Description of the WG4
Marine historical ecology is an interdisciplinary research approach that draws upon historical sources to understand the dynamics and changes in marine ecosystems over decadal to centennial time scales, as well as the drivers of these changes (both social and ecological). This working group aims to understand and expand upon our state of knowledge of a) the distribution and functioning of MAF systems prior to the commencement of ecological monitoring, b) how these systems have responded to human impacts (direct and indirect) over time, and c) how human uses of and values associated with MAF systems have changed over time and what this means for their future conservation and management. This WG will thus have particularly close links with WGs 2, 5, 6 and 7.
Activity 1
Review of historical ecology on MAF. Tasks: a. Group members contacted and confirmed. b. Review on existing MAF Literature (scientific, government and popular literature) c. Organise and classify literature review results on existing knowledge of historical MAF distribution, structure and functioning. d. Writing and submission of manuscripts to publish according to COST requirements of High Impact Standards.
Activity 2
Historical Ecology Workshop. Tasks: a. Identify, contact and confirm workshop participants. b. Hold workshop. c. Identification of common protocols for historical archival data mining and interpretation. d. Build a publically available metadatabase, to encourage further analysis of the existing literature.
Activity 3
New Data. Tasks: a. Identify, contact and confirm collaboration with ecologists, historians and social scientists throughMAF-WORLD network, to move the state of knowledge forward, with particular emphasis on historical distributions, ecological functioning, and human uses and values associated with these systems over time. b. Identification of sources/potential locations of sources. c. Identification and initiation of research into previously unexamined collections (e.g., government institutions, museums, library collections). d. Analysis and peer reviewed paper.
