UMBC’s Erle Ellis and international team show people have shaped Earth’s ecology for 12,000 years
Loading...
Files
Permanent Link
Author/Creator
Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2021-04-15
Department
Program
Citation of Original Publication
UMBC’s Erle Ellis and international team show people have shaped Earth’s ecology for 12,000 years, https://news.umbc.edu/umbcs-erle-ellis-and-international-team-show-people-have-shaped-earths-ecology-for-1200-years/
Rights
This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.
Abstract
New research published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) shows that land use by human societies has reshaped ecology across most of Earth’s land for at least 12,000 years. The research team, from more than a dozen institutions around the world, compared the history of global land use with current patterns of biodiversity and conservation. Their work revealed that the main cause of the current biodiversity crisis is not human destruction of uninhabited wildlands, but rather the appropriation, colonization, and intensified use of lands previously managed sustainably.