Review
The Anthropocene concept in ecology and conservation

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Highlights

  • The term ‘Anthropocene’ was coined in 2000 to refer to the current, human-dominated time period.

  • It is being considered as a potential geological epoch, following the Holocene.

  • Ecologists have used it to argue for more attention to human-dominated ecosystems.

  • In conservation biology, it has sparked a divisive debate on the philosophy and aims of the discipline.

The term ‘Anthropocene’ was first used in the year 2000 to refer to the current time period in which human impacts are at least as important as natural processes. It is currently being considered as a potential geological epoch, following on from the Holocene. While most environmental scientists accept that many key environmental parameters are now outside their Holocene ranges, there is no agreement on when the Anthropocene started, with plausible dates ranging from the Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions to the recent globalization of industrial impacts. In ecology, the Anthropocene concept has focused attention on human-dominated habitats and novel ecosystems, while in conservation biology it has sparked a divisive debate on the continued relevance of the traditional biocentric aims.

Section snippets

Origins of the Anthropocene concept

The word ‘Anthropocene’ (from the Greek Anthropos ‘human being’ and kainos ‘new’) was first used by Crutzen and Stoermer in 2000 [1], although the concept is considerably older. They proposed this new term for a new geological epoch ‘to emphasize the central role of mankind in geology and ecology’. Various similar definitions have been suggested subsequently, but the basic concept is that humans are now a major geological and environmental force, as important as, or more important than, natural

Are we in the Anthropocene?

The pervasiveness, magnitude, and variety of human impacts leave little doubt that we are currently in a distinct time period from an environmental viewpoint. It can be argued that the geological impacts so far are shallow and could be obliterated by ‘another extended interval of voluminous flood basalts or another large asteroid impact’ [2], but this must have been true at the beginning of other geological periods. While geologists might be concerned with the detectability of the Anthropocene

When did it start?

The major practical problem with the Anthropocene concept is choosing an agreed start date. The environmental parameters listed above did not move out of their Holocene ranges at the same time. Ecologists have had little problem with a diachronous start (i.e., starting at different times in different places), depending on the date at which human impacts became regionally significant: for example, ‘New Zealand …represents the last place on earth to enter the Anthropocene, with the first human

The Anthropocene in ecology

The recent literature shows that both ecologists and conservation biologists increasingly recognize that we are in the Anthropocene. Most usage is informal, but the implied start date is usually within the past few decades, rather than the earlier dates favored by many in the earth sciences. Responses to this recognition vary widely. On the one hand, the use of the term often has a purely negative connotation, as shorthand for all that is wrong with the world (e.g., [31]). On the other hand,

The Anthropocene in conservation

The conservation community has also emphasized ‘planetary stewardship’, as well as the need for conservation to recognize and deal with the pervasiveness and irreversibility of Anthropocene impacts. The most important changes in the ways that conservation biologists think and act have come from two parallel realizations: that conservation can no longer focus only on preserving and restoring ecosystems of the past, because this will be impossible in many places, and that we can no longer treat

The Anthropocene in social sciences

Social scientists have been quick to point out that the current focus on the biophysical aspects of global environmental change makes little sense when the problems being studied are caused by humans, harm humans, and can only be solved by humans [50]. There is clearly an urgent need to understand the links between biophysical and social processes of change, and to integrate contributions from across the social sciences: economists, geographers, demographers, sociologists, anthropologists,

Concluding remarks

The Anthropocene concept has proved a useful shorthand for anthropogenic global change and has made it impossible to treat the present period as ‘business as usual’, with consequences for how ecological research and conservation management are conceptualized and conducted. A decision to formalize the Anthropocene with a start date sometime in the industrial era would be consistent with most current usage, with a post-1945 date likely to most acceptable in both ecology and conservation.

Acknowledgments

The author benefited greatly from discussions with Alice Hughes, Alison Wee, David Dudgeon, and Sophie Williams.

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