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Published on: May 18, 2019
Early urban impact on Mediterranean coastal environments
David Kaniewski1, Elise Van Campo2, Christophe Morhange3
11] Université Paul Sabatier-Toulouse 3, EcoLab (Laboratoire d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Environnement), Bâtiment 4R1, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse cedex 9, France [2] CNRS, EcoLab (Laboratoire d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Environnement), 31062 Toulouse cedex 9, France [3] Institut Universitaire de France, 103 boulevard Saint Michel, 75005 Paris, France.
Abstract:
A common belief is that, unlike today, ancient urban areas developed in a sustainable way within the environmental limits of local natural resources and the ecosystem's capacity to respond. This long-held paradigm is based on a weak knowledge of the processes underpinning the emergence of urban life and the rise of an urban-adapted environment in and beyond city boundaries. Here, we report a 6000-year record of environmental changes around the port city of Akko (Acre), Israel, to analyse ecological processes and patterns stemming from the emergence and growth of urban life. We show that early urban development deeply transformed pre-existing ecosystems, swiftly leading to an urban environment already governed by its own ecological rules and this, since the emergence of the cities.
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