Preindustrial Human Impacts on Global and Regional Environment

Doughty, Christopher E.

doi:10.1146/annurev-environ-032012-095147

Cited by 49 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 139 publications

(206 reference statements)

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“…Before the Pleistocene had ended and the Holocene began, behaviorally modern human hunter-gatherer societies became established on every continent, initiating the global role of sociocultural niche construction as a force transforming the biosphere through early forms of cooperative ecosystem engineering and other socially learned and implemented subsistence regimes (Kirch 2005, Doughty 2013, Ellis et al 2013b). Early huntergatherers introduced anthropogenic fire regimes across the continents, both unintentionally and with the intention to create and maintain open landscapes and early successional ecosystems to enhance their success in hunting and foraging (Cronon 1983, Grayson 2001, Bird et al 2005, Bowman et al 2011, Rowley-Conwy and Layton 2011, Smith 2011, Ellis et al 2013b).…”

Section: Patterns Of Long-term Change In Sociocultural Niche Construcmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The behaviorally modern hunter-gatherer societies of 50 000 years ago had already gained cultural and technological capacities for ecosystem transformation beyond those of any other multicellular species in history (Kirch 2005, Hill et al 2009, Doughty 2013. As societies scaled up from hunter-gatherers to industrial societies, they also accumulated technological and organizational capabilities for ecosystem engineering and subsistence exchange that enabled their populations to grow well beyond the capacity of unaltered ecosystems to support them (Ellis et al 2013b).…”

Section: Evolutionary Trends In Sociocultural Niche Constructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1 E-mail: ece@umbc.edu Barnosky 2008, Ellis 2011, Doughty 2013, Ruddiman 2013, Smith and Zeder 2013, Barnosky 2014. As behaviorally modern Homo sapiens spread out of Africa more than 50 000 years ago (Klein 2013), their advanced hunter-gatherer societies helped to cause the extinction of more than half of Earth's mammalian megafauna, yielding trophic cascading effects on ecosystems coupled with the direct effects of landscape burning to enhance hunting and foraging success (Grayson 2001, Barnosky 2008, Estes et al 2011, Doughty 2013, Barnosky 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As behaviorally modern Homo sapiens spread out of Africa more than 50 000 years ago (Klein 2013), their advanced hunter-gatherer societies helped to cause the extinction of more than half of Earth's mammalian megafauna, yielding trophic cascading effects on ecosystems coupled with the direct effects of landscape burning to enhance hunting and foraging success (Grayson 2001, Barnosky 2008, Estes et al 2011, Doughty 2013, Barnosky 2014). More than 10 000 years ago, agricultural societies accelerated these early defaunation and land clearing processes, ultimately replacing them with even more novel ecological transformations, including the culture of domesticated species, widespread soil tillage, sustained societal growth, and ever-increasing scales of material exchange, leading to globally significant transformation of the terrestrial biosphere by at least 3000 years before the present time ( Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ecology in an anthropogenic biosphere

Ellis

2015

Ecological Monographs

478

510

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Abstract. Humans, unlike any other multicellular species in Earth's history, have emerged as a global force that is transforming the ecology of an entire planet. It is no longer possible to understand, predict, or successfully manage ecological pattern, process, or change without understanding why and how humans reshape these over the long term. Here, a general causal theory is presented to explain why human societies gained the capacity to globally alter the patterns, processes, and dynamics of ecology and how these anthropogenic alterations unfold over time and space as societies themselves change over human generational time. Building on existing theories of ecosystem engineering, niche construction, inclusive inheritance, cultural evolution, ultrasociality, and social change, this theory of anthroecological change holds that sociocultural evolution of subsistence regimes based on ecosystem engineering, social specialization, and non-kin exchange, or ''sociocultural niche construction,'' is the main cause of both the long-term upscaling of human societies and their unprecedented transformation of the biosphere. Human sociocultural niche construction can explain, where classic ecological theory cannot, the sustained transformative effects of human societies on biogeography, ecological succession, ecosystem processes, and the ecological patterns and processes of landscapes, biomes, and the biosphere. Anthroecology theory generates empirically testable hypotheses on the forms and trajectories of long-term anthropogenic ecological change that have significant theoretical and practical implications across the subdisciplines of ecology and conservation. Though still at an early stage of development, anthroecology theory aligns with and integrates established theoretical frameworks including social-ecological systems, social metabolism, countryside biogeography, novel ecosystems, and anthromes. The ''fluxes of nature'' are fast becoming ''cultures of nature.'' To investigate, understand, and address the ultimate causes of anthropogenic ecological change, not just the consequences, human sociocultural processes must become as much a part of ecological theory and practice as biological and geophysical processes are now. Strategies for achieving this goal and for advancing ecological science and conservation in an increasingly anthropogenic biosphere are presented.

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Section: Patterns Of Long-term Change In Sociocultural Niche Construcmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Evolutionary Trends In Sociocultural Niche Constructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Ecology in an anthropogenic biosphere

Ellis

2015

Ecological Monographs

478

510

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Currently, the global environment has been transformed to such an extent that it has been estimated that humans exploit approximately a quarter of the global net primary production (Doughty, 2013). Although the current impact has reached unprecedented levels, due to globalization and an ever increasing speed of change in landscape management (e.g.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%