Abstract
Two primary goals of landscape ecologists are to (1) evaluate changes in ecological pattern and process on natural landscapes through time and (2) determine the ecological consequences of transforming natural land-scapes to cultural ones. Paleoecological techniques can be used to reconstruct past landscapes and their changes through time; use of paleoecological methods of investigation in combination with geomorphic and paleoethnobiological data, historical records, and shorter-term ecological data sets makes it possible to integrate long-term ecological pattern and process on a nested series of temporal and spatial scales. ‘Natural experiments’ of the past can be used to test alternative hypotheses about the relative influences of environmental change, biological interactions, and human activities in structuring biotic communities within landscape mosaics.
On the absolute time scale of the Quaternary Period, spanning the past 1.8 million years, current distributional ranges of the biota have taken shape and modern biotic communities have assembled. Quaternary environmental changes have influenced the development of natural landscapes over time scales of centuries to hundreds of thousands of years; human cultural evolution has resulted in the transformation of much of the biosphere from natural to cultural landscapes over the past 5,000 years. The Quaternary extends to and includes the present and the immediate future. Knowledge of landscape changes on a Quaternary time scale is essential to landscape ecologists who wish to have a context for predicting future trends on local, regional, and global scales.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, T.F.H. and Starr, T.B. 1982. Hierarchy, perspectives for ecological complexity. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Bailey, R.G. 1978. Description of the ecoregions of the United States. United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Odgen, Utah.
Barker, G. 1985. Prehistoric farming in Europe. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Behre, K.-E. (Ed.) 1986. Anthropogenic indicators in pollen diagrams. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam.
Berglund, B.E. (Ed.) 1986. Handbook of Holocene paleoecology and palaeohydrology. Wiley, New York.
Binford, M.W., Brenner, M., Whitmore, T.J., Higuera-Gundy, A., Deevey, E.S. and Leyden, B. 1987. Ecosystems, paleoecology and human disturbance in subtropical and tropical America. Quat. Sci. Rev. 6: 115–128.
Birks, H.J.B. and Gordon, A.D. 1985. Numerical methods in Quaternary pollen analysis. Academic Press, New York.
Bogan, A.E. 1982. Archaeological evidence for subsistence patterns in the Little Tennessee River Valley. Tennessee Anthropol. 7: 38–50.
Bourdo, E.A. Jr. 1956. A review of the General Land Office Survey and of its use in quantitative studies of former forests. Ecology 37: 754–768.
Bourdo, E.A. Jr. 1983. The forest the settlers saw. In The Great Lakes forest: an environmental and social history, pp.3–16, Edited by S.L. Flader. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.
Bowen, D.Q. 1985. Quaternary geology, a stratigraphic frame-work for multidisciplinary work. Pergamon, Oxford.
Bradshaw, R.H.W. 1981a. Quantitative reconstruction of local woodland vegetation using pollen analysis from two small basins in Norfolk, England. J. Ecol. 69: 941–955.
Bradshaw, R.H.W. 1981b. Modern pollen-representation factors for woods in south-east England. J. Ecol. 69: 45–70.
Bryant, V.M. Jr. and Holloway, R. (Eds) 1985. Pollen records of late-Quaternary North American sediments. American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists Foundation, Dallas.
Burgess, R.L. and Sharpe, D.M. 1981. Forest island dynamics in man-dominated landscapes. Springer-Verlag, New York.
Braun, E.L. 1950. (Reprinted in 1974). Deciduous forests of eastern North America. Hafner Press, Macmillan, New York.
Butzer, K.W. 1982. Archaeology as human ecology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Cain, S. 1943. The Tertiary character of the cove hardwood forests of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Bull Torrey Bot. Club 70: 213–235.
Chapman, J. 1985. Tellico archaeology: 12,000 years of Native American history. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.
Chapman, J. and Shea, A.B. 1981. The archaeobotanical record: Early Archaic period to Contact in the Lower Little Tennessee River Valley. Tennessee Anthropol. 6: 61–84.
Chapman, J., Delcourt, P.A., Cridlebaugh, P.A., Shea, A.B. and Delcourt, H.R. 1982. Man-land interaction: 10,000 years of American Indian impact on native ecosystems in the Lower Little Tennessee River Valley, East Tennessee. Southeastern Archaeol. 1: 115–121.
Clark, G.M. 1968. Sorted patterned ground: new Appalachian localities south of the glacial border. Science 161: 355–356.
Clark, J.S. 1986. Dynamism in the barrier-beach vegetation of Great South Beach, New York. Ecol. Monogr. 56: 97–126.
CLIMAP, 1976. The surface of the Ice-Age Earth. Science 191: 1131–1137.
Cridlebaugh, P.A. 1984. American Indian and Euro-American impact upon Holocene vegetation in the Lower Little Tennessee River Valley, East Tennessee. Ph.D Dissertation, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Cronon, W. 1983. Changes in the land: Indians, colonists, and the ecology of New England. Hill and Wang, New York.
Crosby, A.W. 1986. Ecological imperialism: the biological expansion of Europe, 900–1900. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Davis, M.B. 1981. Quaternary history and the stability of forest communities. In Forest succession, concepts and application, pp. 132–153, Edited by D.C. West, H.H. Shugart and D.B. Botkin. Springer-Verlag, New York.
Davis, M.B. 1983. Quaternary history of deciduous forests of eastern North America and Europe. Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 70: 550–563.
Davis, M.B., Woods, K.D. and Futyma, R.P. 1986. Dispersal versus climate: expansion of Fagus and Tsuga into the Upper Great Lakes region. Vegetatio 67: 93–103.
Davis, R.B. 1987. Paleolimnological diatom studies of acidification of lakes by acid rain: an application of Quaternary science. Quat. Sci. Rev. 6: 147–163.
Delcourt, H.R. 1979. Late-Quaternary vegetation history of the eastern Highland Rim and adjacent Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee. Ecol. Monogr. 49: 255–280.
Delcourt, H.R. 1985. Holocene vegetational changes in the southern Appalachian Mountains, U.S.A. Ecol. Mediter-ranea 11: 9–16.
Delcourt, H.R. 1987. The impact of prehistoric agriculture and land occupation on natural vegetation. Trends Ecol. Evol. 2: 39–44.
Delcourt, H.R. and Delcourt, P.A. 1977. Presettlement Magnolia-Beech Climax of the Gulf Coastal Plain: quantitative evidence from the Apalachicola River Bluffs, north-central Florida. Ecology 58: 1085–1093.
Delcourt, H.R. and Delcourt, P.A. 1986. Late-Quaternary vegetational history of the central Atlantic States. In The Quaternary of Virginia, pp. 23–35, Edited by J. McDonald and S.O. Bird. Yirginia Commonwealth Division of Mineral Resources, Charlottesville.
Delcourt, H.R. and Pittillo, J.D. 1986. Comparison of contemporary vegetation and pollen assemblages: an altitudinal transect in the Balsam Mountains, Blue Ridge Province, western North Carolina, USA. Grana 25: 131–141.
Delcourt, H.R., Delcourt, P.A. and Webb, T. III. 1983a. Dynamic plant ecology: the spectrum of vegetational change in space and time. Quat. Sci. Rev. 1: 153–175.
Delcourt, P.A. 1980. Quaternary alluvial terraces of the Little Tennessee River Valley, East Tennessee. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Department of Anthropology, Report of Investigations, No. 29: 110–121, 175–212.
Delcourt, P.A. and Delcourt, H.R. 1985. Dynamic landscapes of East Tennessee: an integration of paleoecology, geomorphology, and archaeology. University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Department of Geological Sciences, Studies in Geology 9: 191–220.
Delcourt, P.A. and Delcourt, H.R. 1987a. Long-term forest dynamics of the Temperate Zone, Ecological Studies 63. Springer-Verlag, New York.
Delcourt, P.A. and Delcourt, H.R. 1987b. Late-Quaternary dynamics of temperate forests: applications of paleoecology to issues of global environmental change. Quat. Sci. Rev. 6: 129–146.
Delcourt, P.A., Delcourt, H.R. and Davidson, J.L. 1983b. Mapping and calibration of modern pollen-vegetation relationships in the southeastern United States. Rev. Palaeobot. Palynol. 39: 1–45.
Delcourt, P.A., Delcourt, H.R., Cridlebaugh, P.A. and Chapman, J. 1986. Holocene ethnobotanical and paleoecological record of human impact on vegetation in the Little Tennessee River Valley, Tennessee. Quat. Res. 25: 330–349.
Diamond, J. 1986. Overview: laboratory experiments, field experiments, and natural experiments. In Community ecology, pp. 3–22. Edited by J. Diamond and T.J. Case. Harper and Row, New York.
Dincauze, D.F. 1987. Strategies for paleoenvironmental reconstruction in archaeology. Adv. Archaeol. Method Theory 11: 255–336.
Faegri, K. and Iversen, J. 1975. Textbook of pollen analysis (3rd rev. ed.). Hafner Press, Macmillan, New York.
Fairbridge, R.W. 1983. The Pleistocene-Holocene boundary. Quat. Sci. Rev. 1: 215–244.
Ford, R.I. 1985. The processes of plant food production in prehistoric North America. In Prehistoric food production in North America, pp. 1–18. Edited by R.I. Ford. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Anthropological Papers No. 75.
Forman, R.T.T. and Godron, M. 1981. Patches and structural components for a landscape ecology. Bioscience 31: 733–740.
Frakes, L.A. 1979. Climates throughout geologic time. Elsevier, New York.
Godron, M. and Forman, R.T.T. 1983. Landscape modifications and changing ecological characteristics. In Disturbance and ecosystems: components of response, pp. 12–28. Edited by H.A. Mooney and M. Godron. Springer-Verlag, New York.
Graham, R.W. 1986. Response of mammalian communities to environmental changes during the late Quaternary. In Community ecology, pp. 300–313. Edited by J. Diamond and T.J. Case. Harper and Row, New York.
Graham, R.W., Semken, H.A. Jr. and Graham, M.A. (Eds). 1987. Late Quaternary mammalian biogeography and environments of the Great Plains and prairies. Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Scientific Papers 22.
Grant, W.H. 1988. Debris avalanches and the origin of first-order streams. In Forest hydrology and ecology at Coweeta, Ecological Studies 66, pp. 103–110. Edited by W.T. Swank and D.A. Crossley Jr. Springer-Verlag, New York.
Grimm, E.C. 1984. Fire and other factors controlling the vegetation of the Big Woods region of Minnesota. Ecol. Monogr. 54: 291–311.
Hack, J.T. and Goodlett, J.C. 1960. Geomorphology and forest ecology of a mountain region in the central Appalachians. United States Geol. Surv. Prof. Paper 347: 1–64.
Harcombe, P.A. and Marks, P.L. 1978. Tree diameter distributions and replacement processes in southeast Texas forests. For. Sci. 24: 153–166.
Heide, K. 1984. Holocene pollen stratigraphy from a lake and small hollow in north-central Wisconsin, USA. Palynology 8: 3–20.
Heinselman, M. 1973. Fire in the virgin forests of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Minnesota. Quat. Res. 3: 329–382.
Henry, J.D. and Swan, J.M.A. 1974. Reconstructing forest history from live and dead plant material - an approach to the study of forest succession in southwest New Hampshire. Ecology 55: 772–783.
Huntley, B. and Birks, H.J.B. 1983. An atlas of past and present pollen maps for Europe: 0–13,000 years ago. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Jackson, S.T. 1988. Pollen-vegetation relationships in small lake basins: evidence for varying pollen source areas within and among taxa. American Quaternary Association Program and Abstracts of the 10th Biennial Meeting, University of Massachusetts, Amherst: 76.
Jacobson, G.L. 1979. The palaeoecology of white pine (Pinus strobus) in Minnesota. J. Ecol. 67: 697–726.
Jacobson, G.L. and Bradshaw, R.H.W. 1981. The selection of sites for paleovegetational studies. Quat. Res. 16: 80–96.
Jacobson, G.L. and Grimm, E.C. 1986. A numerical analysis of Holocene forest and prairie vegetation in central Minnesota. Ecology 67: 958–966.
Janssen, C.R., Braber, F.I., Bunnik, F.P.N., Delibrias, G., Kalis, A.J. and Mook, W.G. 1985. The significance of chronology in the ecological interpretation of pollen assemblages of contrasting sites in the Vosges. Ecol. Mediterranea 11: 39–43.
Kurtén, B. and Andersen, E. 1980. Pleistocene mammals of North America. Columbia University Press, New York.
Kutzbach, J.E. and Wright, H.E. Jr. 1985. Simulation of the climate of 18,000 years BP: results for the North American/North Atlantic/European Sector and comparison with the geologic record of North America. Quat. Sci. Rev. 4: 147–187.
Larabee, P.A. 1986. Late-Quaternary vegetational and geomorphic history of the Allegheny Plateau at Big Run Bog, Tucker County, West Virginia. MS Thesis, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Likens, G.E. (Ed.) 1985. An ecosystem approach to aquatic ecology: Mirror Lake and its environment. Springer-Verlag, New York.
Lyell, G. 1834. Principles of Geology, 3rd Edition. London.
McAndrews, J.H. 1966. Postglacial history of prairie, savanna, and forest in northwestern Minnesota. Mem. Torrey Bot. Club 22: 1–72.
McAndrews, J.H. 1988. Human disturbance of North American forests and grasslands: the fossil pollen record. In Handbook of vegetation science, vol. 7 - vegetation history (in press). Edited by B. Huntley and T. Webb III. Dr W. Junk Publishers, Dordrecht.
Marschner, F.J. 1959. Land use and its patterns in the United States. US Dept. Agric., Agric. Handbook 153.
Martin, P.S. and Klein, R.G. 1984. Quaternary extinctions, a prehistoric revolution. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Maxwell, J.A. and Davis, M.B. 1972. Pollen evidence of Pleistocene and Holocene vegetation on the Allegheny Plateau, Maryland. Quat.Res. 2: 506–530.
Meentemeyer, V. and Box, E.O. 1987. Scale effects in landscape studies. In Landscape heterogeneity and disturbance, Ecological Studies 64, pp. 15–34. Edited by M.G. Turner. Springer-Verlag, New York.
Michalek, D.D. 1968. Fanlike features and related periglacial phenomena of the southern Blue Ridge. PhD. Dissertation, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Mills, H.H. and Delcourt, P.A. 1989. Appalachian Highlands and Interior Low Plateaus. In Quaternary non-glacial geology of the conterminous United States, Volume K2, Decade of North American Geology. Edited by R.B. Morrison. Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado (in press).
Mooney, H.A. and Drake, J.A. (Eds) 1986. Ecology of biological invasions of North America and Hawaii, Ecological Studies 58. Springer-Verlag, New York.
Mueller-Dombois, D. and Ellenberg, H. 1974. Aims and methods of vegetation ecology. Wiley, New York.
Naveh, Z. and Lieberman, A.S. 1984. Landscape ecology, theory and application. Springer-Verlag, New York.
Nilsson, T. 1983. The Pleistocene, Geology and Life in the Quaternary Ice Age (English Edition). D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
Oliver, C.D. and Stephens, E.P. 1977. Reconstruction of a mixed species forest in central New England. Ecology 58: 562–572.
Olson, R.J., Goff, F.G. and Olson, J.S. 1976. Development and applications of spatial data resources in energy related assessment and planning. In Advancements in retrieval technology as related to Information systems. Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development, Neuilly sur Seine, France, AGARD Conference Proceedings No. 207, North Atlantic Treaty Organization 12–1 to 12–7.
O'Neill, R.V., DeAngelis, D.L., Waide, J.B. and Allen, T.F.H. 1986. A Hierarchical Concept of Ecosystems. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Pattison, W.D. 1970. Beginnings of the American rectangular land survey system, 1784–1800. Ohio Historical Society, Columbus.
Peet, R.K. and Christensen, N.L. 1980. Succession: a population process. Vegetatio 43: 131–140.
Péwé, T.L. 1983. The periglacial environment in North America during Wisconsin time. In Late-Quaternary environments of the United States, Volume 1, The Late Pleistocene, pp. 157–189. Edited by S.C. Porter. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.
Pickett, S.T.A. and White, P.S. (Eds.) 1985. The ecology of natural disturbance and patch dynamics. Academic Press, New York.
Prentice, I.C. 1985. Pollen representation, source area, and basin size: toward a unified theory of pollen analysis. Quat. Res. 23: 76–86.
Pyle, C. and M.P. Schafale. 1988. Land use history of three spruce-fir forest sites in Southern Appalachia. J. For. Hist. 32: 4–21.
Risser, P.G. 1987. Landscape ecology: state of the art. In Land-scape heterogeneity and disturbance, Ecological Studies 64, pp. 3–14. Edited by M.G. Turner. Springer-Verlag, New York.
Risser, P.G., Karr, J.R. and Forman, R.T.T. 1984. Landscape ecology: directions and approaches. Illinois Natural History Survey Special Publication No. 2.
Ritchie, J.C. 1987. Postglacial vegetation of Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Romme, W.H. 1982. Fire and landscape diversity in subalpine forests of Yellowstone National Park. Ecol. Monogr. 52: 199–221.
Romme, W.H. and Knight, D.H. 1982. Landscape diversity: the concept applied to Yellowstone Park. Bioscience 32: 644–670.
Shafer, D.S. 1984. Late-Quaternary paleoecologic, geomorphic, and paleoclimatic history of Flat Laurel Gap, Blue Ridge Mountains, North Carolina. MS Thesis, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Shafer, D.S. 1985. Flat Laurel Gap Bog, Pisgah Ridge, North Carolina: late-Holocene development of a high-elevation heath bald. Castanea 51: 1–10.
Shafer, D.S. 1988. Late Quaternary landscape evolution at Flat Laurel Gap, Blue Ridge Mountains, North Carolina. Quat. Res. 30: 7–11.
Swank, W.T. and Crossley, D.A. Jr. 1988. Introduction and site description. In Forest hydrology and ecology at Coweeta, Ecological Studies 66, pp. 3–16. Edited by W.T. Swank and D.A. Crossley Jr. Springer-Verlag, New York.
Swanson, F.J., Fratz, T.K., Caine, N. and Woodmansee, R.G. 1988. Landform effects on ecosystem patterns and processes. Bioscience 38: 92–98.
Turner, M.G. 1987. Preface. In Landscape heterogeneity and disturbance, Ecological Studies 64, pp. 3–14. Edited by M.G. Turner. Springer-Verlag, New York.
Urban, D.L., O'Neill, R.Y. and Shugart, H.H. Jr. 1987. Land-scape ecology: a hierarchical perspective can help scientists understand spatial patterns. Bioscience 37: 119–127.
Watts, W.A. 1979. Late Quaternary vegetation of central Appalachia and the New Jersey coastal plain. Ecol. Monogr. 49: 427–469.
White, P.S. 1984. The southern Appalachian spruce-fir ecosystem, an introduction. In The southern Appalachian spruce-fir ecosystem: its biology and threats, pp. 1-21. Edited by P.S. White. United States National Park Service Research/Resources Management Rept. SER-71.
White, P.S. and Wofford, B.E. 1984. Rare native Tennessee vascular plants in the flora of Great Smoky Mountain National Park. J. Tennessee Acad. Sci. 59: 61–64.
Whittaker, R.H. 1956. Vegetation of the Great Smoky Mountains. Ecol. Monogr. 26: 1–80.
Williams, M. 1982. Clearing the United States forests: pivotal years 1810–1860. J. Hist. Geogr. 8: 12–28.
Williams, S.C. 1927. Lieut. Henry Timberlake's Memoirs. Watauga Press, Johnson City, Tennessee.
Wright, H.E. Jr. 1984. Sensitivity and response time of natural systems to climatic change in the Late Quaternary. Quat. Sci. Rev. 3: 91–131.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Delcourt, H.R., Delcourt, P.A. Quaternary landscape ecology: Relevant scales in space and time. Landscape Ecol 2, 23–44 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00138906
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00138906