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Historical ecology

Diana K. Davis (author)

Chapter of: The Field Guide to Mixing Social and Biophysical Methods in Environmental Research(pp. 481–486)

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Title	Historical ecology
Contributor	Diana K. Davis (author)
DOI	https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0418.29
Landing page	https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0418/chapters/10.11647/obp.0418.29
License	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Copyright	Diana K. Davis;
Publisher	Open Book Publishers
Published on	2025-02-25
Long abstract	Historical ecology utilizes many diverse, interdisciplinary methods and is deployed most often by researchers in ecology, anthropology, geography, and environmental history to analyse environmental change over time, frequently to determine baselines for guiding environmental conservation and restoration projects. At its best, such research triangulates among several data sets (e.g., archival, published, paleoecological, biophysical, etc.) to arrive at the most accurate representation of long-term environmental change with the least bias. Researchers attentive to the common problems of (neo)colonial environmental discourses that can be false or misleading are well placed to conduct research that will result in the most sustainable ecological outcomes as well as supporting social justice and growing efforts at decolonization.
Page range	pp. 481–486
Print length	6 pages
Language	English (Original)

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Contributors

Diana K. Davis

(author)

Professor of History and Geography at University of California, Davis

References

Beller, E., L. McClenachan, A. Trant, E.W. Sanderson, J. Rhemtulla, A. Guerrini, et al. 2017. ‘Toward principles of historical ecology’, American Journal of Botany, 104.5, pp. 645–648. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00836
Biermann, C. and Gibbes, C., Chapter 4, this volume. ‘Mixed methods in tension: lessons for and from the research process’.
Blond, N., Chapter 20, this volume. ‘Mixing geoarchaeology, geohistory and ethnology to reconstruct landscape changes on the longue durée’.
Braun, A., Chapter 39, this volume. ‘(Critical) Satellite remote sensing’.
Chakov, A., Chang, T., Covey, H., Dickson, T., Goggins, S., Harris, N., Purna, S., Widell, S., and Druschke, C.G., Chapter 33, this volume. ‘Oral history’.
Cope, M., Chapter 22, this volume. ‘Archival methods’.
Crumley, C. 2014. ‘What is historical ecology’, The Hercules Project, http://www.hercules-landscapes.eu/blog.php?what_is_historical_ecologyandid=10
Doel, M., Chapter 44, this volume. ‘Textual Analysis’.
King, G.E. and Abbott, P.M., Chapter 28, this volume. ‘Geochronological methods’.
Johnston, L. and Longhurst, R., Chapter 32, this volume. ‘Interviews: Structured, semi-structured and open-ended’.
Szabó, P. 2015. ‘Historical ecology: past, present and future’, Biological Reviews, 90.4, pp. 997–1014. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12141
Walters, G., Hymas, O., Touladjan, S. and Ndong, K., Chapter 13, this volume. ‘Revealing the social histories of ancient savannas and intact forests using a historical ecology approach in Central Africa’.
Wolverton, S., R.M. Figueroa, and C.G. Armstrong. 2023. ‘Integrating historical ecology and environmental justice’, Journal of Ethnobiology, 43.1, pp. 57–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/02780771231162196

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Historical ecology utilizes many diverse, interdisciplinary methods and is deployed most often by researchers in ecology, anthropology, geography, and environmental history to analyse environmental change over time, frequently to determine baselines for guiding environmental conservation and restoration projects. At its best, such research triangulates among several data sets (e.g., archival, published, paleoecological, biophysical, etc.) to arrive at the most accurate representation of long-term environmental change with the least bias. Researchers attentive to the common problems of (neo)colonial environmental discourses that can be false or misleading are well placed to conduct research that will result in the most sustainable ecological outcomes as well as supporting social justice and growing efforts at decolonization.