Ferrara Vincenza, Ingemark Dominic
Department of Archaeology and Ancient History Uppsala University Uppsala Sweden.
Department of Human Geography Stockholm University Stockholm Sweden.
Geohealth. 2023 Mar 8;7(3):e2022GH000619. doi: 10.1029/2022GH000619. eCollection 2023 Mar.
Seasonal cycles in plants and animals drive key timings of human practices in an agrosystem like the best time for harvest, planting, or pruning. Within the framework of historical phenological studies, we attempt a reconstruction of the olive ( L.) phenology along millennia. Thanks to its extraordinary longevity, the olive tree is a living proxy from the past and embodies a still uncollected long-term memory of ecological behaviors. A cultural keystone species, olive cultivation has more and more played a crucial role for biodiversity conservation, livelihood of rural communities and their enrooted cultural identity in the whole Mediterranean. By compiling traditional phenological knowledge from historical written sources and oral traditions, and using it as historical bio-indicator of the linkage between human ecological practices and seasonal changes of plant behavior, we compiled a monthly ecological calendar of the olive tree covering the last ∼2800 years. As a case study, we chose a special place: Sicily, unique for its position in the Mediterranean, geomorphology and legacies in the form of cross-temporal accumulated eco-cultures. Such a sui generis ecological calendar provides an additional case study to explore the intertwining of plant behavior and human adaptation strategies and the interplay between cultural diversity, ecological disturbance and phenological stability. All of this, in turn, can inform action for the present and future sustainable management of these millennial trees.
植物和动物的季节性周期决定了农业系统中人类活动的关键时间，比如收获、种植或修剪的最佳时机。在历史物候学研究的框架内，我们尝试重建数千年来橄榄树（油橄榄）的物候情况。得益于其超长的寿命，橄榄树是来自过去的鲜活代表，体现了一种尚未被收集的生态行为长期记忆。作为一种文化关键物种，橄榄种植对于生物多样性保护、农村社区的生计及其在地中海地区根深蒂固的文化身份认同越来越发挥着关键作用。通过整理历史文献资料和口头传统中的传统物候知识，并将其用作人类生态实践与植物行为季节性变化之间联系的历史生物指标，我们编制了一份涵盖过去约2800年的橄榄树月度生态日历。作为一个案例研究，我们选择了一个特殊的地方：西西里岛，它在地中海的位置、地貌以及跨时空积累的生态文化遗产使其独具特色。这样一份独特的生态日历提供了一个额外的案例研究，以探索植物行为与人类适应策略的交织，以及文化多样性、生态干扰和物候稳定性之间的相互作用。反过来，所有这些都可以为这些千年古树当前和未来的可持续管理提供行动依据。
