ANALYZING HISTORIC ECOTONAL SHIFTS

Complex chains of mutual causation in human-environment relations may be analyzed by tracing past human interaction with the environment at the global, regional, and local scales. Historical analogues can be effectively employed to model the range of potential climate anywhere in the world. Their advantages include the use of actual regional airmass, hydrology, pedology, topography, and species distributional data, in addition to archaeology, documents, and ethnography. Of mediating importance are regions and landscapes, which manifest past and present human-environment relations and focus practical contemporary questions. The shifting position of ecotones is a convenient temporal and spatial marker of inclusive ecosystemic change. Ongoing research in Burgundy (France) is offered as an example.