Author(s):
Laura C. Schneider* - Rutgers University
S. Hamburg - Brown University
M. Vandecouver - Brown University
J. Mustard - Brown University
Abstract:
Recent syntheses of case studies are revealing an emerging broad conceptualization of land-use and land-cover change intricately linked to socio-economic changes and the ecological characteristics of the landscape. Beginning with a largely unsettled or native landscape, land-use commonly evolves from frontier clearing and resource extraction to agriculture and managed resources to urban settlements and intensive agriculture. Coupled to this linear representation are socio-economic changes that are critical drivers to the magnitude, rate and ecological impact of the land-cover and use change. With land cover changes specific impacts are observed on the coupled systems. These impacts constitute legacies or conditions that constrain subsequent land-cover and use and define the type of coupled human-environment system. Revealing and quantifying the influence of legacies on current landscape patterns and processes based on an understanding of the historical socio-economic drivers and landscape conversion is the critical first step.
In Grafton, NH spatial patterns of development are closely associated with colonial road patterns, which relate to previous land-uses, forest composition and water quality. In addition these lands provide some of the highest rates of carbon sequestration, as the soils accumulate carbon at a faster rate than non-agriculturally disturbed soils and the rates of biomass accumulation do not differ from those on cutover lands. Yet these lands are the most sought after for development, as they are proximate to existing town-maintained roads. The only way to accurately predict future surface water quality and carbon sequestration in this region is to understand spatially explicit patterns of historic land-uses.
