Department of Biology and Environmental Science, Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden.
Department of History and Art History, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2020 Jul 30;15(7):e0236471. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236471. eCollection 2020.
Historical commons represent self-governed governance regimes that regulate the use and management of natural and man-made shared resources. Despite growing scientific interests, analyses of commons evolution and temporal dynamics are rare and drivers of change (birth, adaptation, dissolution) remain obscure. We apply an interdisciplinary approach and address these issues from an eco-evolutionary perspective. Analyses of > 400 Dutch commons over more than a millennium (between the 9th and the 20th century) uncovered that most commons originated between 1200 and 1700, and that there was a particularly high rate of evolution during 1300-1550, a pattern intermediate to gradualism and punctuated equilibrium in biological evolution. Dissolutions of commons were rare prior to 1800 and peaked around 1850, comparable to a mass extinction in biology. Temporal trends in number, spatial distribution, density, and dispersion of historical commons were distinctive and resembled developments seen at the levels of species and individuals in the growth of biological communities and populations, in that they showed signs of saturation determined by the abundance and distribution of resources. The spatiotemporal dynamics of commons also pointed to important roles of social, economic and political factors, such as new reclamations of resources and pressure on resources due to population growth. Despite internal and external pressures, the self-governing commons studied here were very successful, in the sense that they persisted for on average >350 years. There was a weak positive relationship between the use of multiple resources and the lifespan of commons, resembling associations between diversity and persistence seen in biological systems. It is argued that eco-evolutionary perspectives can further the understanding of the long-term dynamics of commons as institutions for collective action, vitalize future research, improve management of shared goods, and advise about sustainable utilization of finite resources.
历史公共领域代表着自我管理的治理制度，用于规范自然和人造共享资源的使用和管理。尽管科学研究兴趣日益浓厚，但对公共领域的演变和时间动态的分析却很少见，变化的驱动因素（诞生、适应、解体）仍然不清楚。我们采用跨学科的方法，从生态进化的角度来解决这些问题。对 400 多个荷兰公共领域的分析表明，这些公共领域的起源可以追溯到 9 世纪到 20 世纪之间的 1000 多年，其中 1300 年至 1550 年的演变速度特别快，这一模式在生物进化中处于渐变论和间断平衡论之间。1800 年之前，公共领域的解体很少见，而在 1850 年左右达到顶峰，与生物界的大规模灭绝相当。历史公共领域的数量、空间分布、密度和分散的时间趋势是独特的，与生物群落和种群中物种和个体水平的发展相似，表现出资源丰度和分布决定的饱和迹象。公共领域的时空动态也表明了社会、经济和政治因素的重要作用，如新的资源开垦和人口增长对资源的压力。尽管面临内部和外部的压力，但这里研究的自治公共领域非常成功，平均持续时间>350 年。多种资源的使用与公共领域的寿命之间存在弱正相关关系，类似于生物系统中多样性与持久性之间的关联。有人认为，生态进化的观点可以进一步理解公共领域作为集体行动机构的长期动态，激发未来的研究，改善共享物品的管理，并为有限资源的可持续利用提供建议。
