Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Environmental Legacy of Historic Human Land Use

农业和放牧的环境影响是全世界关注的一个主要问题，特别是对土壤和植被的长期影响。在苏格兰西部，几个世纪以来的农业和放牧活动在世纪中期停止了，在景观中留下了地表痕迹。在理解这种土地利用如何特别影响地下土壤和它们继续支持的植被方面仍然存在差距。该项目将确定苏格兰西部历史性土地使用的环境影响，重点是偏远的诺克斯维尔半岛。历史数据和考古地图将用于指导取样，以捕捉夏季牧场定居点的耕地和未耕地以及放牧梯度之间的差异。由于包括粪肥和海藻在内的土壤改良剂，预计残留农田和夏季定居点周围的土壤将更加肥沃，质地更好。不同土地使用区内的样地将反映植被和土壤的差异。将在每个地块中记录植物物种丰度和植物位置数据，并收集土壤样品进行表征，包括粒度、pH值、有机质、碳、氮和磷。记录的土地使用变量将包括耕作历史和到夏季定居点的距离，作为衡量放牧强度的一个指标。聚类分析将被用来对植被群落进行分类，多元排序将被用来揭示个体变量在解释植物物种分布中的重要性。研究结果将确定与过去土地利用区域相关的详细土壤和植被特性，这些特性到目前为止一直是视觉相关的。研究重点是与过去耕作和放牧相关的土壤特性如何决定当前的植被格局。虽然较好的土壤和植被往往与该地区过去的土地使用区有关，但这一点尚未得到科学检验。研究重点是整个历史土地利用景观，为西北欧带来新的综合。研究结果将允许在挪威类似的田园景观的研究地点进行比较，并可能延长该地区的环境遗产研究的时间跨度100年。除了强调科学上被忽视的文化土壤外，所有数据和研究结果都将与约翰·缪尔信托基金会和知识产权基金会共享。这两个组织都积极参与生态恢复，并寻求更充分地了解它们管理的生态资源。这项研究的数据将被纳入由Knopartart基金会和他们在Inverie的游客中心提供的网络文化历史内容。

Environmental impacts of agriculture and grazing are a major concern worldwide, particularly the long-term impacts on soils and vegetation. Centuries of agricultural and grazing activity ceased in the mid-nineteenth century in western Scotland, leaving surface traces in the landscape. A gap remains in understanding how this land use specifically affected the subsurface soils and the vegetation they continue to support. This project will identify the environmental impacts of historic land use in western Scotland, focusing on the remote Knoydart peninsula. Historical data and archaeological maps will be used to guide sampling which captures differences between cultivated and uncultivated areas and grazing gradients in summer pasture settlements. More fertile, finer-textured soils are anticipated within relict fields and around summer settlements as a result of soil amendments including manure and seaweed. Sample plots within the different land-use areas will capture vegetation and soil differences. Plant species abundance and landscape-position data will be recorded in each plot, and soil samples collected for characterization including particle size, pH, organic matter, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Land-use variables recorded will include cultivation history and distance to summer settlement as a measure of grazing intensity. Cluster analysis will be used to classify vegetation communities, and multivariate ordination will be used to reveal the importance of individual variables in explaining plant species distributions. The results will identify detailed soil and vegetation properties associated with past land-use areas that have until now been visual correlations.The research focuses on how soil properties associated with past cultivation and grazing determine current vegetation patterning. While better soil and vegetation is frequently associated with past land-use areas in the region this has not been scientifically tested. The research focuses on the total historic land-use landscape, bringing a synthesis new to northwestern Europe. Results will allow comparison of the study site with analogous pastoral landscapes in Norway and possibly extend the temporal span of environmental legacy research in the region by 100 years. In addition to highlighting scientifically ignored cultural soils, all data and findings will be shared with both the John Muir Trust and the Knoydart Foundation. Both organizations are actively engaged in ecological restoration and seek fuller understanding of the ecological resources they manage. Data from this study will be incorporated into web delivered cultural history content served by the Knoydart Foundation and at their visitor centre in Inverie.