Humans as niche constructors: Revisiting the concept of chronic anthropogenic disturbances in ecology

Abstract

The ecology has witnessed a strong conceptual shift regarding the transition from human-free to human-dominated ecosystems. Nevertheless, human beings are still treated as exogenous factors in many ecological studies. Human activity can reasonably be assumed to influence many processes and patterns studied in ecology at different spatial and temporal scales. Thus, trying to predict the future of ecosystems while ignoring the influence of human activities is neither realistic nor useful. We argue that a successful integration effort in traditional ecology must result from a theoretical and/or conceptual change. A logical and intuitive theoretical leap should be one that considers human actions in light of an integrative scenario. In the first part of this article, we discuss the need for conceptual, theoretical, and methodological changes in studies focusing on the idea of chronic anthropogenic disturbances. In the second part, we introduce the Niche Construction Theory (NCT) as an integrative scenario accommodating these theoretical and conceptual changes in studies that investigate human actions in the environment. To exemplify our argument, we present a case study resulting from our research and focusing on the cascading effects of human activities and their multilevel and multiscale influences in the landscape.

Keywords

• Ecosystem engineering
• Human-dominated ecosystems
• Human ecology
• Social–ecological systems