Doctoral Dissertation Research: Assessing landscape disturbance and recovery across a WWI battlefield: Verdun, France

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AbstractWarfare and the physical environment have always shared a close and interconnected relationship. Throughout history, warfare has dramatically altered the face of the cultural and physical landscape. Despite this, warfare remains an often overlooked form of anthropogenic disturbance. While a large body of literature examines the ability of the physical environment to influence battle outcomes, a limited degree of research explores the inverse relationship, that is, the various effects of warfare upon the environment. The destruction associated with modern warfare is particularly catastrophic due to the extent, magnitude, and duration of contemporary wars. These large magnitude disturbances radically alter the shape of the landscape, limiting the ability of the landscape to revert back to its original state. By pursuing two research objectives, this dissertation research will examine landscape disturbance and recovery across the World War I battlefield of Verdun, France. The first research objective seeks to characterize the degree of disturbance across the battlefield. Eight study sites will be surveyed that best reflect the varying degrees of disturbance, while maintaining similar environmental characteristics, e.g., bedrock and soil type, across the battlefield. Disturbance magnitude will be determined by sampling the many craters derived from explosive munitions. Crater size and density will be a focus of the sampling, as these are long-lasting indicators of disturbance severity. Additionally, a survey of microtopography at each of the study sites, when presented in slope profile, will be used to compare disturbance magnitude. The microtopographic survey, in each of eight study sites, will record changes in elevation to the nearest centimeter along several transects. The second research objective seeks to characterize and understand spatial patterns of landscape recovery across the battlefield. It is based primarily on parameters associated with soil and vegetation data. Vegetation data will be sampled while surveying landscape disturbance in objective one; these data will reflect species diversity, variety in structure, density, and basal area; i.e. forest stand quality. Soils and their development will be based upon application of the Runge (1973) pedogenic model, which relates soil development to (1) water available for leaching and (2) organic matter production. Soil development will be ascertained by examining the degree of leaching of various cations from the soil profile and the character/amount of organic matter that has accumulated to form the O and A horizons. Also assessed will be soil pH and clay contents, which should correlate to soil development parameters set forth within the model.This study will provide insight into the ability of a landscape to recover following a catastrophic anthropogenic disturbance. Given the controversy surrounding the environmental implications of modern military operations around the world, via both training and actual combat, it is important to examine the impact military disturbances exert on the landscape. Additionally, humans are increasingly reshaping the face of the earth through activities such as mining, logging, intensive agriculture, and warfare. An understanding of landscape recovery through the holistic approach of studying geomorphic, soil, and bio-ecologic factors will help to better manage and restore severely disturbed landscapes in the future. Such work not only promises to open broad avenues of research within the context of geomorphology, it also serves to provide society with a better understanding of how and to what degree landscapes recover, following a catastrophic anthropogenic disturbance such as war.