Biosphere-human feedbacks: a physical geography perspective

Researching and Teaching the Anthropocene

“…There are planetary boundaries in environmental factors such as nitrogen levels or sea surface temperature that can shift global conditions to ranges outside those with recent geological histories (e.g., Benito‐Garzón, Leadley, and Fernández‐Manjarrés ; Malanson ; Steffan and others ). This suggests the need for similar evaluations in ecosystems or watersheds, downscaling from global assessments in order to make predictions of environmental limits or thresholds in particular kinds of utilized and inhabited landscapes.…”

Biogeography of the Anthropocene

“…Researchers continue to examine implications for disturbance regimes and water/carbon/nutrient cycles (Bowman, 2014; Gerten, 2013), for rethinking ecosystem design and management (Morse et al, 2014), for reevaluating the effects of reducing isolation and area on island biota due to human influences (Ficetola and Padoa-Schioppa, 2009; Helmus et al, 2014; Rick et al, 2014), for analytically separating the effects of temporal change on biological systems (Wolkovich et al, 2014), and for reconsidering ways of characterizing human-nature relationships (e.g. Biermann and Mansfield, 2014; Malanson, 2014). There are now several journals dedicated to these and additional concerns from the geosciences, social sciences, and biological sciences: Anthropocene , Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene , The Anthropocene Review .…”