Work

Traditional land use is integral to ecological function in SW Madagascar

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Historic land-use practices are important for understanding present-day patterns of ecological productivity and resilience. A longstanding challenge, however, has been how to discern different land-use activities across landscapes from archaeological and historic data. Here, we show how multispectral satellite imagery and machine learning can identify different subsistence strategies of past human land-use. Looking at coastal, southwest Madagascar, a location often cited as an example of how human land-use has degraded the island's ecosystems, we show that centuries of traditional land-use practices are positively correlated with ecosystem function. Therefore, future actions to address contemporary ecological degradation on Madagascar, and elsewhere, should consider historic land-use practices and their long-term effects on ecosystem function. Such relationships are fundamental for protecting environmental systems.

Source: Scientific Reports

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-16992-5

Authors: Dylan S. Davis, George Manahira, Bram Tucker, Kristina Douglass

Institutions: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, University of Georgia

Language: English

Topic: Land Use and Ecosystem Services

Subfield: Global and Planetary Change

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Life on land

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,690