Land-use legacies in ecosystems: impacts of historical land use on carbon storage and species composition in Quebec

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Anthropogenic land-use is the most pervasive and persistent driver of change in ecosystems. At the global scale, land-use is the second greatest source of net carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere and the most important driver of biodiversity loss. Moreover, land-use legacies can persist for thousands of years after direct use has ceased through altered nutrient cycling and species composition. Despite the importance of land-use legacies in ecosystems, many of the underlying mechanisms are still not well understood. The role of land-use history in driving the critical terrestrial carbon sink, for example, remains uncertain, as do the mechanisms by which land use history affects biodiversity.