derived from biogeographical science requires greater focused attention” (Whittaker
et al. 2005: 318). That early 2000s, the expression ‘ecosystem services’ become
formally stated as “the benefits people obtain from ecosystems” and highlighting
“the consequences of the loss of biological diversity and degradation of ecosystem
services for human well-being globally” (Sutherland et al. 2009: 560). Immediately
thereafter, voices began to ask how to accomplish these things and what information was available to confront this challenge.
Willis and Birks (2006) pointed out the usefulness of studies based on sedimentary records in developing conservation policies. Their article, “What Is
Natural? The Need for a Long-Term Perspective in Biodiversity Conservation,”
shows the value to environmental managers of taking a “longer temporal perspective to address specific conservation issues relating to biological invasions,
wildfires, climate change, and determination of natural variability” and considered a
temporal perspective “essential for meaningful modeling, prediction, and development of conservation strategies in our rapidly changing Earth.” They conclude
that the answer to the question “what is natural” lies in the historical analysis of
environmental changes, and thereby can “start to provide important guidance for
long-term management and conservation at local, regional, and global scales”
(Willis and Birks 2006: 1261).
After developing 2,291 questions from a review of literature, Sutherland et al.
(2009) selected 100 key questions for conservation practices: “The questions are
divided into 12 sections: ecosystem functions and services, climate change, technological change, protected areas, ecosystem management and restoration, terrestrial ecosystems, marine ecosystems, freshwater ecosystems, species management,
organizational systems and processes, societal context and change, and impacts of
conservation interventions” (Sutherland et al. 2009: 558). The broad range of topics
shows the complexity of the system, which was refined in each study included in
their review. Richardson and Whittaker (2010) use six keywords that exemplify this
complexity: “Biological invasions, climate change, conservation planning, data
requirements, invasion ecology, and species distribution modeling” (Richardson
and Whittaker 2010: 313). Their research shows the need for multi-proxy studies to
explain the changes in biodiversity and contribute to its long-term conservation.
Willis et al. (2010) conclude their article masterfully with this idea:
These archives indicate the complexity of responses to climate change over time, ranging
from inherent variability through to rapid compositional turnover, broad-scale migrations,
regime shifts, and the creation of novel ecosystems. They also indicate the dynamic
interactions of biotic and abiotic processes that sometimes lead to thresholds and in other
situations enable resilience and persistence. The record of these biotic responses obtained
from paleoecological records provides a valuable resource for conservation strategies to
conserve and manage ecological and evolutionary processes (Willis et al. 2010: 589).
In summary, biological conservation requires the analysis of a number of
long-term states and processes in a world of extremely dynamic changes (Willis and
Bhagwat 2010; Willis et al. 2010; Bradshaw et al. 2015) and a response to the
following four questions: (1) What are the baseline or ‘reference’ conditions before
recent times? (2) What is the range of natural variability? (3) Under what
5 The Role of Environmental Geohistory …
109
et al. 2005: 318). That early 2000s, the expression ‘ecosystem services’ become
formally stated as “the benefits people obtain from ecosystems” and highlighting
“the consequences of the loss of biological diversity and degradation of ecosystem
services for human well-being globally” (Sutherland et al. 2009: 560). Immediately
thereafter, voices began to ask how to accomplish these things and what information was available to confront this challenge.
Willis and Birks (2006) pointed out the usefulness of studies based on sedimentary records in developing conservation policies. Their article, “What Is
Natural? The Need for a Long-Term Perspective in Biodiversity Conservation,”
shows the value to environmental managers of taking a “longer temporal perspective to address specific conservation issues relating to biological invasions,
wildfires, climate change, and determination of natural variability” and considered a
temporal perspective “essential for meaningful modeling, prediction, and development of conservation strategies in our rapidly changing Earth.” They conclude
that the answer to the question “what is natural” lies in the historical analysis of
environmental changes, and thereby can “start to provide important guidance for
long-term management and conservation at local, regional, and global scales”
(Willis and Birks 2006: 1261).
After developing 2,291 questions from a review of literature, Sutherland et al.
(2009) selected 100 key questions for conservation practices: “The questions are
divided into 12 sections: ecosystem functions and services, climate change, technological change, protected areas, ecosystem management and restoration, terrestrial ecosystems, marine ecosystems, freshwater ecosystems, species management,
organizational systems and processes, societal context and change, and impacts of
conservation interventions” (Sutherland et al. 2009: 558). The broad range of topics
shows the complexity of the system, which was refined in each study included in
their review. Richardson and Whittaker (2010) use six keywords that exemplify this
complexity: “Biological invasions, climate change, conservation planning, data
requirements, invasion ecology, and species distribution modeling” (Richardson
and Whittaker 2010: 313). Their research shows the need for multi-proxy studies to
explain the changes in biodiversity and contribute to its long-term conservation.
Willis et al. (2010) conclude their article masterfully with this idea:
These archives indicate the complexity of responses to climate change over time, ranging
from inherent variability through to rapid compositional turnover, broad-scale migrations,
regime shifts, and the creation of novel ecosystems. They also indicate the dynamic
interactions of biotic and abiotic processes that sometimes lead to thresholds and in other
situations enable resilience and persistence. The record of these biotic responses obtained
from paleoecological records provides a valuable resource for conservation strategies to
conserve and manage ecological and evolutionary processes (Willis et al. 2010: 589).
In summary, biological conservation requires the analysis of a number of
long-term states and processes in a world of extremely dynamic changes (Willis and
Bhagwat 2010; Willis et al. 2010; Bradshaw et al. 2015) and a response to the
following four questions: (1) What are the baseline or ‘reference’ conditions before
recent times? (2) What is the range of natural variability? (3) Under what
5 The Role of Environmental Geohistory …
109