- Title
- Cultural landscapes : human impacts on wetlands
- Creator
- Mills, Keely; Jones, Matthew; Hunt, Laura; Saulnier-Talbot, Emilie; Elias, Deevena; Nankabirwa, Angela; Lejju, Julius; Gell, Peter
- Date
- 2023
- Type
- Text; Book chapter
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/197070
- Identifier
- vital:18791
- Identifier
-
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-817803-4.00013-9
- Identifier
- ISBN:9780128178034 (ISBN); 9780128178041 (ISBN)
- Abstract
- Wetlands provide a wealth of ecosystem services to people, including ecological, economic, and socio-cultural benefits. However, more than 30% of freshwater species are threatened with extinction, and freshwater biodiversity is declining faster than that observed in oceans or forests. When it comes to the management of wetlands, it often occurs too late and when ecosystem services to people are at risk of being lost. It is easy to observe and monitor the recent impacts of people on wetland systems, but the changes we see today are a product of hundreds, even thousands of years of direct and indirect human impact. Without a deeper understanding of the long-term context of human impacts on wetland systems, it is impossible to manage the problems they experience (such as changes in hydrology, nutrient loading, acidification, and salinisation). Despite the 20th century being the period in which humans have exerted the greatest impact on wetland systems, it was also the period in which we developed a greater appreciation of wetlands as anthropogenically altered landscapes, and, maybe paradoxically, the benefits that accrue from healthy wetlands. Palaeolimnological approaches allow an understanding of wetland system variability over millennial scales, providing background context for anthropogenically forced change. This palaeo-perspective enables a deeper understanding of the long-term context of human impacts on wetland systems and can provide a fresh perspective when managing impacted systems. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Relation
- Ramsar Wetlands: Values, Assessment, Management Chapter 10 p. 237-258
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc.
- Subject
- Anthropocene; Ecosystem services; Hydrology; Long-term environmental change; Palaeolimnology; Pollution; Wetland management
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