Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Historical factors strongly contour the relations of biodiversity to humans. His-
torical analysis abounds in nature-society and human-environment approaches,
with varying degrees of similarity to the closely related approaches of historical
geography, environmental history, and ecological history. These historical perspec-
tives offer important insights into biodiversity. Such insights include the following:
(i) much biodiversity exists in environments, often geographically extensive, that
have undergone long histories of interaction with human activities (
contra
the so-
called Pristine Myth) (Denevan, 1992; Balée 2006); (ii) it is the type, magnitude,
and scale of human impacts that determines relations of human-modifi ed environ-
ments to biodiversity (Zimmerer and Young, 1998); and (iii) biodiversity, like other
environmental concerns, is appreciated and understood among many audiences,
including both specialists and non-specialists, through the kinds of stories, or nar-
ratives, that are used to present and describe such issues. These perspectives also
have cast much new light on the roles of indigenous people and other non-Western
groups as neither 'Noble Savages' nor 'Ignorant Natives' in their relations to biodi-
versity and biodiversity-supporting landscapes (Oldfi eld and Alcorn, 1991).
Relations of biodiversity to humans are also deeply rooted in the nature of nature
itself. Although the latter might be thought of as the domain of the natural sciences,
it is also a vital theme for understand biodiversity through the lens of human-
environment and nature-society interactions (e.g., fi elds such as cultural ecology,
political ecology and resource management). For example, many dynamics of human
relations to biodiversity are dependent upon change-prone processes that are trig-
gered by so-called disturbance events and that do not tend towards a well-defi ned
or easily identifi able 'balance of nature'. Examples include the biodiversity of such
economically important landscapes as range ecosystems as well as such icons of
more pristine-type conservation as renowned wildlife populations (Zimmerer and
Young, 1998). The dependence of biodiversity on disturbances is resonant with the
interpretive perspective of humans-in-nature, as opposed to the conventional dichot-
omy of humans and nature.
Human-environment interactions and biodiversity are increasingly paired with
pathbreaking progress in genetic analysis genomics. Such advances are opening new
vistas for the future analysis of biodiversity and human-environment interactions
within environmental geography. These developments include a focus on the geo-
graphic dimension of major human migrations and such correlates as the spatial dis-
tribution of languages (e.g., the spread of European languages; see Barbujani and
Sokal, 1991; Piazza et al., 1995). Recent molecular-level genetic analysis also opens
new vistas on geographic dimensions of the formative plant and animal domestica-
tions and dispersals, including the consequences of these human-environment inter-
actions (agriculture, livestock-raising) on the genetic systems of domestication
organisms (e.g., Hanotte et al., 2002; Doebley, 2006; Doebley et al., 2006; Parker
et al., 2007). The new developments also include a wave of Green Revolution-style
questions that is driven through advances and debates in genomics (e.g., on food pro-
duction and quality), including whether the use of biodiversity can improve food
security and other benefi ts among resource-poor land users (e.g., Dawson and Powell,
1999; Reece, 2007). The role of biodiversity in genomics and biotechnology-based
advances is central to the development of possible plant and land use adaptations to
climate change and other key agroenvironmental factors. A new volume,
Darwin's
Harvest
(Motley et al., 2006), along with papers in the 2003 issue of
Physical Geog-
raphy
, bring together many of the advances in genetics that are relevant to human-
