ORI GIN AL PA PER

Biodiversification as an historical process: an appealfor the application of historical ecology to bio-culturaldiversity research

Roberta Cevasco1 • Diego Moreno2 •

Robert Hearn2

Received: 20 February 2015 / Revised: 28 May 2015 / Accepted: 15 June 2015� Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Abstract In the context of recent appeals for the adoption of historical perspectives

emerging in environmental and conservation studies, ‘biodiversification processes’ would

be considered as specific historical and historiographical topics. However, as highlighted in

this paper, a broader discussion of the biodiversification processes as historical processes is

needed. This paper discusses some consequences that are presented during the study of

biodiversification processes when focusing on the links between cultural and biological

diversity at the individual landscape level rather than on an overview of the current

literature on the subject. In this discussion, we briefly underline dissimilarities in the

methods adopted in historical ecology to those in the conventional historical approach

nurtured in global environmental history where biodiversification processes, as subjects of

historical study, are largely ignored or subsumed into general observations concerning

global change or embedded in presumed ahistorical ‘traditional’ economies and practice

systems. Such a broad reassessment is required before multi- or inter-disciplinary appli-

cations seek to answer ‘common questions’ (Szabo, Environ Conserv 37:380–387, 2010) in

the field of environmental and cultural conservation studies. This paper comments on field

and documentary evidence collected during multidisciplinary historical ecology approa-

ches to research in the Northern Apennines (Italy) and Pyrenees (Franco-Spanish) sites.

Communicated by Mauro Agnoletti.

& Roberta Cevascor.cevasco@unisg.it

Diego Morenodiego.moreno@unige.it

Robert Hearnrobert.hearn@edu.unige.it

1 Universita degli Studi di Scienze Gastronomiche, Pollenzo, Bra, CN, Italy

2 Laboratorio di Archeologia e Storia Ambientale (LASA), Dipartimento di Antichita, Filosofia eStoria (DAFIST) & Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell’Ambiente e della Vita (DISTAV),Universita degli Studi di Genova, Genoa, Italy

123

Biodivers ConservDOI 10.1007/s10531-015-0943-3

These site-level investigations suggest that medieval and post-medieval changes in local

practices and systems of environmental resource production and activation appear to have

been key drivers in co-related variations observed in the past biodiversity dynamics of the

sites. In order to corroborate the sedimentary evidence (or traces of evidence) concerning

taxonomic and habitat changes, historical ecology has proposed the adoption of a local

approach in which a specific historical analysis and use of documentary and archival

sources—as well as the archaeological and sedimentary evidence—has posed a number of

new questions to the traditional use of archival and textual sources by professional his-

torians. In doing so, it becomes clear that when observed at a local, topographical site-scale

or on an individual landscape-scale, the links between biological and cultural diversity

appear more clearly as historical products, rather than broad co-evolutionary issues relating

to the ‘co-evolution of nature and culture’. These historically produced links between

biological and cultural diversity—identified as biodiversification processes that can be

uncovered and explored through the adoption of approaches from historical ecology—are

the driving forces that ‘generate’ processes of circulation in local ecological knowledge

and its related practices.

Keywords Biodiversification � Bio-cultural landscapes � Historical ecology �Environmental history � Field and documentary sources � Local practices � Placed

knowledge � Liguria

Introduction

In paleontological and paleoecological research and historically-oriented studies of the

genetic evolution of crop species, ‘biodiversification’ processes at geological and historical

timescales are currently addressed as matters of evolutionary diversification. As discussed

in this paper, in seeking to establish a local historical definition of timescale it is important

to note that from in geological timescales biodiversification refers to events rather than

intrinsic processes (Servais et al. 2009). As such, scientific debates surrounding the use of

such terminology are reminiscent of those concerning the economically-dominated his-

torical timescale of the ‘longue duree’; a model proposed and developed during the mid-

twentieth century by French historian Fernand Braudel (1902–1985) and the Annales

School in opposition to total, politically-dominated ‘histoire evenementielle’. Braudel’s

‘longue duree’ has re-emerged relatively recently as a central component in Anglo-

American global environmental history with its’ connections to ‘deep history’. However,

the return to the Braudelian concept of the ‘longue duree’ is not appropriate when seeking

to establish a more analytical, historical approach to environmental history (Armitage and

Guldi 2014). The ‘local approach’ identifies social actions, practices, strategies, conflicts

and knowledge (‘politics’) as crucial drivers that have pronounced material effects on

processes, such as such as biodiversification, that develop in various historical timescales.

Studies regarding crop and vegetation cover often assimilate biodiversity dynamics into

wider discussions concerning processes of evolutionary domestication processes despite

taking both early and recent histories and multi-timescale archeobotanical sources into

account (Fuller et al. 2012; Meyer and Purugganan 2013). From such a perspective, the

domestication of ‘wild’ and ‘cultivated’ environmental resources very depending on the

specific historical agency of specific human social groups and groupings. Biodiversification

Biodivers Conserv

123

is therefore rarely regarded as an historical process that involves the activation of a single

crop species’ genetic content and those of the wider environmental that are activated by

patterns of activities within an ecosystem or agro-ecological environment.1 The historical

dynamics involved in the activation of biodiversity would only rarely be viewed as

complete historical processes in bio-deterministic models inherited from human ecology.

Due to these historical characteristics, the concept of biodiversification would be robustly

debated in fields of research such as ethnobiological studies. However, ethnobotanical and

ethnozoological studies explore the relationships between the ecology of environmental

resources and environmental deterministism and possibilism; non-historical perspectives

resulted from debates concerning ‘determinisme et possibilisme’ in nineteenth-century

French human geography (cfr Moreno 2003).

However, rather than proposing such a dichotomy, in ongoing discussions amongst

ethnobiologists and historians concerning ‘nature knowledge in conservation’, the impor-

tance of exploring biodiversification processes was first suggested by the British social

anthropologist Tim Ingold (Ingold 2000; Sanga and Ortalli 2003). In these discussions,

approaches influenced by social anthropological research are considered crucial when

seeking to establish a more sophisticated historical and historiographical characterization of

biodiversification processes. Ingold consistently refers to a new, dynamic perspective on

biodiversity conservation that focuses ‘on processes of diversification rather than on the

structure of diversity’, in which the influences of different timescales are recognized,

addressed and explored (Sanga and Ortalli 2003).2 In exploring the temporality of land-

scape, Ingold’s ‘dwellers perspectives’ considers any single tree, for example, to embody

the entire history of the landscapes development, encapsulating and representing a history

that includes the effects of patterns activities (actions and practices) performed by various

inhabitants and groups throughout time (Ingold 1993).3 Surprisingly without any making

explicit connection with traditions in British historical ecology in which vegetation cover,

such as an individual woodland, is regarded as part of local society, Ingold’s definition is

today also widely adopted by landscape geographers when searching for the existence of

historical environmental processes in individual woods and woodlands. Indeed, ‘trees have

life stories of their own […] largely contained by human activities’ (Watkins 2014). The

‘relational flux field’ is an important part of Ingold’s work, in which historical biodiver-

sification processes appear to be dominated by continuities and discontinuities in the his-

tories of local patterns of activities and related local environmental knowledge. However,

when exploring historical processes such as these, ‘local environmental knowledge’ (e.g.

Gustavsson et al. 2011) is perhaps better defined as ‘placed knowledge’, particularly in

discussions concerning the potential application of such ‘knowledges’ to the identification

and management of European bio-cultural heritage and landscapes.

1 However, suggested distinctions between ‘unconscious selection’ and ‘conscious selection’—the latter ofwhich reflects intentional choices—in classifying ‘human cultivation practices’ might appear inconsistentwith the observed effects of historical activation practices and placed knowledge on environmental resourcesin the ecology of a specific/individual place, rather than a reference to a precise historical model in generalhuman ecology.2 Discussions at the International Congress ‘Saperi naturalistici/nature knowledge’ (Venice, 4–6thDecember 1997) are shortly reported in Sanga and Ortalli (eds) (2003). Agnoletti’s (2014) references toIngold’s contribution concerning biodiversification processes could be potentially misleading having beenderived from an incorrect quotation in Cevasco and Moreno (2013, p. 151).3 The authors wish to acknowledge Professor Osvaldo Raggio (Dipartimento di Antichita, Filosofia e Storia(DAFIST), Universita degli Studi di Genova) for suggesting this text and for discussing Ingold’s positionrelating to the local approach to the history of environmental resources.

Biodivers Conserv

123

Proactive management strategies that seek to establish ‘functional ecological equiva-

lents’ have been proposed as viable alternatives to ‘protecting imagined unimpeded natural

processes’ (Editorial in Nature 455, 18 September 2008, pp. 63–64 in Cevasco and Moreno

2015).4 Similarly, rapid evolutions in environmental conservation studies have recently led

to the radical notion that the ‘ecosystem is dominated by history’ (Editorial in Nature 2008,

13 February 2014, p. 132 in Montanari and Moreno 2014). Whilst possibly simply

reflecting general ‘Anthropocene’ debates, the sentiments imbued within them can also

encourage historians to recognise that discussions relating to a new, historical perspective

are needed in environmental studies. In order to contribute to this debate, this paper will

highlight the necessity of considering methodological dissimilarities presented by two

different historical approaches to and in bio-cultural conservation studies before the

application of findings to management strategies; on one hand, global environmental

history—a robustly multi-tonal, multi-faceted sub-discipline of historical studies in Europe

and north America—and on the other, the local historical approach—a British legacy in

historical studies relatively uncultivated by continental European historians but nurtured in

local approaches to applied historical ecology in northern Europe and north America

(Swetnam et al. 1999; Szabo 2010). Fundamental differences can be found in these two

approaches concerning the extent to which biodiversification processes are considered

historically and historiographically. Firstly, biodiversification processes are largely ignored

as subjects of historical and historiographical study from the perspective of global envi-

ronmental history. Secondly, from this perspective, past biodiversity dynamics are often

subsumed into more general observations concerning global change and are embedded and

entrenched in presumed ahistorical ‘traditional’ economies and practice systems (e.g.

Parrotta et al. 2006; Rotherham 2013). There is therefore a need to address the ‘missing

historical approach’ in the study of biodiversification processes (Agnoletti 2014).

Since its origins, historical ecology has endorsed a local, topographically defined

approach in which documentary and archival sources are combined with archaeological

and sedimentary evidence and explored at site and landscape level. The adoption of a

multidisciplinary approach encourages specialists to ask new questions of their data and to

contextualise and scrutinize their collected evidence against and in light of other sources.

In order to underline the methodological ramifications of this approach and the new

findings potentially gleaned from its adoption, this paper examines local scale ‘field

sources’—sedimentary evidence collected and produced by palinologists—complied dur-

ing multidisciplinary research projects at various sites in the north Italian Apennines and

the Franco-Spanish Pyrenees. In doing so the direct contributions of local scale ‘field

sources’ in informing better historical definitions and understandings of biodiversification

processes are highlighted. When observed at a local, topographical site-scale or on an

individual landscape-scale, the links between biological and cultural diversity appear more

clearly as historical products, rather than broad co-evolutionary issues relating to the ‘co-

evolution of nature and culture’. These historically produced links between biological and

cultural diversity—identified as biodiversification processes that can be uncovered and

explored through the adoption of approaches from historical ecology—are the driving

4 It is important to note that in studies of historical ecology applied to site conservation, the use of the‘historical range of variability’ concept in assessing what changes are acceptable in ecosystem and land-scape management has been debated since the early 1990s (Rackham 1998; Szabo 2010). As brieflycommented upon in this paper, methodological debates stemming from and concerning the ‘crisis’ of themodel of unimpeded natural processes have been investigated in multidisciplinary studies carried out atGEODE (Toulouse) amongst French geographers and palaeoecologists looking for a ‘referentiel partage’ infield sources derived from a number of mountain sites in the Pyrenees.

Biodivers Conserv

123

forces that ‘generate’ processes of mutual circulation in local ecological knowledge and its

related practices.

Materials and methods

Recent studies have highlighted the importance and value of conducting multidisciplinary

research at an integrated micro-regional scale. For example, Bernard Davasse—a historical

ecologist now engaged in the application of landscape characterization—richly docu-

mented the evolution of research of the Laboratoire Geographie de l’Environnement

(GEODE) team from the regional scale to that of a single Pyrenean valley, and more

intensive studies of a specific, individual slope within that valley since the end of the 1990s

(Davasse 2015). Composed of geographers, paleoecologists and archaeologists, the

emphasis attached to the historical dimensions of diverse phenomena has been conspicuous

element of GEODE investigations in historical ecology since the 1970s, particularly in the

work French geographer George Bertrand who proposed the original model for the his-

torical analysis of the ‘Geosysteme–Territoire–Paysage’ relationships (Bertrand 2014).

Palinological and anthracological data derived from paleocological investigations

revealed that a series of impacts on environmental resources during the pre- and proto-

historical age can be explained by demographic pressure models throughout the mountain

chain. The adoption of topographic rather than regional scale showed high levels of

variability and diverse spatial dynamics. Sedimentary evidence was compared and corre-

lated with archaeological and local documentary sources in this topographical approach. In

doing so, asynchronies appeared between demographic pressure models and the environ-

mental fluctuations registered in the core; asynchronies that ‘must be referred to a historical

diversification of social practices’ (Davasse 2015). It is therefore important to modify the

scale of research so as to collect and identify a large and increasing number of indicators

that provide new information about, for example, historical fire regimes and practices

(Vanniere et al. 2001; Galop et al. 2004; Rius et al. 2012) and contrasted with the study of

the environmental effects of modern fire (Metailie 1981), pastoral activities (Cugny et al.

2011), and even air pollution related to mining and iron production in mountain val-

leys (De Pascale et al. 2006). In this context, the sedimentary ‘cored sample’ evidence is

established as the ‘referentiel’. The core of the site is therefore an archive for the historical

ecology of the changing landscape and ecologies that can, in turn, be compared with

historical sequences in individual cultural landscapes around which the historical inter-

pretation of results can be organized (Davasse 2015).

Several fieldwork investigations and discussions were conducted in a specific section of

the north Italian Apennines in order to explore and appreciate the full historical dimensions

of biodiversification processes. An integrated micro-regional scale was adopted in these

studies in which prehistoric to post-medieval archaeological, environmental and sedi-

mentary sources were examined from a local perspective (Menozzi et al. 2007). Over

25-cored sites in the Trebbia and Aveto valleys were investigated by the multidisciplinary

Laboratorio di Archeologia e Storia Ambientale (LASA) at the Universita degli Studi di

Genova. Composed of ecologist, archaeobotanists, archeologists, geographers and histo-

rians from the Laboratorio di Archeologia e Storia Ambientale (LASA), Dipartimento di

Antichita, Filosofia e Storia (DAFIST) and the Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra,

dell’Ambiente e della Vita (DISTAV), research on the Trebbia-Aveto watershed began in

2000 with a series of international investigations (http://www.dismec.unige.it/zum/)

Biodivers Conserv

123

exploring the archaeology of Ligurian wetlands (Branch 2004; Cevasco et al. 2009; Maggi

and De Pascale 2011). The naturalistic importance of many of the studied wetland sites is

reflected by their inclusion in the EU Natura 2000 network. Some of the sites have been

identified as having proto-historical origins and as such have long histories as watering

holes in a changing series of pastoral cultural landscapes. The stratigraphic archives of all

of the sites indicate significant histories as cultural landscapes and as such are important

archaeological, biological and cultural heritage areas (Maggi et al. 2009; Menozzi et al.

2010, Guido et al. 2013). However, despite this, recommendations for the protection of

these areas and sites-types are still yet to be considered by the Italian Cultural Heritage

Ministry.

Orry de Theo (1600 masl), Bassies Valley, Pyrenean Mountains, France

Investigations based on historical and paleo data at a small peat bog at Orry de Theo

(1600 masl), in the Bassies Valley, Pyrenean Mountains (Pyrenees ariegeois, France) were

an example of ‘integrated micro-regional research’ (Pyrenean valley scale). The study

(Galop et al. 2011) compared variations in pollen richness between 1810 and 2010 AD

with grazing pressure, pastoral fire practices, soil erosion and demographic trends (Fig. 1).

Variations in palynological richness are considered to reflect the floristic diversity and

vegetation and landscape dynamics over time (Galop et al. 2011; Berglund et al. 2008).

The sequence of changes observed in the valley since the beginning of the nineteenth

century indicates that the loss of floristic diversity resulted from the decline in grazing

activities and pressures. Investigations of peat bog site cores in the Natura 2000 Site of

Community Interest (SCI) ‘Lago Marcotto-Roccabruna-Gifarco-Lago della Nave’ (SIC

Fig. 1 Sequence of graphs contrasting population trends of the commune d’Auzat and grazing pressure(ovine/bovine stock) from textual sources compared with the estimated palynological richness, 1810–2010(from Galop et al. 2011). The shaded areas refer to respective chronological periods (L–R): nineteenthcentury, early twentieth century, post-World War II period to the present day

Biodivers Conserv

123

IT331012) in the Upper Trebbia Valley, North Italian Apennines uncovered similar evi-

dence concerning the environmental effects of agro-silvo-pastoral practices dating

5040 ± 100 BP (Cevasco 2007). This site, known locally as ‘Moglia di Casanova’

(1056 masl), was part of common land and is the subject of a project involving local actors

(‘commoners’) and local governmental management plans that aimed to restore the bio-

diversity of the wetlands that have been reduced by decades of abandonment of the

practices associated with the past use of common lands. These projects were coordinated

by and between the Province of Genoa, the Forest Service, University departments and

local stakeholders.

These projects sought to enhance the living collective resources and environmental

heritage of the area and were based on the re-activation of the environmental effects of

‘placed knowledge’ and practices, such as coppicing, mowing, water-channelling, fountain

restoration and unconfined-fire practices. Applied research in historical ecology and

environmental archaeology has explored the presence of historic activation practices and

experimented with their effects on the present biodiversity of the SCI (Cevasco 2013a;

Beltrametti et al. 2014; Cevasco and Moreno 2015). This series of studies were carried out

with particular reference to those conducted concerning the application of local fire

practices in managing pastoral landscapes in the French Pyrenees during the 1980s

(Metailie 1981).

Gosciona (1050 masl), Aveto Valley, Northwest Italian Apennines, Italy

The site at Gosciona was part of a group of cored soil sites in the Upper Trebbia and Aveto

valleys, northwest Italian Apennines. Investigations at the site documented variations in

the biodiversity of vegetation cover (taxa and habitat) that can be attributed to the envi-

ronmental effects of local historical practices that have been abandoned since the end of

nineteenth century. In order to implicate and enforce this causation factor, the dated

temporal patterns shown by the pollen diagram must correlate with the historical existence

of a local multiple land use system (‘alnocoltura’) and consider that the abandonment of

the local practices (including controlled fire) may not necessarily be correlated to local

demographic trends (Molinari 2010; Stagno and Molinari 2014; Molinari and Montanari

2015).

‘Alnocoltura’ is a highly specialized cyclic agro-silvo-pastoral system employed in the

production of cereals for human consumption such as rye (Secale cereale) and oats (Avena

sativa). Pollen evidence dates the adoption of this system in the Aveto valley to at least the

eleventh century (Cevasco and Moreno, 2007; Guido et al., 2013) and archive and field

evidence document the presence and use of ‘alnocultura’ in these valleys possibly until the

late-nineteenth century (Moreno et al. 1998). The past existence of the system has now

passed out of the living memory of inhabitants in the study area (Cevasco 2010). The site

(1050 masl) is a small plot of grey—or speckled—alder (Alnus incana) interspersed with

some old stumps of common—or single-seeded -hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna). The

shrub layer is dominated by bramble (Rubus sp.), and the herb layer by bracken (Pteridium

aquilinum).

The diagram (Fig. 2) covers the upper 40 cm of the soil, 25 cm corresponding to c.

1630–1680 AD (Molinari 2010). The collapse in the microcharcoals (use of controlled

fire), the decrease of hawthorn pollen planted in the alder wood to protect the temporary

sowed plot-fields and the increase of bramble present on the fertilised soils resulting from

Biodivers Conserv

123

centuries of ‘alnocoltura’ on the slope documents the effects of the abandonment of the

practice in the upper 15 cm. The curve in the growth of hawthorn begins in the period c.

1550–1600 AD and reaches a maximum at 20 cm corresponding to c. 1750 AD. The

decrease in the richness of the taxa pollen from the bottom of the diagram to the present

Fig. 2 Palynological richness (number of plant taxa, a proxy for biodiversity) and concentration values ofmicro and macro-charcoal fragments from the historically documented alnocoltura site of Gosciona, Avetovalley, Eastern Ligurian Apennines, northern Italy (Molinari 2010, p. 307). L PAZ Local Pollen AssemblageZones; GOS 1 and GOS 2 are the name of the two L PAZ (abbreviations for ‘‘Gosciona’’)

Biodivers Conserv

123

day is continuous. At this point it is possible to identify various variants and discontinuities

in the ‘alnocultura’ system and the diverse effects of these on biodiversification processes

at the site.

The importance and interest of the ‘alnocultura’ cycle in characterizing and shaping the

historical rural landscape in this part of Apennines has been previously underlined (Ag-

noletti 2013; Molinari and Montanari 2015). Biodiversification processes have a history,

and this history can be detected in the biodiversity heritage of these processes, such as the

present population of historically activated alder that currently declining in the valleys and

the current spread of hawthorn in secondary beech-alder woodland sites.

Lago di Rezzo (780 masl), Upper Aveto valley, Northwest ItalianApennines, Italy

Core investigations were conducted at Lago di Rezzo (780 masl), near to Rezzoaglio in the

Upper Aveto valley, northwest Italian Apennines. The pollen diagram with two radiometric

age determinations covers the chronology from the twelfth to the twentieth century and

offers a reliable dating model (Menozzi et al. 2009). This chronology includes the whole of

the seigniorial economy period until the end of this system at the end of the eighteenth

century. The historical variation in microcharcoals and non-pollen palynomorphs (NPP),

such as coprophilous fungi, connects the sedimentary evidence with changes in historical

practices that resulted in different biodiversification processes affecting the area through

time. A brief discussion of the upper part of this diagram correlates the environmental

diversity recorded in the sedimentary evidence with cultural diversities in local practices

and land use described in documentary sources.

Despite the absence of palynological richness calculations, a clear shift in the recorded

taxa reflects the adoption of a new production system in the surrounding basin slopes based

on permanent terraced fields, ‘improved’ meadows, bovine pastures, and the growing of

chestnuts in orchard plantations during the mid-nineteenth century. At the same time, some

indicator taxa disappeared from the site, particularly those associated with the previous

multiple system centred on turkey oak (Quercus cerris) wood-pasture (Cevasco 2012,

2013b). The multiple systems landscape presents a local type of land use referred to in

documentary records as ‘terre alberate’ (‘lands with trees’). This land use system was

characterised by temporary cropland bearing trees intended for the production of leaf-

fodder, hay and cereals in a temporary cultivation crop system (c. 1600–1750 AD).5 The

diagram reveals the contrasted variations of some indicator species during this shift; turkey

oak (Quercus cerris) [vs] common sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia), rye (Secale cereale)

[vs] maize (Zea mays); field sorrel (Rumex acetosella) [vs] common sorrel (Rumex

acetosa).

The decline of oaks (Quercus spp.) corresponds with the decline of cereals, the collapse

of microcarbons and coprophilous fungi, and the increase of true grasses (Poaceae), maize

5 The term ‘terre alberate’ was used in post-medieval documents regarding the seigniorial system and wasstill used in official forestry administration sources in 1822. The shredding of turkey oak (Quercus cerris) inmultiple intensive systems including the temporary sowing of minor cereals were part of this type of landuse. Descriptions of 1305 plots of land in the parish containing the studied sites permitted the identificationof different population patterns of turkey oak and forming many different vegetation patterns distinguishablewith a detailed local system of land use taxonomy (Bosco alberato, Terra alberata, bosco alberato di costi,terra prativa, pascolativa e coltiva, pascolo alberato, terra con costi, cespugli, arbusti). Oaks also appearedin a plot co-planted with alder and beech (Bertolotto and Cevasco 2000).

Biodivers Conserv

123

(Zea mays), and sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) from the 1820s. This point in the diagram

marks the change in the management of oak (Quercus, spp.) trees. Turkey oaks appear to

have been largely removed from ‘terre alberate’ (‘lands with trees’) during the nineteenth

and twentieth centuries in order to promote the establishment of permanent fields, par-

ticularly of maize and potatoes, and to ‘improve’ pastures and meadows with newly-sown

species, such as sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) The previous temporary fields and mul-

tiple systems were intended to provide pasture and produce fodder for intense sheep

grazing in large transhumance movements that centred on the management of common

lands. The appearance of sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) in the pastures of the Aveto

Valley during the mid-nineteenth century altered the species diversity of the pasture and

meadows and the pastoral value of these areas. In turn, these changes have directly affected

the production and composition of local cheeses and associated economies (Cevasco and

Moreno 2013). Some components of the previous cultural landscape survive in modern

land use systems despite the abandonment of transhumant sheep grazing in the area around

Lago Rezzo and the surrounding slopes. For example, a number of old shredded turkey

oaks shared by different family groups can still be found on a slope just above Lago Rezzo,

in an area called ‘Bandito di Amborzasco’, a place name that indicates common lands

practices. Fodder was still produced in the 1980s within small family farms specializing in

the cheese making, and as such were living fragments of historical landscapes descended

from eighteenth-century turkey oak wood-pastures. In addition, minor flora of the herba-

ceous layer occasionally did not disappear within managed trees areas where activation

practices, such as shredding, recreated environmental conditions stimulating the local

reproduction of species, such as Gentiana kochiana (E.P. Perrier & Songeon) and Plantago

serpentina.

Pian Brogione (1100–1190 masl), Trebbia valley, Northwest ItalianApennines, Italy

A 250 cm core extracted at Pian Brogione (1100–1190 masl) in the parish of Casanova,

Trebbia valley, northwest Italian Apennines documented a regressive sequence from the

present day to the twelfth century AD. An impressive variation in habitat and landscapes

inside this common land were found in the regressive sequence (Branch et al. 2002). Such

landscape changes have been correlated with changes in practices rather than changes in

the global climate changes, particularly those undergone during the period known as the

‘Little Ice Age’ (Cevasco et al. 2015). The Pian Brogione plateau lies at almost 200 m

above the present north Apennine sweet chestnut fructification line, that current literature

states to be c. 800–900 masl in this section of the Apennines. Two peaks of chestnut pollen

expansion are documented in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and in the seventeenth

and eighteenth centuries. The medieval plantation expanded into a landscape characterized

by scattered beech and fir that co-existed with an abundant herbaceous layer. An almost

undisturbed slow peat deposition in the core indicated a modest use of fire management

and low grazing activities. The presence of Fabaceae indicator species reveals that the

post-medieval plantation was connected with temporary crop cultivation. The higher

amount of microcharcoal deposition found in this core section is consistent with the use of

fire practices in the multifunctional management of pastureland bearing chestnut trees or

chestnut wooded pasture, the effect of which has been described in the historical ecology

of the near Upper Vara Valley (Grove and Rackham 2001).

Biodivers Conserv

123

Discussion

The employment of mountain site sedimentary sources in integrated micro-regional (a

multi-cored area) historical ecology research into local-scale (from the coring sites to the

individual landscape scale) biodiversification processes enables the precise study of tem-

poral variations in species and taxa richness and trait that are not solely based on their

presence or absence in core sequencing. At the same time the coring site is an integral part

of the location itself whose sediments, soils and vegetation canopy also record changes and

continuity in the patterns of activity in line Ingold’s ‘dwellers perspective’. Such activities

and practices are best historically identified and characterised through the use of a

regressive topographical approach to In the historical ecology; tracing the site history and

concurrent historical-environmental processes from the present to the past.

As outlined by the case studies, the regressive approach enables the observation of

discontinuities thereby facilitating a greater understanding of the historical asynchronies

and anomalies that can appear in sedimentary evidence, therefore avoiding simplistic

generalizations concerning system disturbances. The examination of multi-scale spatial

relationships between the biodiversity of past and present ‘individual landscapes’ make

specific sites archives for the study of landscape scale biodiversification processes. The

core-sampled site must therefore be studied in tandem with the topographical distribution

of conventional archaeological sites in the area, especially when studying specific rural

landscapes as part of wider European bio-cultural heritage.

A large amount of historical information concerning local practices can be derived from

examination of the site as it is found today, not only in terms of the uses of documentary

evidence, but also through the correlation of specific field and site evidence derived from

post-medieval rural archaeology, a field of research that is arguably more prone to influ-

ences from global environmental history approaches (Schreg 2014) despite exhibiting an

interest in the integration of sources suggested by the local historical approach (Stagno

et al. 2013; Stagno 2015).

Approaching the historical study of biodiversification processes regressively highlights

the potential insights derived from multidisciplinary, site-specific historical ecology

investigations. Further development of this approach can contribute to a better definition

and understanding of the intentions and possibilities of environmental archaeology

developed since originating from woodland archaeology and contribute to discussions

concerning the specific uses of local documentary evidence in global environmental his-

tory.6 As detailed previously, such a broad, considerable reconfiguration is required before

‘common questions’ in the field of environmental and cultural conservation studies can be

answered by multi or interdisciplinary applications and approaches (Szabo 2010).

Site-level sedimentary sources recorded that historical changes in medieval and post-

medieval local practices, the activation and production of environmental resources systems

and embedded ‘placed environmental knowledge’ were crucial drivers in co-related,

contemporary variations in site level biodiversification processes. The local approach is

essential in order to corroborate the sedimentary evidence for changes in taxa and habitat

with rapid changes in land use and forest cover following changes in local production and

practice systems, such as the multiple agro-sylvo-pastoral land use systems in Apennine

common lands. The regressive history of land use therefore requires a specific historical

6 The plea for historical ecology perspectives were clearly proposed by Professor Oliver Rackham(1939–2015) to British environmental archaeologists during the infancy of the field in the early 1980s,however with seemingly little success (Rackham 1998).

Biodivers Conserv

123

analytical approach to documentary and archival sources in tandem with evidence derived

from in situ field studies (Beltrametti et al. 2014).7

Conclusion

The long, tangled roots of historical ecology can be found intertwined with those of

academic studies in agriculture, forestry and geography in mid to late-nineteenth century

and are particularly related to discussions concerning ‘Man-Nature’ relationships following

Perkins Marsh (Szabo 2010). In many parts of Europe, the historical approach adopted in

many of these disciplines was widely born out of the development of the natural and social

sciences since the seventeenth century. Recent studies in forest and woodland history have

shown that the rise of historical ecology in the 1970s represented a distinct break with the

legacy and traditions of nineteenth-century scientific historiography (Cevasco and Moreno

2015). During the origins of this new historical approach, a relatively small interdisci-

plinary research team in Britain conceived and develop an approach to historical ecology

that fitted with the unique tradition of naturalist field studies and the unusual—from a

continental perspective—practice of carrying out field studies as part of local or topo-

graphical history (Beckett and Watkins 2011). Such research consciously avoided nine-

teenth-century specialisations in historical and geographical studies, and instead directly

referred to the ‘historical-topographical’ approach and the systematic use of multiple

sources inherited from the eighteenth-century British local history, such as those employed

by the amateur local natural historian and enthusiastic field naturalist Rev. Gilbert White

(1720—1793) whose works have a conspicuous legacy in both local history, and in global

environmental history during the 1990s (Cevasco and Moreno 2007).

In Italy discussions concerning such topics began during the 1980s when foresters,

geographers, and historians took a growing interest in environmental history studies

(Moreno et al. 1982; Armiero and Hall 2010). The combination of the approach to his-

torical ecology in Britain with theoretical developments in the social history of material

culture and topographical approaches in Italian micro-history (microstoria) were directly

influenced by the explicit connections made between them by the social and economic

historian Edoardo Grendi (1932–1999). Grendi’s affectionate interest and scientific

curiosity in archaeology and historical ecology was nurtured by British approaches to

social anthropology that had recently become deeply critical of the use of sources based on

traditions in British local history (Grendi 1996; Balzaretti et al. 2004; Raggio 2004;

Balzaretti 2013; Moreno 2013).8

Since the late 1990s, the differences between historical ecology and studies in which the

nineteenth-century scientific legacy of the nature-culture dichotomy persists have become

increasingly pronounced in environmental history, A number of findings resulting from

7 A regressive history of local common-land use and practice in this section of the NW Apennines wasestablished through the combination of archival and field evidence collected since 2010 as part of a scientificcollaboration between departments at the Universita degli Studi di Genova and the Universita del PiemonteOrientale ‘‘A. Avogadro’’(Cevasco 2013a, b; Beltrametti et al. 2014).8 Professor Edoardo Grendi (1932–1999) was one of the creators of the longstanding Permanent Seminar onLocal History (SEMPER) in the early 1990s. The activities of this seminar are central in the research themesof the Laboratorio di Archeologia e Storia Ambientale (LASA) and of the doctoral school the Universitadegli Studi di Genova. Further information concerning the activities of the Permanent Seminar on LocalHistory 2014–2015 (SEMPER) dedicated to discussions relating to the history and archaeology of envi-ronmental resources can be found at: http://www.dafist.unige.it/?page_id=1297 (Website in Italian).

Biodivers Conserv

123

historical ecology approaches to European woodland are also particularly pertinent to

present problems posed by and to the management of the biodiversity and cultural heritage

of individual sites and landscapes (Kirby and Watkins 2015). Firstly, the conservation and

management of local biodiversity and landscapes requires beyond conventional disci-

plinary training in forestry and agronomy. The realisation of the limits of mono-disci-

plinary specialisation in scientific research and the acceptance of the necessity of adding

the historical explorations of ‘placed environmental knowledge’ to the conservation sci-

ences is essential. Secondly, it is important to overcome overly simplistic ecological or

legal categorisations and classifications of ecosystems, habitats, landscapes and land use.

In order to do so and as in the case of historical ecology, it is necessary to extend

methodological plurality and the range of sources consulted, particularly the use of doc-

umentary and oral sources.

As we have suggested, when observed at a local, topographical site-scale or on an

individual landscape-scale, the links between biological and cultural diversity appear more

clearly as historical products, rather than broad co-evolutionary issues relating to the ‘co-

evolution of nature and culture’ as stated in the ‘Working Document International Con-

ference on Biological and Cultural Diversity (Montreal, 8th–10th June 2010). These his-

torically produced links between biological and cultural diversity—identified as

biodiversification processes that can be uncovered and explored through the adoption of

approaches from historical ecology—are the driving forces that ‘generate’ processes of

mutual circulation in local ecological knowledge and its related practices. It is of interest to

note that such co-evolutionary assumptions clearly resulted from the application of the

human ecology and ethnobiological studies, and are not articulated nor referred to in

documentation defining European bio-cultural diversity, such as the recent ‘Florence

Declaration on the Links between Biological and Cultural Diversity’ (8th–11th April

2014). IN the conclusion of the Florence Declaration it is coherently stated that biological

and cultural diversity in Europe results from the combination of ‘of historical and on-going

environmental and land use processes and cultural heritage’. However, such conclusions

unfortunately do not appear to be coherent with the Declarations’ proposed national and

local levels ‘Actions’ where the potential for the application of a local analytical historical

approach is substituted and undermined by the ‘traditional’ knowledge, tenure, crops,

breeding, and landscapes authorised by policy.

In a recent call for ‘diverse representation in activities and decisions’ issued by the

Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), it was

suggested that an ‘expert panel should include natural scientists, social scientists,

humanities researchers, biodiversity practitioners and indigenous-knowledge networks’

(Turnhout et al. 2012). These references to ‘diverse representation’ and to ‘indigenous

knowledge’ are currently only very general concessions, and are themes only alluded to by

global environmental history or ethnobiological studies. However, when applying these

sentiments to ‘real world’ management strategies, particularly when inscribing this ethos

into consideration of bio-cultural heritage, there is a danger that ‘indigenous’ could all too

easily be interpreted as ‘local’ or ‘localized knowledge’. The implications of such an

interpretation could be that the ‘knowledge’ conserved in ‘peasant civilisations’ or ‘local

communities’ could potentially be used disproportionately in informing policy, rather than

critical, micro-historical approaches that analysis the nature of such ‘knowledges’ through

the reconstruction of interpersonal social relations so as to understand the effects of social

mechanisms of change and conflict on local action and practices (Raggio 2004; Cevasco

and Moreno 2015).

Biodivers Conserv

123

Acknowledgments The authors are indebted to the participants of the Seminario Permanente di StoriaLocale (LASA–DAFIST–DISTAV) at the Universita degli Studi di Genova for their diverse contributions tothematic and methodological discussions pertaining to the subject of this article, particularly prof. OsvaldoRaggio, Prof. Carlo Montanari, Prof. Roberto Maggi and Prof. Massimo Quaini. The authors also wish tothank Didier Galop and Chiara Molinari for providing the figures. We appreciated the constructive com-ments of the anonymous referees, which greatly improved the paper.

References

Agnoletti M (ed) (2013) Italian historical rural landscapes. Springer, DordrechtAgnoletti M (2014) Environmental thinking and cultural values: a reflection on environmental globalization

and the Mediterranean culture. Global Environ 7:13–46Armiero M, Hall M (eds) (2010) Nature and history in modern Italy. Ohio University Press, OhioArmitage D, Guldi J (2014) The history manifesto. Cambridge University Press, CambridgeBalzaretti R (2013) Dark Age Liguria: regional identity and local power, c. 400–1020. Bloomsbury, LondonBalzaretti R, Pearce M, Watkins C (eds) (2004) Ligurian landscapes: studies in archaeology, geography &

history. Accordia, LondonBeckett J, Watkins C (2011) Natural history and local history in late Victorian and Edwardian England: the

contribution of the Victoria County History. Rural Hist 22:59–87Beltrametti G, Cevasco R, Moreno D, Stagno AM (2014) Les cultures temporaires entre longue duree et

chronologie fine (montagne ligure, Italie). In: Viader R, Rendu C (eds) Cultures temporaires et feo-dalite. Les rotations culturales et l’appropriation du sol dans l’Europe medievale et moderne. PressesUniversitaires du Mirail, Toulouse, pp 235–258

Berglund BE, Gaillard MJ, Bjorkman L, Persson T (2008) Long-term changes in floristic diversity insouthern Sweden: palynological richness, vegetation dynamics and land-use. Veg Hist Archaeobot17:573–583

Bertolotto S, Cevasco R (2000) The ‘alnoculture’ system in the Ligurian eastern Apennines: archive evi-dence. In: Agnoletti M, Anderson S (eds) Methods and approaches in forest history. CAB International,Wallingford, pp 169–182

Bertrand C (2014) La nature-artefact: entre anthropisation et artialisation, l’experience du systeme GTP(Geosysteme–Territoire–Paysage). L’information geographique 78:10–25

Branch N (2004) Late wurm lateglacial and holocene environmental history of the Ligurian Apennines,Italy. In: Balzaretti R, Pearce M, Watkins C (eds) Ligurian landscapes: studies in archaeology,geography and history. Accordia, London, pp 7–69

Branch N, Guido MA, Menozzi BI, Placereani S, Montanari C (2002) Prime analisi polliniche per il sito‘Moggia di Pian Brogione’ (Casanova Di Rovegno, Ge). Archeol Postmediev 6:125–131

Cevasco R (2007) Memoria verde. Nuovi spazi per la geografia, Edizioni Diabasis, Reggio EmiliaCevasco R (2010) The environmental heritage of a past cultural landscape: the alderwoods (Alnus incana

Moench) in the upper Aveto Valley (NW Apennines). In: Armiero M, Hall M (eds) Nature and historyin modern Italy. Ohio University Press, Ohio, pp 126–140

Cevasco R (2012) A geographical heritage: the landscapes of Quercus cerris in the northern Apennines (NWItaly), Panel session ‘‘Historical Geography of the Ligurian Apennines’’, organizer Charles Watkins,XV International Conference of Historical Geographers, Book of abstracts, Prague, Czech Republic,6–10 Aug 2012

Cevasco R (2013a) Storie per la gestione di una zona umida: le ‘specie indicatrici’. In: Cevasco R (ed) Lanatura della montagna. Scritti in ricordo di Giuseppina Poggi, Oltre Edizioni, Sestri Levante,pp 156–171

Cevasco R (2013b) Dai cerri da foglia alle lupinelle: tracce dalle sequenze medievali e post-medievali delLago di Rezzo (Val d’Aveto, Rezzoaglio-GE). In: Cevasco R (ed) La Natura della Montagna. Scritti inricordo di Giuseppina Poggi, Oltre Edizioni, Sestri Levante, pp 453–465

Cevasco R, Moreno D (2013) Rural landscapes: the historical roots of biodiversity. In: Agnoletti M (ed)Italian historical rural landscapes: cultural values for the environment and rural development. Springer,Dordrecht, pp 141–152

Cevasco R, Moreno D (2015) Historical ecology in modern conservation in southern Europe. In: Kirby K,Watkins C (eds) Europe’s changing woods and forests: from wildwood to managed landscapes. CABInternational, Wallingford, pp 227–242

Cevasco R, Molinari C, Stagno AM, Zonza E (2009) The Moglia di Casanova site: new fieldwork evidencesof historical land-use, in Atti del Seminario Internazionale Wetlands as archives of the cultural

Biodivers Conserv

123

landscapes: from research to management/Le zone umide: archivi del paesaggio culturale tra ricerca egestione, Genoa, 29th–30th January 2009 [poster]

Cevasco R, Moreno D, Balzaretti R, Watkins C (2015) Historical chestnut cultures, climate and rurallandscapes in the Apennines. In: Harvey D, Perry J (eds) The future of heritage as climates change:loss, adaptation and creativity. Routledge, London, pp 130–147

Cugny C, Mazier F, Galop D (2011) Modern and fossil non-pollen palynomorphs from the Basquemountains (western Pyrenees, France): the use of coprophilous fungi to reconstruct pastoral activity.Veg Hist Archaeobot 19:391–408

Davasse B (2015) La trace des temps. Les complexes socio-ecologiques au prisme du paysage. Pour unegeographie de l’environnement impliquee. Memoire d’Habilitation a diriger des recherches (HDR),inedit scientifique non publie. Universite de Toulouse Jean-Jaures, Toulouse

De Pascale A, Maggi R, Montanari C, Moreno D (2006) Pollen, herds, jasper and copper mines: economicand environmental changes during the fourth and third millennia BC in Liguria (NW Italy). EnvironArchaeol 11:115–124

Editorial (2008) Nature 455, 18 Sept 2008, pp 63–64Editorial (2014) Nature 506, 13 Feb 2014, p 132Fuller DQ (2012) New archaeobotanical information on plant domestication from marco-remains: tracking

the evolution of domestication syndrome traits. In: Gepts P, Famula TR, Bettinger RL, Brush SB,Damania AB, Mcguire PE, Qualset CO (eds) Biodiversity in agriculture: domestication, evolution, andsustainability. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 110–135

Galop D, Mazier F, Lopez-Saez JA, Vanniere B (2004) Palynologie et histoire des activites humaines enmilieu montagnard. Bilan provisoire des recherches et nouvelles orientations methodologiques sur leversant nord des Pyrenees. Archeol du Midi Medi 21:159–170

Galop D, Houet T, Mazier F, Leroux G, Rius D (2011) Grazing activities and biodiversity history in thePyrenees: new insights on high altitude ecosystems in the framework of a human-environmentobservatory. PAGES Newslett 19:53–55

Grendi E (1996) Storia di una storia locale. L’esperienza ligure 1792–1992. Marsilio, VeniceGrove AT, Rackham O (2001) The nature of mediterranean Europe: an ecological history. Yale University

Press, New HavenGuido MA, Menozzi BI, Bellini C, Placereani S, Montanari C (2013) A palynological contribution to the

environmental archaeology of a Mediterranean mountain wetland (north west Apennines, Italy).Holocene 23:1517–1527

Gustavsson E, Dahlstrom A, Emanuelsson M, Wissman J, Lennartsson T (2011) Combining historical andecological knowledge to optimise biodiversity conservation in semi-natural grasslands. In: Lopez-PujolJ (ed) The importance of biological interactions in the study of biodiversity. InTEch Publisher,Zimbabwe

Ingold T (1993) The temporality of the landscape. World Archaeol 25:152–164Ingold T (2000) The perception of the environment: essays on livelihood, dwelling, and skill. Routledge,

LondonKirby K, Watkins C (eds) (2015) Europe’s changing woods and forests: from wildwood to managed

landscapes. CAB Int, WallingfordMaggi R, De Pascale A (2011) Fire making water on the Ligurian Apennine. In: Van Leusen M, Pizziolo G,

Sarti L (eds) Hidden landscapes of Mediterranean Europe: cultural and methodological biases in pre-and protohistoric landscape studies. British Archaeological Reports 2320, pp 105–112

Maggi R, Montanari C, Moreno D (2009) An evolving approach to the knowledge and management of theLigurian wetlands, Atti del Seminario Internazionale Wetlands as archives of the cultural landscapes:from research to management/Le zone umide: archivi del paesaggio culturale tra ricerca e gestione,Genoa, 29–30 Jan 2009 (poster)

Menozzi BI, Bellini C, Cevasco A, Cevasco R, De Pascale A, Guido MA, Maggi R, Moe D, Montanari C,Moreno D (2007) The archaeology of a peat bog in context: contribution to the study of biodiversi-fication processes in historical time (Ligurian Apennine, NW Italy). In: 4th International Congress ofMedieval and Modern Archaeology, Paris Sorbonne

Menozzi BI, Cevasco R, Montanari C (2009) Dinamiche dell’uso del suolo in una valle dell’Appenninoligure sulla base di palinomorfi pollinici e non pollinici. 104� Congresso della Societa BotanicaItaliana, Campobasso, 16th–19th Sept 2009 (poster)

Menozzi BI, Zotti M, Montanari C (2010) A non-pollen palynomorphs contribution to the local environ-mental history in the Ligurian Apennines: a preliminary study. Veg Hist Archaeobot 19:503–512

Metailie JP (1981) Le feu pastoral dans les Pyrenees centrales: Barousse, Oueil, Larboust. Editions duCNRS, Paris

Biodivers Conserv

123

Meyer RS, Purugganan MD (2013) Evolution of crop species: genetics of domestication and diversification.Nat Rev 14:840–852

Molinari C (2010) Ricerche palinologiche per l’identificazione di sistemi agro-silvo-pastorali storici.Unpublished PhD thesis, Universita di Genova

Molinari C, Montanari C (2015) Interdisciplinary approach for reconstructing an alder-based historicalagricultural practice of the Eastern Ligurian Apennines (NW Italy). Environ Archaeol. doi:10.1179/1749631414Y.0000000056

Montanari C, Moreno D (2014) Paesaggi rurali e conservazione ambientale: l’approccio storico alla scalalocale. In: Moneta V, Parola C (eds) Oltre la naturalizzazione. Studi di ecologia storica per lariqualificazione dei paesaggi rurali, Oltre Edizioni, Sestri Levante, pp 19–28

Moreno D (2003) Activation practices, history of environmental resources, and conservation. In: Sanga G,Ortalli G (eds) Nature knowledge: ethnoscience, cognition and utility. Berghahn, Oxford, pp 386–390

Moreno D (2013) L’altro lato della via Balbi. Ricerche di terreno in Liguria (1990–2010). In: Cevasco R(ed) La Natura della Montagna. Studi in ricordo di Giuseppina Poggi. Oltre Edizioni, Sestri Levante,pp 32–42

Moreno D, Cevasco R (2007) Appunti dal terreno: storia locale, storia territoriale ed ecologia storic. In:Bordone R, Guglielmotti P, Lombardini S, Torre A (eds) Lo spazio politico locale in eta medievale,moderna e contemporanea. Edizioni dell’Orso, Alessandria, pp 313–328

Moreno D, Piussi P, Rackham O (eds) (1982) Boschi: storia e archeologia. Quaderni storici 49 Ancona-Roma

Moreno D, Cevasco R, Bertolotto S, Poggi G (1998) Historical ecology and post-medieval managementpractices in alder woods (Alnus incana (L.) Moench) in the northern Apennines, Italy. In: Kirby K,Watkins C (eds) The ecological history of European forests. CAB International, Wallingford,pp 185–201

Parrotta J, Agnoletti M, Johann E (eds) (2006) Cultural heritage and sustainable forest management: the roleof traditional knowledge. In: Proceedings of the IUFRO conference held in Florence, Italy, 8th–11thJune 2006. MCPFE Liaison Unit, Warsaw

Rackham O (1998) Implications of historical ecology for conservation. In: Sutherland WJ (ed) Conservationscience and action. Blackwell Science, Malden, pp 152–175

Raggio O (2004) Microhistorical approaches to the history of Liguria: from microanalysis to local history.Edoardo Grendi’s achievements. In: Balzaretti R, Pearce M, Watkins C (eds) Ligurian landscapes:studies in archaeology, geography and history. Accordia, London, pp 97–104

Rius D, Vanniere B, Galop D (2012) Holocene history of fire, vegetation and land use from the centralPyrenees (France). Quatern Res 77:54–64

Rotherham ID (ed) (2013) Severance and the environment. The ending of traditional and customary practiceon commons and landscapes managed in common. Springer, Dordrecht

Sanga G, Ortalli G (eds) (2003) Nature knowledge: ethnoscience, cognition and utility. Berghahn Books,New York

Schreg R (2014) Ecological approaches in medieval rural archaeology. Eur J Archaeol 17:83–119Servais T, Harper DAT, Munnecke A, Owen AW, Sheehan PM (2009) Understanding the great ordovician

biodiversification event (GOBE): influences of paleogeography, paleoclimate, or paleoecology? GSAToday 19:4–10

Stagno AM (2015) Seasonal settlements and husbandry resources in Ligurian Apennines (17th–20th cen-turies). In: Collins J (ed) Malga, buron, Alm, shieling, seter, sala, orry and cayolar: seasonalexploitation of uplands from prehistory to the modern day. Equinox Publishing, Sheffield (in press)

Stagno AM, Molinari C (2014) Insediamenti e risorse dell’allevamento nell’Appennino Ligure (XVII–XIXsecolo). In: Avanzini M, Salvador I (eds) Antichi pastori. Sopravvivenze, tradizione orale, storia, traccenel paesaggio e archeologia. Atti della Tavola rotonda Bosco Chiesanuova (Vr), 26–27 ottobre 2013.Museo delle Scienze, Trento, pp 9–31

Stagno AM, Cevasco R, Parola C, Cevasco A, Montanari C, Rossi M, Gattiglia A (2013) From a monolith toa ‘‘slope history’’ at Costa dei Ghiffi (Borzonasca, Ge) section 8. In: Stagno AM (ed) Carvedmountains. Engraved stones. Environmental resources archaeology in Mediterranean Mountains,Archeologia postmedievale, 17, 2013, pp 391–433

Swetnam WT, Allen CD, Betancourt JL (1999) Applied historical ecology: using the past to manage thefuture. Ecol Appl 9:1189–1206

Szabo P (2010) Why history matters in ecology: an interdisciplinary perspective. Environ Conserv37:380–387

Turnhout E, Bloomfield B, Hulme M, Vogel J (2012) Conservation policy: listen to the voices of experience.Nature 488:454–455

Biodivers Conserv

123

Vanniere B, Galop D, Rendu C, Davasse B (2001) Feu et pratiques agro-pastorales dans les Pyrenees-Orientales: le cas de la montagne d’Enveitg (Cerdagne, Pyrenees-Orientales, France). Sud-OuestEuropeen 11:29–42

Watkins C (2014) Trees, woods and forests. A social and cultural history. Reaktion Books, London

Biodivers Conserv

123