Abstract:
Recognition of the importance of land-use history and its legacies in most ecological systems has been a major factor driving the recent focus on human activity as a legitimate and essential subject of environmental science. Ecologists, conservationists, and natural resource policymakers now recognize that the legacies of land-use activities continue to influence ecosystem structure and function for decades or centuries-or even longer-after those activities have ceased. Consequently, recognition of these historical legacies adds explanatory power to our understanding of modern conditions at scales from organisms to the globe and reduces missteps in anticipating or managing for future conditions. As a result, environmental history emerges as an integral part of ecological science and conservation planning. By considering diverse ecological phenomena, ranging from biodiversity and biogeochemical cycles to ecosystem resilience to anthropogenic stress, and by examining terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in temperate to tropical biomes, this article demonstrates the ubiquity and importance of land-use legacies to environmental science and management.

Author Keywords:
land use, disturbance, conservation, ecosystem process, natural resource management

KeyWords Plus:
AMERICAN TALLGRASS PRAIRIE, NORTHERN HARDWOOD FORESTS, ORGANIC DEBRIS DAMS, CENTRAL NEW-ENGLAND, USE HISTORY, NITROGEN SATURATION, CARBON ACCUMULATION, VEGETATION PATTERNS, SOIL CARBON, SAND PLAIN

Addresses:
Foster D, Harvard Univ, Petersham, MA 01366 USA
Harvard Univ, Petersham, MA 01366 USA
HJ Andrews Expt Forest LTER, Corvallis, OR 97331 USA
US Forest Serv, Forestry Sci Lab, Corvallis, OR 97331 USA
Univ New Hampshire, Dept Nat Resources, Durham, NH 03824 USA
Colorado State Univ, Dept Forest Sci, Ft Collins, CO 80523 USA
Luquillo Expt Forest LTER Site, San Juan, PR 00936 USA
Inst Trop Ecosyst Studies, San Juan, PR 00936 USA
Univ Minnesota, Dept Ecol Evolut & Behav, St Paul, MN 55108 USA
Kansas State Univ, Dept Biol, Manhattan, KS 66506 USA

Publisher:
AMER INST BIOLOGICAL SCI, 1444 EYE ST, NW, STE 200, WASHINGTON, DC 20005 USA

IDS Number:
635EL

ISSN:
0006-3568