Study of human impact on food webs and ecosystems yields unexpected insights
Friday, February 22, 2019 - 10:50
in Earth & Climate
When the Australian government relocated Martu hunter-gatherers from their Western Australia lands in the 1960s, no one could have predicted the massive impact their absence would have on the desert ecosystem. A new study led by Stefani Crabtree, a Santa Fe Institute Visiting Researcher (Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity, Crow Canyon Archaeological Center), and co-authored by Rebecca Bliege Bird and Douglas W. Bird of the Pennsylvania State University, shows the critical role humans play in food webs, providing important clues to managing resilient ecosystems around the globe.