Data di Pubblicazione:
2006
Citazione:
Dark Nature : Responses of humans and ecosystems to rapid environmental changes / S.A.G. LEROY, H. JOUSSE, M. CREMASCHI. - In: QUATERNARY INTERNATIONAL. - ISSN 1040-6182. - 151:1(2006), pp. 1-2. [10.1016/j.quaint.2006.01.021]
Abstract:
Impact of rapid environmental changes on humans and ecosystems
An environmental catastrophe is poorly defined, but
generally, from the point of view of an earth scientist, is
thought to be either a specific brief event (earthquakes,
volcanic eruption, tsunamis) or a pervasive evolution at the
time scale of the century or less (epidemics, dry periods)
over a large area, significant enough to be registered in the
sedimentary, chemical or biological earth archives and to
have an impact on society. The full scale of rapid
environmental changes has not been recorded in the short
period covered by the instrumental record. Therefore it is
essential to turn to geological and archaeological archives
that span a much longer timescale. In some cases of high
resolution, they may serve as adequate surrogates for the
instrumental record.
The societal response (such as collapse, migration) to
external forcing (such as strength, frequency of the event)
has a non-linear nature. Unless good science is done
(robust dating or duration control), it may be difficult to
prove a causality. The amplitude of a catastrophe will be
larger if it combines the following: 1) rapid onset and long
duration, 2) large area, or large proportion of the
settlement, 3) inflexible society unable to adapt, and finally
4) an already stressed society or environment.
Two special issues of Quaternary International, each
containing eleven papers, have been prepared on this topic.
This first volume (the present one) concentrates on the
impact of rapid and catastrophic environmental changes
on humans and ecosystems. These papers present methodologies
and case studies as well as a paper more directed
to end-users. The second volume (Leroy et al., 2006)
focuses on the responses of humans and ecosystems to
rapid and catastrophic environmental changes. The investigations
presented here explore the past capacity of
humans to react to drastic changes affecting significantly
their environment. Responses are related to population
dynamics (migration), activities (land use, subsistence),
societal structure, or belief. Holocene societies changed in
depth within the neolithisation process: domestication of
animals and plants, and emergence of civilisations are key
elements in the study of human adaptation potential. The
examples here present evidence of how a drastic change can
stimulate social and cultural development, or can be the
cause of a culture collapse or emergence. These studies
provide caution regarding environmental determinism, and
point out that no simple rules seem to govern human
evolution.
This volume begins with a paper by Walker and Surge
on the development of an isotopic method to reconstruct
past temperature and salinity from coupled analysis of
shells and otoliths found in archaeological sites of southwest
Florida dating of the last two millennia. The negative
impact of agriculture on human health at the beginning of
the Holocene in Europe is reconstructed by Larsen from
the analysis of human skeletal remains. Sallares proposes
that environmental changes altering mosquito-breeding
sites in many southern European coastal wetlands favoured
the spread of malaria during the Holocene. Ollive et al.
present the results of their investigation of a Gallo-Roman
town in the southern Upper Rhine Graben that has been
affected by four major floods between AD 20 and AD 145/
146. Dinis et al. investigated the Holocene infill of three
coastal lagoons in central Portugal and their impacts on
humans as well as the reverse. A study of pollen and
dinoflagellates by Leroy et al., set in the framework of
instrumental data and biological surveys, showed the link
between fluctuating sea levels of the Karabogaz-Gol/
Caspian Sea system and their rapidly changing environment.
Stancikaite et al.
Tipologia IRIS:
01 - Articolo su periodico
Elenco autori:
S.A.G. Leroy, H. Jousse, M. Cremaschi
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