Tapping Environmental History to Recreate America’s Colonial Hydrology

Pastore, Christopher L.; Green, Mark B.; Bain, Daniel J.; Munoz-Hernandez, A.; Vörösmarty, Charles J; Arrigo, Jennifer; Brandt, Sara L.; Duncan, J. M.; Greco, Francesca; Kim, Hyojin; Kumar, Sanjiv; Lally, Michael; Parolari, Anthony J.; Pellerin, Brian A.; Salant, Nira L.; Schlosser, Adam; Zalzal, Kate

doi:10.1021/es102672c

Cited by 21 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Integration of archival information and collaborations among social scientists, historians, and environmental scientists offers a chance for constraining such estimates (Bain et al 2011;Zadorozhny et al 2013), but is beyond the scope of this study. For example, synthesis of archived town histories, historical maps, and US Population and Agricultural Census information could begin to isolate the relative importance of local vs. exported food provision and N imports/ exports over time (Donahue 2004;Pastore et al 2010). Integration of historical land use maps and climate reconstructions (Foster et al 2003a) with spatially distributed hydrologic models, archival records, and biogeophysical data sets such as sediment cores (Bain et al 2012) would allow the evaluation of assumptions of uniform runoff and test estimates of changing nutrient fluxes over time.…”

Section: Uncertainties In Historical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our objectives are to (1) characterize how ecosystem services provided by the watershed have evolved as urbanization in the region progressed, (2) quantify how watershed water and N budgets have been altered, and (3) explore the role of regionalization in coupled human-natural systems. Understanding these dynamics requires a historical perspective that combines modern scientific and historical information (Pastore et al 2010;Bain et al 2011). …”

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confidence: 99%

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Causes and Consequences of Ecosystem Service Regionalization in a Coastal Suburban Watershed

Wollheim

Green

Pellerin

et al. 2013

Estuaries and Coasts

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The demand for ecosystem services and the ability of natural ecosystems to provide those services evolve over time as population, land use, and management practices change. Regionalization of ecosystem service activity, or the expansion of the area providing ecosystem services to a population, is a common response in densely populated coastal regions, with important consequences for watershed water and nitrogen (N) fluxes to the coastal zone. We link biophysical and historical information to explore the causes and consequences of change in ecosystem service activity-focusing on water provisioning and N regulation-from 1850 to 2010 in a coastal suburban watershed, the Ipswich River watershed in northeastern Massachusetts, USA. Net interbasin water transfers started in the late 1800s due to regionalization of water supply for use by larger populations living outside the Ipswich watershed boundaries, reaching a peak in the mid-1980s. Over much of the twentieth century, about 20 % of river runoff was diverted from reaching the estuary, with greater proportions during drought years. Ongoing regionalization of water supply has contributed to recent declines in diversions, influenced by socioecological feedbacks resulting from the river drying and fish kills. Similarly, the N budget has been greatly perturbed since the suburban era began in the 1950s due to food and lawn fertilizer imports and human waste release. However, natural ecosystems are able to remove most of this anthropogenic N, mitigating impacts on the coastal zone. We propose a conceptual model whereby the amount and type of ecosystem services provided by coastal watersheds in urban regions expand and contract over time as regional population expands and ecosystem services are regionalized. We hypothesize that suburban watersheds can be hotspots of ecosystem service sources because they retain sufficient ecosystem function to still produce services that meet increasing demand from the local population and nearby urban centers. Historical reconstruction of ecosystem service activity provides a perspective that may help to better understand coupled human-natural system processes and lead to more sustainable management of coastal ecosystems.

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Section: Uncertainties In Historical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Causes and Consequences of Ecosystem Service Regionalization in a Coastal Suburban Watershed

Wollheim

Green

Pellerin

et al. 2013

Estuaries and Coasts

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“…For example, recorded history has been characterized by the rise and fall of empires such as Rome due to periods of rapid urbanization and water and food shortages for urban populations [6][7][8]. Understanding the evolution of how humans have interacted with urban waters is important for guiding innovations for future water management [9]. It is also important for improving our scientific understanding of how urban water systems evolve over time scales from seconds to centuries as Earth's population grows, infrastructure ages, and sociopolitical values alter them.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Evolution: The Role of Water

Kaushal

McDowell

Wollheim

et al. 2015

Water

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Abstract:The structure, function, and services of urban ecosystems evolve over time scales from seconds to centuries as Earth's population grows, infrastructure ages, and sociopolitical values alter them. In order to systematically study changes over time, the concept of "urban evolution" was proposed. It allows urban planning, management, and restoration to move beyond reactive management to predictive management based on past observations of consistent patterns. Here, we define and review a glossary of core concepts for studying urban evolution, which includes the mechanisms of urban selective pressure and urban adaptation. Urban selective pressure is an environmental or societal driver contributing to urban adaptation. Urban adaptation is the sequential process by which an urban structure, function, or services becomes more fitted to its changing environment or human choices. The role of water is vital to driving urban evolution as demonstrated by historical changes in drainage, sewage flows, hydrologic pulses, and long-term chemistry. In the current paper, we show how hydrologic traits evolve across successive generations of urban ecosystems OPEN ACCESSWater 2015, 7 4064 via shifts in selective pressures and adaptations over time. We explore multiple empirical examples including evolving: (1) urban drainage from stream burial to stormwater management; (2) sewage flows and water quality in response to wastewater treatment; (3) amplification of hydrologic pulses due to the interaction between urbanization and climate variability; and (4) salinization and alkalinization of fresh water due to human inputs and accelerated weathering. Finally, we propose a new conceptual model for the evolution of urban waters from the Industrial Revolution to the present day based on empirical trends and historical information. Ultimately, we propose that water itself is a critical driver of urban evolution that forces urban adaptation, which transforms the structure, function, and services of urban landscapes, waterways, and civilizations over time.

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“…Reference sites, defined as watersheds or reaches of a river corridor with minimal human alteration, become invaluable in this context. Although existing resource use and population density may make it impossible to completely restore reference conditions at an altered site, knowledge of reference conditions and the natural range of variability from historical (Pastore et al, 2010) and geological (Rathburn et al, 2013;Willis & Birks, 2006) archives provides critical insight for river management. Natural range of variability here refers to the conditions of a natural system prior to intensive human alteration of that system (e.g., Fryirs et al, 2012;Morgan et al, 1994;Richter et al, 1997).…”

Section: Grand Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forgotten Legacies: Understanding and Mitigating Historical Human Alterations of River Corridors

Wohl

2019

Water Resources Research

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Legacies are persistent changes in natural systems resulting from human activities. Legacies that affect river ecosystems can result from human alterations outside of the river corridor, such as timber harvest or urbanization, or from alterations within the river corridor, including flow regulation, river engineering, and removal of large wood and beaver dams. Human alterations of river ecosystems have been occurring for thousands of years in some parts of the world and are now ubiquitous, yet both river scientists and the public may be unaware of the persistent effects of historical activities. Failure to recognize the legacy of historical activities that no longer occur can skew perceptions of river process and form and the natural range of variability in river ecosystems. Examples come from rivers of the Mid‐Atlantic Piedmont and the Pacific Northwest regions of the United States. Mid‐Atlantic Piedmont streams in which legacy sediment accumulated behind now‐abandoned mill dams experienced a complete transformation from wide, shallow, marshy valleys to sinuous rivers lined with tall cutbanks, but the existence and the cause of this river metamorphosis was not widely recognized until the first decade of the 21st century. Rivers of the Pacific Northwest from which large wood was removed have changed during the past century from spatially heterogeneous, multichannel systems closely connected to their floodplains via frequent channel avulsion and lateral migration to single‐thread channels with more homogeneous floodplains and less lateral connectivity. Again, this river metamorphosis has only been recognized within the past two decades. In each of these regional examples, river process and form have changed so substantially that the river ecosystems can be described as having assumed an alternative state. In these and many other examples, the alternative state provides lower levels of ecosystem services such as habitat, biodiversity, and attenuation of downstream fluxes of water, sediment, organic carbon, and nutrients. River management designed to enhance and restore these ecosystem services can be more effective if the continuing effects of these historical legacies are recognized. The grand scientific challenges resulting from historical human alterations of river ecosystems include the following: (1) to recognize the existence of a legacy that continues to affect river ecosystem process and form; (2) to understand the source of the legacy with respect to chronology, type, spatial extent, and intensity of human activities; (3) to understand the implications of the legacy regarding how river process and form and river ecosystem services have changed; and (4) to design management or restoration strategies that can mitigate the loss of river ecosystem services. In summary, the existence of forgotten legacies challenges river scientists to recognize the continuing effects of human activities that have long since ceased and also poses challenges for the application of scientific understanding to resource ma...

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Tapping Environmental History to Recreate America’s Colonial Hydrology

Cited by 21 publications

References 39 publications

Causes and Consequences of Ecosystem Service Regionalization in a Coastal Suburban Watershed

Causes and Consequences of Ecosystem Service Regionalization in a Coastal Suburban Watershed

Urban Evolution: The Role of Water

Forgotten Legacies: Understanding and Mitigating Historical Human Alterations of River Corridors

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