Zurich, Switzerland

Phone: +41 44-739 21 11
Fax: +41 44-739 22 15

Email: wslinfo@wsl.ch

Human activities are important drivers of landscape development and ecosystem change. Consequently, the relevance of considering human impacts has become increasingly popular in ecology over the past several decades. Historical ecology has been promoted as an integrative approach for the study of human impacts on ecosystems and landscapes over time and as a prerequisite to understand current day ecosystems and landscapes.

At this conference, we do not aim at a consensus on what historical ecology is, but strive to determine promising developments in methodological diversity and interdisciplinary challenges in historical ecology. To facilitate a stimulating exchange of ideas, we will not have parallel sessions and the number of participants will be limited to 150.

We defined four major frontiers in historical ecology and consequently, the conference will be structured in four sessions.

• (A) Relevance of historical information in times of global change
• (B) Beyond case studies in historical ecology - the search for general patterns of ecosystem change
  (C) Historical ecology and ecosystem modeling
• (D) Problems and possibilities on the border between historical ecology and environmental history/archaeology

For all four sessions, we welcome contributions ranging from conceptual to empirical papers, based on various methods and approaches and encompassing all types of ecosystems. Contributions should focus on ecosystem and landscape development considering human impacts and be relevant for their present and future management.