Biodiversity Conservation and Environmental Change: Using palaeoecology to manage dynamic landscapes in the Anthropocene

231 Pages·2015·6.427 MB·English

by  Lindsey Gillson

Biodiversity Conservation and Environmental Change

Biodiversity
Conservation and
Environmental
Change
Using palaeoecology to manage
dynamic landscapes in
the Anthropocene
lindsey gillson
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town
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Biodiversity Conservation and Environmental Change. Lindsey Gillson. © Lindsey Gillson 2015.
Published 2015 by Oxford University Press.
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To my dog, Mim, for reminding me to live in the moment.

Preface
Most ecosystems are dynamic and complex, leaving conservationists faced with the paradox
of conserving moving targets. New approaches to conservation are developing that aim to
conserve ecological function and process, rather than static snapshots of biodiversity. To do
this effectively, long-term information on ecosystem variability and resilience are needed.
While there is a wealth of such information in palaeoecology, archaeology, and historical
ecology, it is often inaccessible to conservation ecologists; the relevance of such studies to
present-day conservation dilemmas is not always made explicit, and the jargon often makes
such publications incomprehensible to those outside the field.
As conservationists grapple with issues of biodiversity conservation and sustainability in
the face of climate change, habitat loss, extinctions, pollution, and socio-ecological transfor-
mation, there is a need for a long-term perspective that guides ecosystem management and
restoration in our human-dominated epoch, the Anthropocene. The aim of this book is to
illustrate how knowledge of long-term change in ecosystems can inform and influence their
conservation in a dynamic and changing world, as part of a multi-scalar, interdisciplinary
approach that brings together ideas from neoecology, palaeoecology, landscape ecology,
conservation biology, and sustainability science. Starting with issues relating the manage-
ment of large animals (elephants and re-wilding), the book journeys through increasingly
complex issues of fire management, climate change adaptation and amelioration, and the
maintenance of ecosystem services, culminating in the development of a landscape approach
to conservation that embeds a long-term perspective in developing multifunctional land-
scapes that maintain biodiversity while meeting human needs for sustainability.
The book presents an optimistic vision for the conservation and management of dynamic
landscapes in the Anthropocene, through a perspective that embraces the continuum
between past, present, and future. Case studies show how palaeoecology and other long-
term data sources can contribute to conserving biodiversity and maintaining ecological resil-
ience, while promoting human well-being by fostering a sense of place and a re-engagement
with nature.

Acknowledgements
Harry Biggs, William Bond, John Dearing, Anneli Ekblom, Timm Hoffman, Rob Marchant,
Michael Moss, Herbert Prins, Kevin Rogers, Malika Virah-Sawmy, members of the Plant
Conservation Unit, University of Cape Town, and the Oxford Long-Term Ecology Laboratory,
provided inspiration, discussion, and feedback on the ideas in this book.
I am grateful to Ian Sherman and Lucy Nash at Oxford University Press and the anonymous
referees for helpful comments and suggestions on the book.
Funding was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Applied Centre for Climate
and Earth Systems Science (ACCESS), the National Research Foundation (NRF, South Africa),
Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), and the University of Cape Town, African Climate
and Development Initiative (ACDI), Research Committee and Science Faculty.
Heartfelt thanks to Cate Ehrlank, Mike Picker, Stephen Raywood, and Gillian Smithson for
their unstinting friendship, and to my parents for all of their support.