Research on global environmental change recommends considering the necessary measures to mitigate its catastrophic effects and conserve biodiversity. However, to what extent have long-term dynamics of the natural system been considered in these measures? What is the state of knowledge on perturbations and the biogeographic system’s resilience? In the past, we have some of the keys to current and future management of our environments.
Environmental historical geography (geohistory) studies have demonstrated that the relationship between society and the use of its environment has been growing throughout time but has also been highly variable since the Neolithic. Climatic changes throughout the Holocene have masked or accentuated human influence on the natural system. The result of this is a geosystem strongly shaped by environmental conditions mixed with human influence. Geohistory studies can help facilitate territorial decisions for the natural environment as they provide references to develop specific territorial planning objectives for biodiversity and quality of life management.
This session will highlight advancements of methods and techniques in the field of geohistory: namely documentary (written, graphic/cartographic and oral) and palaeobotanical (palynology, anthracology, pedoanthroecology, dendrology, etc.) tools. For example, we will examine surveys of peat bogs and old lakes in order to study vegetation dynamics (palynology, macroremains and organic matter) and past fires (sedimentary charcoal and microcharcoal). We will look at how tree line studies through mountain soils (pedoanthracology) allow us to locate extinct forest species and place them in time and scope through dendrology and other methods. Furthermore, we will discuss fieldwork completed with calibration work such as pollen signals (pollen in mosses), studies of current populations (DNA), and forest structure (GIS for Land use and Land Cover Change).
These tools provide a way to understand landscape dynamics over time and to analyze the continuities and disturbances that have occurred throughout history. It allows us to identify with precision the geographic scale affected and discuss human interactions with the natural system that have triggered them. The identification of past perturbations (fires, avalanches, large-scale use of natural resources, pollution, etc.) helps to assess the current and future state of the natural system.
With this combination of various techniques and time scales, we intend to discuss the methodological and conceptual limits of environmental geohistory, with concrete examples and cases that demonstrate its intrinsic and societal value. A rich discussion of strong advances in geohistory methods and techniques will be necessary to establish a standard that helps habitat conservation policies and inspires design for more resilient landscapes, to reduce their vulnerability to perturbations. Type: presentationsLanguages: french, spanish, catalan or english (his/her nativelanguage)

Albert Pèlachs (1); Ashley Braunthal (1); Marc Sánchez-Morales (2)
(1) Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, (2) Universitat de Vic

 
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