Publisher's Synopsis
The nature, extent and consequences of the human impact on ecological systems form one of the key questions of contemporary science. The destruction of habitats (wetland, rainforest, savanna, moorland, woodland) proceeds inexorably throughout the world, with concomitant impacts on plant and animal life, on human-environment relations and on global environmental systems.;But the human impact is by no means new, and can be traced for at least 25,000 years. Up until historical times this impact can be measured only by means of the study of relict environments, the fossil record and archaeological reconstruction.;In historical times, however, it is possible to compare contemporary documentation of environmental impact (of agriculture, urbanization, faunal exploitation, and so on) with scientific evidence of, for example, landscape change, altered ecosystems and climatic change.;This book brings together ecologists, geographers, environmental historians and archaeologists in a series of studies of changing ecological relations in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic regions over the last 1000 years.;By comparing inferences from the documentary and the scientific records the authors provide new perspectives on the processes of environmental change in the past and in the present - and in doing so throw new light on human cultures and natural ecosystems.
