Toward principles of historical ecology

Beller, Erin E.; McClenachan, Loren; Trant, Andrew J.; Sanderson, Eric W.; Rhemtulla, Jeanine M.; Guerrini, Anita; Grossinger, Robin M.; Higgs, Eric

doi:10.3732/ajb.1700070

Cited by 31 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 19 publications

(19 reference statements)

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“…, Beller et al. ). For example, regardless of the exact amount of forest encroachment that has occurred to date, there is growing evidence that these lower‐diversity, closed‐canopy, contiguous conifer (CF) forests are at elevated risk to loss by fire (Hessburg et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest closure and encroachment at the grassland interface: a century‐scale analysis using oblique repeat photography

2019

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Citation: Stockdale, C. A., S. E. Macdonald, and E. Higgs. 2019. Forest closure and encroachment at the grassland interface: a century-scale analysis using oblique repeat photography. Ecosphere 10(6):Abstract. We used repeat oblique photography to quantify and determine the drivers of vegetation change, particularly forest closure and encroachment, in the Rocky Mountains of southern Alberta, Canada, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. We classified the landscape into seven distinct vegetation types (closed-canopy conifer forest, broadleaf deciduous forest, mixedwood forest, open-canopy woodlands, shrublands, grasslands and meadows, non-vegetated) and assessed vegetation change between the two time periods. We found that closed-canopy coniferous forest, broadleaf deciduous forest, and mixedwood forest increased on an area basis by 35%, 45%, and 80%, respectively, over this time period; concomitantly, grasslands and open-canopy woodlands declined by 25% and 39%, respectively. Overall, 28% of the landscape was in a more advanced successional state in 2008 as compared to the early twentieth century. The Montane and Subalpine Natural Subregions (NSR) experienced the most change (42% and 26%, respectively, in a more advanced successional state). The loss of open-canopy woodlands was observed across the entire landscape, while grassland and meadow losses were most acute in the Subalpine and Alpine NSRs. The probability of vegetation change to a more advanced successional condition was greater at higher elevations and in areas receiving lower amounts of solar insolation. The changes observed are consistent with what we would expect to see due to lengthening of fire return intervals. Understanding the magnitude of change in vegetation types and the drivers of this change is important for the development of effective contemporary ecosystem management and restoration practices.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest closure and encroachment at the grassland interface: a century‐scale analysis using oblique repeat photography

2019

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“…Hackett () notes that “scores of museum specimens carry a name that is not theirs” and Maldonado et al () ask, “To what extent can we trust public databases?” The answer is that erroneous records affect estimates of spatial richness and locate hotspots at places and within political boundaries set or changed after the collections were made. It is tempting to speculate on the immense value a representative set of fossil specimens examined by specialists as baseline data essential for use in paleobotany, vegetation and environmental history, taxonomy, phylogeny (Burrows et al, ; Beller et al, ; Lamsdell et al, ; Marshall, ; Meyers, ), and conservation (Graham, ) would provide. To be of greatest use the effort would have to be sustained and include informed estimates of distribution and quantitative representations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of land bridges, ancient environments, and migrations in the assembly of the North American flora

Graham

2018

J of Sytematics Evolution

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Continental‐scale assembly of floras results from past and present in situ diversification in association with several external processes. Among these processes are the making and breaking of connections among landmasses. Connections among landmasses are constantly in flux as are the climates and landscapes along the connection corridors, so that these corridors, or land bridges, may either facilitate or restrict migration at a given time. Across land bridges, changing landscape‐level and organismal factors include the dispersal potential and vectors of propagules, competition, predation, and distributions altered by pathogens. Assembly of a flora is, therefore, the outcome of complex, interacting, temporally‐varying factors that render simplistic explanations unlikely. In the case of North America, the continent experienced ephemeral connections with adjacent regions via five land bridges over the last 100 Ma at different times and under different climates and specific landscape morphologies, including edaphic characteristics. Here, I emphasize the earliest of these connections, Beringia, which probably comprised an initially‐incomplete land bridge during the Cretaceous and Paleocene resulting from compression, fragmentation, and rotation of Asian‐North American sub‐blocks as North America began moving westward from the northern portion of the Mid‐Atlantic Ridge. During the same time, additional land was added to Beringia with accretion of terranes and the subduction of the northern edge of the Pacific Plate beneath the North American‐Asian Plates in the Eocene to form the Aleutian Islands. Other connections between North America and adjacent landmasses were the North Atlantic, the Antilles, Central America, and the Magellan land bridge.

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“…At first, Feller wasn't sure how to approach historical records. She consulted textbooks on historical ecology, a growing field defined in a recent review as "the study of nature over time" (4). Historical ecologists use archival sources as well as biological ones, such as pollen records and tree rings, often with the ultimate goal of using a landscape's history to illuminate its potential.…”

Section: Reading Between the Linesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Journal entries, maps, and photos help ecologists reconstruct ecosystems of the past

Beans¹

2018

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Toward principles of historical ecology

Cited by 31 publications

References 19 publications

Forest closure and encroachment at the grassland interface: a century‐scale analysis using oblique repeat photography

Forest closure and encroachment at the grassland interface: a century‐scale analysis using oblique repeat photography

The role of land bridges, ancient environments, and migrations in the assembly of the North American flora

Journal entries, maps, and photos help ecologists reconstruct ecosystems of the past

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