does not. Thus, it is likely that pastoralism developed, with wolves or dogs as the
principal supporter and ungulates as a source of food and materials, thousands of
years before agriculture was developed.
Long-term bidirectional gene flow and the exchange of pathogens are assumed
for almost all domesticated animals and as long as wild counterparts live in the
surroundings. To date, domestic animals such as pigs, geese or chickens can become
infected by the migration of wild animals. Hence, livestock owners had, and still
have, a serious interest in keeping wild animals away from domestic ones. This
might have been a strong reason to eliminate wild horses, sheep, goats, and others.
Agriculture—the Neolithic Revolution—which enabled sedentary food production is an invention of the Holocene and a warmer climate after the Pleistocene. It is
assumed that agriculture developed in six to eight regions on earth independently
(Herrmann 2016; Diamond 2003).
The origin of agriculture has been dated from 11,000 to 6000 years BP in SW
Asia (e.g. wheat, Triticum dicoccum, and other cereals), N China (millet, Setaria
italica, Panicum milleaceum), Papua New Guinea (taro, Colocasia esculenta, and
yam, Dioscorea sp.), and Mesoamerica (e.g. maize, corn, Zea mays).
Changing of behaviour with the development of modern life is dependent on three
important bundles of processes. The first is connected with the use of fossil fuels, the
second with the use of chemical compounds such as fertilisers and pesticides in
landscapes and waters. The third is the use of modern technologies. The increasing
use of fossil fuels and chemical products has heavily impacted the environmental
conditions of many landscapes over the last 300 years and particularly in recent
decades. The application of modern technology has led to an increase in traffic and
productivity. Until the eighteenth century, these three aspects combined barely
increased productivity at all (in contrary to the time afterwards, cf. Fig. 1).
Is it possible to estimate which ecosystems were primarily used or influenced?
Ecosystems had to be used from the very beginning to obtain food, energy and
security. Food most likely came from collecting living material such as fruits or
roots, from fishing, hunting vertebrates and collecting invertebrates. During this
period there might have been no great difference between the influence of humans
and that of other large ecosystem engineers such as elephants, rhinoceros or wild
megaherbivores on the landscapes. Animals were hunted in rivers, along the coast
(fish) and in many ecosystems such as shallow waters, in lakes and rivers, in
grassland, savanna, steppe, woodland, and forest. Fire, spears, digging sticks and
other wooden tools were produced of timber which could have been collected e.g. in
any landscape where there were trees and bushes. It was much easier to hunt animals
in open or semi-open landscapes than in a dark forest; even today hunters open up
small windows in the forest to enable them to get better shots. In the past, and why
not for many ten thousands of years, humans have been interested in half-open or
open landscapes rather than dense forests.
Ecosystems that were not used until a later date might conceivably have been
screes and rocky habitats on high mountains, deserts, pelagic and deep sea ecosystems. However, this assessment is a product of speculation rather than verified by
empirical data. Today, the deep sea, the ice caps at the North and South Poles and the
Environmental History
7
principal supporter and ungulates as a source of food and materials, thousands of
years before agriculture was developed.
Long-term bidirectional gene flow and the exchange of pathogens are assumed
for almost all domesticated animals and as long as wild counterparts live in the
surroundings. To date, domestic animals such as pigs, geese or chickens can become
infected by the migration of wild animals. Hence, livestock owners had, and still
have, a serious interest in keeping wild animals away from domestic ones. This
might have been a strong reason to eliminate wild horses, sheep, goats, and others.
Agriculture—the Neolithic Revolution—which enabled sedentary food production is an invention of the Holocene and a warmer climate after the Pleistocene. It is
assumed that agriculture developed in six to eight regions on earth independently
(Herrmann 2016; Diamond 2003).
The origin of agriculture has been dated from 11,000 to 6000 years BP in SW
Asia (e.g. wheat, Triticum dicoccum, and other cereals), N China (millet, Setaria
italica, Panicum milleaceum), Papua New Guinea (taro, Colocasia esculenta, and
yam, Dioscorea sp.), and Mesoamerica (e.g. maize, corn, Zea mays).
Changing of behaviour with the development of modern life is dependent on three
important bundles of processes. The first is connected with the use of fossil fuels, the
second with the use of chemical compounds such as fertilisers and pesticides in
landscapes and waters. The third is the use of modern technologies. The increasing
use of fossil fuels and chemical products has heavily impacted the environmental
conditions of many landscapes over the last 300 years and particularly in recent
decades. The application of modern technology has led to an increase in traffic and
productivity. Until the eighteenth century, these three aspects combined barely
increased productivity at all (in contrary to the time afterwards, cf. Fig. 1).
Is it possible to estimate which ecosystems were primarily used or influenced?
Ecosystems had to be used from the very beginning to obtain food, energy and
security. Food most likely came from collecting living material such as fruits or
roots, from fishing, hunting vertebrates and collecting invertebrates. During this
period there might have been no great difference between the influence of humans
and that of other large ecosystem engineers such as elephants, rhinoceros or wild
megaherbivores on the landscapes. Animals were hunted in rivers, along the coast
(fish) and in many ecosystems such as shallow waters, in lakes and rivers, in
grassland, savanna, steppe, woodland, and forest. Fire, spears, digging sticks and
other wooden tools were produced of timber which could have been collected e.g. in
any landscape where there were trees and bushes. It was much easier to hunt animals
in open or semi-open landscapes than in a dark forest; even today hunters open up
small windows in the forest to enable them to get better shots. In the past, and why
not for many ten thousands of years, humans have been interested in half-open or
open landscapes rather than dense forests.
Ecosystems that were not used until a later date might conceivably have been
screes and rocky habitats on high mountains, deserts, pelagic and deep sea ecosystems. However, this assessment is a product of speculation rather than verified by
empirical data. Today, the deep sea, the ice caps at the North and South Poles and the
Environmental History
7