, particularly Zalasiewicz and other members of the Geological Society of London. In 2008, they wrote a position paper urging their community to consider the idea 3 .…”

Section: Written In Stonementioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropocene: The human age

Monastersky¹

2015

Nature

171

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“…Clear and obvious changes to the landscape, soils and biota are accompanied by pervasive and important changes to the atmosphere and oceans. These have led to the concept of the Anthropocene (Crutzen and Stoermer, 2000;Crutzen, 2002), which is now undergoing examination as a potential addition to the Geological Time Scale (Zalasiewicz et al, 2008;Williams et al, 2011;Waters et al, 2014). Humans have also had an impact on the underlying rock structure of the Earth, for up to several kilometres below the planetary surface.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human bioturbation, and the subterranean landscape of the Anthropocene

2014

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Bioturbation by humans ('anthroturbation'), comprising phenomena ranging from surface landscaping to boreholes that penetrate deep into the crust, is a phenomenon without precedent in Earth history, being orders of magnitude greater in scale than any preceding non-human type of bioturbation. These human phenomena range from simple individual structures to complex networks that range to several kilometres depth (compared with animal burrows that range from centimetres to a few metres in depth), while the extraction of material from underground can lead to topographic subsidence or collapse, with concomitant modification of the landscape.Geological transformations include selective removal of solid matter (e.g. solid hydrocarbons, metal ores), fluids (natural gas, liquid hydrocarbons, water), local replacement by other substances (solid waste, drilling mud), associated geochemical and mineralogical changes to redox conditions with perturbation of the water table and pH conditions and local shock-metamorphic envelopes with melt cores (in the case of underground nuclear tests). These transformations started in early/mid Holocene times, with the beginning of mining for flint and metals, but show notable inflections associated with the Industrial Revolution (ca 1800 CE) and with the 'Great Acceleration' at ~1950 CE, the latter date being associated with the large-scale extension of this phenomenon from sub-land surface to sub-sea floor settings.Geometrically, these phenomena cross-cut earlier stratigraphy. Geologically, they can be regarded as a subsurface expression of the surface chronostratigraphic record of the Anthropocene. These subsurface phenomena have very considerable potential for long-term preservation.

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Are we now living in the Anthropocene

Cited by 556 publications

References 47 publications

Can we save large carnivores without losing large carnivore science?

Can we save large carnivores without losing large carnivore science?

Anthropocene: The human age

Human bioturbation, and the subterranean landscape of the Anthropocene

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