Ecology in an anthropogenic biosphere

By Erle C. Ellis. 2015

533 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Humans, unlike any other multicellular species in Earth's history, have emerged as a global force that is transforming the ecology of an entire planet. It is no longer possible to understand, predict, or successfully manage ecological pattern, process, or change without understanding why and how humans reshape these over the long term. Here, a general causal theory is presented to explain why human societies gained the capacity to globally alter the patterns, processes, and dynamics of ecology and how these anthropogenic alterations unfold over time and space as societies themselves change over human generational time. Building on existing theories of ecosystem engineering, niche construction, inclusive inheritance, cultural evolution, ultrasociality, and social change, this theory of anthroecological change holds that sociocultural evolution of subsistence regimes based on ecosystem engineering, social specialization, and non-kin exchange, or “sociocultural niche construction,” is the main cause of both the long-term upscaling of human societies and their unprecedented transformation of the biosphere. Human sociocultural niche construction can explain, where classic ecological theory cannot, the sustained transformative effects of human societies on biogeography, ecological succession, ecosystem processes, and the ecological patterns and processes of landscapes, biomes, and the biosphere. Anthroecology theory generates empirically testable hypotheses on the forms and trajectories of long-term anthropogenic ecological change that have significant theoretical and practical implications across the subdisciplines of ecology and conservation. Though still at an early stage of development, anthroecology theory aligns with and integrates established theoretical frameworks including social–ecological systems, social metabolism, countryside biogeography, novel ecosystems, and anthromes. The “fluxes of nature” are fast becoming “cultures of nature.” To investigate, understand, and address the ultimate causes of anthropogenic ecological change, not just the consequences, human sociocultural processes must become as much a part of ecological theory and practice as biological and geophysical processes are now. Strategies for achieving this goal and for advancing ecological science and conservation in an increasingly anthropogenic biosphere are presented.

Subfields: Ecology, General Health Professions, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/98a79a544abf36066297cc648ef7e12d28b786d3

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Citations in the corpus

Advances in restoration ecology: rising to the challenges of the coming decades (2015, background): “It applies concepts with a landscape scale, anthro-ecological perspective that is required to address environmental issues in the current and future human-influenced biosphere (Ellis 2015).”
Non-native species in urban environments: patterns, processes, impacts and challenges (2017, background): “cultural settings? Such questions clearly need to be framed with reference to concepts and narratives that are being debated in the growing literature on the ‘‘Anthropocene biosphere’’ (Ellis 2015; Williams et al. 2015), novel ecosystems (Hobbs et al.”
Coral reef ecology in the Anthropocene (2019, background): “…unequivocal is that human imprints can be observed at all biophysical scales, across all levels of biological organisation, and in the processes upon which ecological theories rest, such as species dispersal, colonisation, invasion, extinction, isolation, toler - ance and competition (Ellis, 2015).”
Applications for deep learning in ecology (2018, background): “With human activities affecting all ecosystems, a major task for ecologists has been to monitor and understand these ecosystems and their changes for management and conservation purposes (Ellis, 2015).”
Social-ecological resilience and biosphere-based sustainability science (2016, background): “It should also be obvious that ecological processes and patterns can no longer be explained without considering the human influences in these (Turner et al. 1990, Levin 1999, Palumbi 2001, Ehrlich and Ehrlich 2008, Ellis 2015, Worm and Paine 2016).”
People have shaped most of terrestrial nature for at least 12,000 years (2021, background): “The emergence and spread of increasingly globalized and industrial societies only accelerated this trend toward today’s ever more intensively used and homogeneous cultural landscapes shaped by global supply chains, mechanization, chemical nutrients and pest control, leading to ecologically simplifie”
Sustaining Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (2019, background): “The natural and semi-natural landscapes of the HKH have been altered, modified, and influenced by human history, culture, and traditional practices for thousands of years (Deterra 1937; Ives and Messerli 1989; Goldewijk et al. 2010, 2011; Ellis 2015).”
Middle-range theories of land system change (2018, background): “In a similar way, sociocultural niche construction theory explains long-term changes in human societal scale and transformation of the biosphere through land use as the product of sociocultural evolution in subsistence regimes based on ecosystem engineering, social specialization, and non-kin exchan”