title: Anthropological contributions to historical ecology: 50 questions, infinite prospects.
abstract: This paper presents the results of a consensus-driven process identifying 50 priority research questions for historical ecology obtained through crowdsourcing, literature reviews, and in-person workshopping. A deliberative approach was designed to maximize discussion and debate with defined outcomes. Two in-person workshops (in Sweden and Canada) over the course of two years and online discussions were peer facilitated to define specific key questions for historical ecology from anthropological and archaeological perspectives. The aim of this research is to showcase the variety of questions that reflect the broad scope for historical-ecological research trajectories across scientific disciplines. Historical ecology encompasses research concerned with decadal, centennial, and millennial human-environmental interactions, and the consequences that those relationships have in the formation of contemporary landscapes. Six interrelated themes arose from our consensus-building workshop model: (1) climate and environmental change and variability; (2) multi-scalar, multi-disciplinary; (3) biodiversity and community ecology; (4) resource and environmental management and governance; (5) methods and applications; and (6) communication and policy. The 50 questions represented by these themes highlight meaningful trends in historical ecology that distill the field down to three explicit findings. First, historical ecology is fundamentally an applied research program. Second, this program seeks to understand long-term human-environment interactions with a focus on avoiding, mitigating, and reversing adverse ecological effects. Third, historical ecology is part of convergent trends toward transdisciplinary research science, which erodes scientific boundaries between the cultural and natural.
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Chelsey Geralda
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Armstrong
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anna C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Shoemaker
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.|Hakai Institute, Heriot Bay, Quadra Island, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Iain
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: McKechnie
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anneli
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ekblom
authors.affiliation: Department of Vegetation Ecology, Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Péter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Szabó
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.|School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
authors.forename: Paul J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Lane
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America.
authors.forename: Alex C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: McAlvay
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Oliver J
authors.initials: OJ
authors.lastname: Boles
authors.affiliation: Department of History, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Walshaw
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Nik
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Petek
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America.
authors.forename: Kevin S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Gibbons
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Rice University, Houston, Texas, United States of America.
authors.forename: Erendira
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Quintana Morales
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Eugene N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: Polish-German Research Institute, Adams Mickiewicz University in Poznań, European University, Viadrina, Poland/Germany.
authors.forename: Aleksandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ibragimow
authors.affiliation: Polish-German Research Institute, Adams Mickiewicz University in Poznań, European University, Viadrina, Poland/Germany.
authors.forename: Grzegorz
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Podruczny
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Jana C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Vamosi
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Tony
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Marks-Block
authors.affiliation: Independent Scholar, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
authors.forename: Joyce K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: LeCompte
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.|Atlohsa Native Family Healing Services, Canada, London, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Sākihitowin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Awâsis
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Carly
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nabess
authors.affiliation: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sinclair
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.|Integrated History of Future of People on Earth (IHOPE) Initiative, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Carole L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Crumley
mesh_terms: D000884:Anthropology, Cultural / Q000266:history / Q000639:trends*; D044822:Biodiversity; D002170:Canada; D004463:Ecology / Q000266:history / Q000639:trends*; D017753:Ecosystem; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D019021:Natural History / Q000639:trends*; D012107:Research Design; D013548:Sweden