Descripción del proyecto
Estudio del pasado del Mediterráneo para comprender la resiliencia de los ecosistemas marinos actuales
La ecología marina histórica ha aumentado la comprensión del estado de los ecosistemas marinos en el pasado y ha ayudado a desarrollar políticas para abordar su deterioro actual. El objetivo del proyecto financiado con fondos europeos MERMAID es dilucidar cómo los fenómenos ambientales y la explotación antrópica afectaron en el pasado a los recursos marinos del Mediterráneo y cómo se adaptaron las sociedades antiguas a los cambios en los ecosistemas. El proyecto desarrollará una síntesis de arqueo-pesquera sin precedentes (M-ARCHIVES) que abarcará varios milenios, lo que ampliará notablemente la escala temporal conocida y ayudará a volver a condiciones marinas prístinas. También se evaluará el alcance de las antiguas estrategias de pesca y se tratará de identificar los primeros impactos ambientales de la pesca. Los resultados tendrán un gran valor para síntesis histórica y política de la gestión marina.
Objetivo
Facing today’s radical deterioration of marine ecosystems, marine historical ecology has a pivotal role in measuring the impacts of past environmental and human pressures on marine biodiversity, with the aim of understanding the resilience of socio-ecosystems and proposing a sustainable management of marine resources. Recent studies confirm that human groups begun “fishing down the food web” earlier than previously believed. The Mediterranean, this palimpsest landscape, offers a unique archive of undisrupted sea-harvesting activities and a precious palaeoenvironmental indicator, i.e. the remains of marine organisms from archaeological excavations. Although independent studies have increased our knowledge of how Mediterranean resources were exploited, MERMAID proposes an integrated long-term study to understand: a) how marine resources have been influenced by environmental/human pressures, b) when human impact can first be identified, and c) the ways ancient societies depended on these resources and adapted exploitation strategies. MERMAID will first produce an unprecedented archaeofisheries synthesis (M-ARCHIVES Database) of every available dataset, covering several millennia from the Palaeolithic to the Roman era and Mediterranean biogeographical subdivisions. An unconventional combination of approaches (zooarchaeology, marine biology, isotope analysis, fisheries science, ecological modelling, statistics, input of anthropological, geomorphological and palaeoclimatological data) will then be applied on a critical sample from major spatiotemporal contexts (9,000 specimens from 154 sites) at a multi-scale resolution never envisioned before. The results will be key to reconstruct marine ecosystem states (baselines) through time, provide robust evidence of shifting baselines, and assess the nature and degree of human adaptations to shifting ecosystems. The project aspires to make archaeological data exploitable within historical syntheses and marine management studies.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantInstitución de acogida
75794 Paris
Francia