Description
The longest and best-studied record of the ways in which human activities have transformed the world is found in the Mediterranean Basin, encompassing both the earliest known agricultural landuse and the earliest civilizations to become dependent on these human-managed socioecosystems. We use recent advances in geospatial and agent-based modeling to integrate this information into a laboratory for investigating the coupled, long-term dynamics of human landuse and landscapes.

This interdisciplinary study focuses on two ecologically diverse regions at opposite ends of the Mediterranean Basin, eastern Spain and the southern Levant in Jordan. These locales encompass much of the social and natural variability of the entire region and offer socioecological parallels with semi-arid environments globally. We address: 1) the effects the of growth in agropastoral systems on biodiversity; 2) the impacts of landuse intensification on landscape resilience and vulnerability to degradation; and 3) the long-term sustainability of human maintained socioecosystems in varying environmental and social contexts.

By studying the Mediterranean record we can begin to appreciate the long-term consequences of past and present land use decisions on earths landscape and society, and use this understanding to make more informed decisions today.

Our work is tightly integrated with an active educational program for undergraduate and graduate students and is geared towards hands-on training in the research process.

For additional information, visit the project website.

Research Team

Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics