Ecosystem Engineering Among Ancient Pastoralists in Northern Central Asia

Abstract

Ecosystem engineering is an innovative concept that recognizes that organisms impact their environment, and that these changes can be detected over time. Thus, additional datasets from the ecological longue durée are necessary, specifically in response to the onset of the Anthropocene and the impacts of humans and their commensal organisms upon ecologies of all scales. For example, the management and herding of domesticated animals are recognized as having dramatic implications for soil stability, vegetation coverage, and even atmospheric composition the world over. Yet, the point at which pastoralism became a recognizable factor in altering earth systems, with large-scale environmental ramifications, is poorly understood. Here, we respond to this by reviewing and presenting data from the archeological and paleoenvironmental record across northern Central Asia in order to assess broader ecosystem impacts of pastoralism, from time periods when this economic pattern was a relatively novel component of local ecologies and involved limited population densities, through to periods in which it became intensive, coincident with agriculture, and linked to increased sedentism. Probing diverse, published analytical datasets and case studies, we examine pastoral adaptations and environmental impacts, highlighting a region where tensions surrounding resilience and sustainability of pastoralism have peaked in modern times. We draw upon these findings to examine the challenges faced by pastoralists today, and the ways in which archeological data might inform on management decisions into the future.

Pastoralism at Scale on the Kazakh Rangelands: From Clans to Workers to Ranchers

“…Therefore, at what point in the past do we demarcate these landscapes as "natural" in the sense of pristine and unchanged by people? A growing body of interdisciplinary literature-combining archaeology with natural and social sciences-refers to these human-environment interactions as "the pastoral niche construction" (Lezama-Núñez et al, 2018) and "ecosystem engineering" (Ventresca Miller et al, 2020b). What does this mean for the future of livestock management and the environment on the rangelands?…”

An Imagined Past?

“…In addition, analysis of cementum annulations from Begash and Tasbas recently demonstrated that people and their animals were using those places throughout the year, rather than as seasonal campsites (Schmaus, Doumani Dupuy, and Frachetti 2020). Additionally, a broader overview of northern Central Asia demonstrates that agropastoralists have been engineering ecosystems, both intentionally and unintentionally, for millennia (Ventresca Miller et al 2020b).…”

Grazing Into the Anthropocene or Back to the Future?

“…The Eurasian rangelands comprise the world's largest contiguous area of grazing (Babaev and Orlovsky, 1985;Mirzabaev et al, 2016), comprising 25% of the world's total rangelands and over 6% of the total world land area (FAOSTAT "permanent pastures"). The impact of pastoral livestock in pre-historic times across Eurasia is indicated by the spread of plant species with endozoochoric (ingested) seeds dispersed by herded animals, concentrations of plants with defenses against grazing, andas in East Africa-grazing-mediated "hot spots" that contain nutritionally-rich vegetation (Spengler, 2014;Ventresca Miller et al, 2020). Six to eight millennia ago on the Tibetan plateau, pastoralists-in conjunction with Holocene climatic fluctuations and fire-transformed forests into alpine meadows suitable for herding (Miehe et al, 2009;Schlütz and Lehmkuhl, 2009).…”