In recent decades, there has been a growing number of studies exploring the historical dimensions of the interconnectedness of human societies and the environment. A core approach in this field is historical ecology. We analyzed 544 historical-ecological papers to assess patterns and trends in the field. We found a high degree of interdisciplinarity with a focus on local case studies, of periods of fewer than 500 years, analyzing archival sources through quantitative approaches. The proportion of papers containing management recommendations has increased over time. To make historical ecology globally relevant, more effort should be made to utilize studies across languages, borders and worldviews. We call for high standards regarding the use of social scientific methodologies. Lastly, we argue that fostering longer-term studies and assessing the real-life impact of policy recommendations emerging from historical ecology can help the discipline better contribute solutions to the challenges facing humanity in an uncertain future.

Departamento de Geografía Universidad de Salamanca Calle Cervantes s n 37001 Salamanca Spain

Department of Environmental Studies Faculty of Social Studies Masaryk University Joštova 10 60200 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Vegetation Ecology Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences Lidická 25 27 60200 Brno Czech Republic

Grupo Geografía Medio Ambiente y Tecnologías de la Información Geográfica Instituto de Oceanografía y Cambio Global IOCAG Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria ULPGC Parque Científico Tecnológico Taliarte 35214 Telde Spain

Indigenous Studies Simon Fraser University 8888 University Drive Burnaby BC V5A 1S6 Canada

Institute of Geography University of Bern 3012 Bern Switzerland

Research Unit Land Change Science Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL 8903 Birmensdorf Switzerland

Resource and Environmental Management Simon Fraser University 8888 University Drive Burnaby BC V5A 1S6 Canada

Zobrazit více v PubMed

Amano T, González-Varo JP, Sutherland WJ. Languages are still a major barrier to global science. PLoS Biology. 2016;14:e2000933. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2000933. PubMed DOI PMC

Armstrong CG, Earnshaw J, McAlvay AC. Coupled archaeological and ecological analyses reveal ancient cultivation and land use in Nuchatlaht (Nuu-chah-nulth) territories, Pacific Northwest. Journal of Archaeological Science. 2022;143:105611. doi: 10.1016/j.jas.2022.105611. DOI

Armstrong CG, Shoemaker AC, McKechnie I, Ekblom A, Szabó P, Lane PJ, McAlvay AC, Boles OJ, et al. Anthropological contributions to historical ecology: 50 questions, infinite prospects. PLoS ONE. 2017;12:e0171883. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0171883. PubMed DOI PMC

Armstrong CG, Veteto JR. Historical ecology and ethnobiology: Applied research for environmental conservation and social justice. Ethnobiology Letters. 2015;6:5–7. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.313. DOI

Balée W. The research program of historical ecology. Annual Review of Anthropology. 2006;35:75–98. doi: 10.1146/annurev.anthro.35.081705.123231. DOI

Barrau J. Histoire naturelle et anthropologie. L'espace Géographique. 1977;3:203–209. doi: 10.3406/spgeo.1977.1728. DOI

Baumgarten, S., E. Clark, S. Dusterhoff, R. Grossinger, and R. Askevold. 2018. Petaluma valley historical hydrology and ecology study. San Francisco Estuary Institute. Publication #861. San Francisco.

Beller E, McClenachan L, Trant A, Sanderson EW, Rhemtulla J, Guerrini A, Grossinger R, Higgs E. Toward principles of historical ecology. American Journal of Botany. 2017;104:645–648. doi: 10.3732/ajb.1700070. PubMed DOI

Beller EE, McClenachan L, Zavaleta ES, Larsen LG. Past forward: Recommendations from historical ecology for ecosystem management. Global Ecology and Conservation. 2020;21:e00836. doi: 10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00836. DOI

Bogaert, J., H. Beeckman, C. De Cannière, P. Defourny, and Q. Ponette. 2020. Les forêts de la Tshopo: écologie, histoire et composition. Presses Agronomiques de Gembloux.

Brondízio ES, Aumeeruddy-Thomas Y, Bates P, Carino J, Fernández-Llamazares Á, Ferrari MF, Galvin K, Reyes-García V, et al. Locally based, regionally manifested, and globally relevant: Indigenous and local knowledge, values, and practices for nature. Annual Review of Environment and Resources. 2021;46:481–509. doi: 10.1146/annurev-environ-012220-012127. DOI

Bürgi M, Gimmi U. Three objectives of historical ecology: The case of litter collecting in Central European forests. Landscape Ecology. 2007;22:77–87. doi: 10.1007/s10980-007-9128-0. DOI

Bürgi M, Östlund L, Mladenoff DJ. Legacy effects of human land use: Ecosystems as time-lagged systems. Ecosystems. 2017;20:94–103. doi: 10.1007/s10021-016-0051-6. DOI

Bürgi M, Straub A, Gimmi U, Salzmann D. The recent landscape history of Limpach valley, Switzerland: Considering three empirical hypotheses on driving forces of landscape change. Landscape Ecology. 2010;25:287–297. doi: 10.1007/s10980-009-9412-2. DOI

Cangussu D, Shiratori K, Furquim L. Notas botánicas sobre aislamiento y contacto. Plantas y vestigios hi-merimã (río Purús/Amazonía brasileña) Anthropologica. 2021;47:339–376. doi: 10.18800/anthropologica.202102.014. DOI

Clavero M. “Awkward wording. Rephrase”: Linguistic injustice in ecological journals. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 2010;25:552–553. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2010.07.001. PubMed DOI

Clavero M, Centeno-Cuadros A. Multiple, solid evidence support that Austropotamobius italicus is not native to Spain. Organisms Diversity and Evolution. 2016;16:715–717. doi: 10.1007/s13127-016-0296-0. DOI

Clavero M, García-Reyes A, Fernández-Gil A, Revilla E, Fernández N. On the misuse of historical data to set conservation baselines: Wolves in Spain as an example. Biological Conservation. 2022;276:109810. doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109810. DOI

Corti, P., and N. I. Diaz. 2022. Misuse of historical data to determine past distribution range and migratory patterns of the Patagonian huemul misleads conservation targets. Preprint.

Coughlan MR, Nelson DR. Geostatistical analysis of historical contingency and land use footprints in the prehistoric settlement dynamics of the South Carolina Piedmont, North America. Journal of Archaeological Science. 2019;107:1–9. doi: 10.1016/j.jas.2019.04.003. DOI

Crumley CL. Historical ecology: a multidimensional ecological orientation. In: Crumley CL, editor. Historical ecology: Cultural knowledge and changing landscapes. Baghdad: School of American Research Press; 1994. pp. 1–16.

Crumley CL. Historical ecology and the study of landscape. Landscape Research. 2017;42:S65–S73. doi: 10.1080/01426397.2017.1399994. DOI

Danneyrolles V, Dupuis S, Boucher Y, Laflamme J, Fortin G, Leroyer M, Terrail R, Bergeron Y, et al. Utilisation couplée des archives d’arpentage et de la classification écologique pour affiner les cibles de composition dans l’aménagement écosystémique des forêts tempérées du Québec. Mémoire De Recherche Forestière. 2020;183:1–36.

Decocq G, editor. Historical ecology: Learning from the past to understand the present and forecast the future of ecosystems. Hoboken: Wiley; 2022.

Dincauze DF. Environmental archaeology: Principles and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2000.

Dobson M, Ziemann B, editors. Reading primary sources: The interpretation of texts from nineteenth- and twentieth-century history. Abingdon: Routledge; 2009.

Drouin JM. Histoire et écologie végétale: Les origines du concept de succession. Ecologie. 1994;25:147–155.

Edmonds M. The pleasure and pitfalls of written records. In: Egan D, Howell EA, editors. The historical ecology handbook. Washington: Island Press; 2001. pp. 73–99.

Egan D, Howell EA, editors. The historical ecology handbook. Washington: Island Press; 2001.

Fairhead J, Leach M. Misreading the African Landscape: Society and Ecology in a Forest-Savanna Mosaic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1996.

Fitzpatrick SM, Keegan WF. Human impacts and adaptations in the Caribbean Islands: An historical ecology approach. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 2007;98:29–45. doi: 10.1017/S1755691007000096. DOI

Flueck WT, Smith-Flueck JAM, Escobar ME, Zuliani M, Fuchs B, Geist V, Heffelfinger JR, Black-Decima P, et al. Loss of migratory traditions makes the endangered Patagonian huemul deer a year-round refugee in its summer habitat. Conservation. 2022;2:322–348. doi: 10.3390/conservation2020023. DOI

Forman RTT, Russell EWB. Evaluation of historical data in ecology. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. 1983;64:5–7. doi: 10.2307/20111668. DOI

Garrido-Pérez EI, Tella-Ruiz D, Lincango-Vega JG, Sidali KL. La ecología histórica: Fuente de criterios para mejorar la administración territorial. Revista Propuestas para el Desarrollo. 2021;5:115–130.

Gassón R, Heinen D. ¿Existe un Warao Genérico?: Cuestiones Clave en la Etnografía y la Ecología Histórica del Delta del Orinoco y el Territorio Warao-Lokono-Paragoto. Tipití. 2012;10:37–64.

Geniusz WM. Our knowledge is not primitive: Decolonizing botanical Anishinaabe teachings. New York: Syracuse University Press; 2022.

Grant MJ, Booth A. A typology of reviews: An analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Information & Libraries Journal. 2009;26:91–108. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x. PubMed DOI

Hall M. Earth repair: A transatlantic history of environmental restoration. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press; 2005.

Henderson M, Kalabokidis K, Marmaras E, Konstantinidis P, Marangudakis M. Fire and society: A comparative analysis of wildfire in Greece and the United States. Human Ecology Review. 2005;12:169–182.

Higgs E, Falk DA, Guerrini A, Hall M, Harris J, Hobbs RJ, Jackson ST, Rhemtulla JM, et al. The changing role of history in restoration ecology. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 2014;12:499–506. doi: 10.1890/110267. DOI

Hoffman KM, Davis EL, Wickham SB, Schang K, Johnson A, Larking T, Lauriault PN, Le Quynh N, et al. Conservation of Earth’s biodiversity is embedded in Indigenous fire stewardship. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2021;118:e2105073118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2105073118. PubMed DOI PMC

Howkins A. The polar regions: An environmental history. New York: Wiley; 2015.

Isendahl C, Stump D, editors. The Oxford handbook of historical ecology and applied archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2019.

Jaramillo Monroy F, Wehncke Rodríguez EV, Flores Armillas VH, Pohle Morales OM, López-Medellín X. Enfoque regional de manejo integrado del agua en la microcuenca El Pantano, Morelos, México. Economía, sociedad y territorio. 2021;21:275–304. doi: 10.22136/est20211625. DOI

Kienast F, Walters G, Bürgi M. Landscape ecology reaching out. Landscape Ecology. 2021;36:2189–2198. doi: 10.1007/s10980-021-01301-y. PubMed DOI PMC

Lane P. Just how long does ‘long-term’ have to be? Matters of temporal scale as impediments to interdisciplinary understanding of historical ecology. In: Isendahl C, Stump D, editors. Oxford handbook of historical ecology and applied archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2019. pp. 49–71.

Letouzey R. Étude phytogéographique du Cameroun. Paris: P. Lechavalier; 1968.

López CE, Ospina GA. Ecología histórica. Interacciones sociedad-ambiente a distintas escalas socio-temporales. Pereira: Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira; 2008.

López Sáez JA, López Merino L, Sánchez FA, Pérez Díaz S. Contribución paleoambiental al estudio de la trashumancia en el sector abulense de la sierra de Gredos. HISPANIA. Revista Española De Historia. 2009;231:9–38.

Marshall IJ, Wallace BC. Toward systematic review automation: A practical guide to using machine learning tools in research synthesis. Systematic Reviews. 2019;8:1–10. doi: 10.1186/s13643-019-1074-9. PubMed DOI PMC

Matallanas B, Ochando MD, Alonso F, Callejas C. Update of genetic information for the white-clawed crayfish in Spain, with new insights into its population genetics and origin. Organisms Diversity and Evolution. 2016;16:533–547. doi: 10.1007/s13127-016-0268-4. DOI

McNeill JR. The state of the field of environmental history. Annual Review of Environment and Resources. 2010;35:345–374. doi: 10.1146/annurev-environ-040609-105431. DOI

McNeill JR, Mauldin ES, editors. A companion to global environmental history. New York: Wiley; 2015.

Monsarrat S, Novellie P, Rushworth I, Kerley G. Shifted distribution baselines: Neglecting long-term biodiversity records risks overlooking potentially suitable habitat or conservation management. Philosophical Transactions B. 2019;374:20190215. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0215. PubMed DOI PMC

Müllerová J, Hédl R, Szabó P. Coppice abandonment and its implications for species diversity in forest vegetation. Forest Ecology and Management. 2015;343:88–100. doi: 10.1016/j.foreco.2015.02.003. PubMed DOI PMC

Nores C, López-Bao JV. Historical data to inform the legal status of species in Europe: An example with wolves. Biological Conservation. 2022;272:109639. doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109639. DOI

Nuñez MA, Amano T. Monolingual searches can limit and bias results in global literature reviews. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 2021;5:264–264. doi: 10.1038/s41559-020-01369-w. PubMed DOI

Nuñez MA, Barlow J, Cadotte M, Lucas K, Newton E, Pettorelli N, Stephens PA. Assessing the uneven distribution of readership, submissions and publications in applied ecology: Obvious problems without obvious solutions. Journal of Applied Ecology. 2019;56:4–9. doi: 10.1111/1365-2664.13319. DOI

Odonne G, Molino JF. Écologie historique amazonienne, une interdisciplinarité nécessaire. Quand l’archéologue est perdu dans les bois. Les Nouvelles de L'archéologie. 2018;152:11–15. doi: 10.4000/nda.4162. DOI

Odonne G, Molino JF, editors. Methods in historical ecology: Insights from Amazonia. London: Routledge; 2020.

Pape T. Futuristic restoration as a policy tool for environmental justice objectives. Restoration Ecology. 2022;30:e13629. doi: 10.1111/rec.13629. DOI

Pooley S. Historians are from Venus, ecologists are from Mars. Conservation Biology. 2013;27:1481–1483. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12106. PubMed DOI PMC

Pooley S. Descent with modification: Critical use of historical evidence for conservation. Conservation Letters. 2018;11:e12437. doi: 10.1111/conl.12437. DOI

Rhemtulla JM, Mladenoff DJ. Why history matters in landscape ecology. Landscape Ecology. 2007;22:1–3. doi: 10.1007/s10980-007-9163-x. DOI

Rick TC, Lockwood R. Integrating paleobiology, archeology, and history to inform biological conservation. Conservation Biology. 2013;27:45–54. doi: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2012.01920.x. PubMed DOI

Rivera-Collazo I. Environment, climate and people: Exploring human responses to climate change. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 2022;68:101460. doi: 10.1016/j.jaa.2022.101460. DOI

Ross NJ, Rangel TF. Ancient Maya agroforestry echoing through spatial relationships in the extant forest of NW Belize. Biotropica. 2011;43:141–148. doi: 10.1111/j.1744-7429.2010.00666.x. DOI

Rostain S. Islands in the rainforest: landscape management in pre-Columbian Amazonia. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press; 2012.

Rymer L. The epistemology of historical ecology: 1, documentary evidence. Environmental Conservation. 1979;6:278. doi: 10.1017/S037689290000343X. DOI

Santana-Cordero AM, Monteiro-Quintana ML, Calvento Hernández. Reconstructing the environmental conditions of extinct coastal dune systems using historical sources: The case of the Guanarteme dune field (Canary Islands, Spain) Journal of Coastal Conservation. 2014;18:323–337. doi: 10.1007/s11852-014-0320-5. DOI

Santana-Cordero AM, Szabó P. Exploring qualitative methods of historical ecology and their links with qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. 2019;18:1–11. doi: 10.1177/1609406919872112. DOI

Stockdale CA, Macdonald SE, Higgs E. Forest closure and encroachment at the grassland interface: A century-scale analysis using oblique repeat photography. Ecosphere. 2019;10:e02774. doi: 10.1002/ecs2.2774. DOI

Stockdale CA, McLoughlin N, Flannigan M, Macdonald SE. Could restoration of a landscape to a pre-European historical vegetation condition reduce burn probability? Ecosphere. 2019;10:e02584. doi: 10.1002/ecs2.2584. DOI

Stuessy TF. The importance of historical ecology for interpreting evolutionary processes in plants of oceanic islands. Journal of Systematics and Evolution. 2020;58:751–766. doi: 10.1111/jse.12673. DOI

Swetnam TW, Allen CD, Betancourt JL. Applied historical ecology: Using the past to manage for the future. Ecological Applications. 1999;9:1189–1206. doi: 10.1890/1051-0761(1999)009[1189:AHEUTP]2.0.CO;2. DOI

Szabó P, Hédl R. Advancing the integration of history and ecology for conservation. Conservation Biology. 2011;25:680–687. doi: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2011.01710.x. PubMed DOI

Szabó P, Hédl R. Grappling with interdisciplinary research: Response to Pooley. Conservation Biology. 2013;27:1484–1486. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12144. PubMed DOI PMC

Szabó P. Why history matters in ecology: An interdisciplinary perspective. Environmental Conservation. 2010;37:380–387. doi: 10.1017/S0376892910000718. DOI

Szabó P. Historical ecology: Past, present and future. Biological Reviews. 2015;90:997–1014. doi: 10.1111/brv.12141. PubMed DOI PMC

Tappeiner U, Leitinger G, Zariņa A, Bürgi M. How to consider history in landscape ecology: Patterns, processes, and pathways. Landscape Ecology. 2021;36:2317–2328. doi: 10.1007/s10980-020-01163-w. DOI

Thurstan RH. The potential of historical ecology to aid understanding of human–ocean interactions throughout the Anthropocene. Journal of Fish Biology. 2022;101:351–364. doi: 10.1111/jfb.15000. PubMed DOI PMC

Tiapa F. Ecología histórica de lo Kari´ña de los Llanos orientales del río Orinoco durante la época colonial. Antropológica. 2010;53:77–114.

Vellend M, Brown CD, Kharouba HM, McCune JL, Myers-Smith IH. Historical ecology: Using conventional data sources to test for effects of global environmental change. American Journal of Botany. 2013;100:1294–1305. doi: 10.3732/ajb.1200503. PubMed DOI

Vild O, Roleček J, Hédl R, Kopecký M, Utinek D. Experimental restoration of coppice-with-standards: Response of understorey vegetation from the conservation perspective. Forest Ecology and Management. 2013;310:234–241. doi: 10.1016/j.foreco.2013.07.056. PubMed DOI PMC

Whitaker J, Armstrong CG, Odonne G. Climatic and ecological change in the Americas: A perspective from historical ecology. Milton: Taylor and Francis; 2023.

Whitlock C, Colombaroli D, Conedera M, Tinner W. Land-use history as a guide for forest conservation and management. Conservation Biology. 2018;32:84–97. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12960. PubMed DOI

Wood CL, Leslie KL, Claar D, Mastick N, Preisser W, Vanhove MPM, Welicky R. How to use natural history collections to resurrect information on historical parasite abundances. Journal of Helminthology. 2023;97:e6. doi: 10.1017/S0022149X2200075X. PubMed DOI