Ending the Cinderella Status of Terraces and Lynchets in Europe: The Geomorphology of Agricultural Terraces and Implications for Ecosystem Services and Climate Adaptation

Abstract:

This paper outlines the development of a new holistic approach to terrace slope-systems driven by a modern conceptualization of human-landscape relationships, and facilitated by new scientific developments. The focus is on agricultural terraces and lynchets which have been neglected by both geomorphologists and environmental scientists. This is despite the historical importance of these systems for many communities, and more recently, the problems associated with their abandonment or management in the face of rural depopulation. Terraces are a major potential cause of non-linear response to environmental and demographic forcing and so interesting both theoretically and practically. With advances in both the mapping and survey of terraces and our understanding of sedimentary and pedological processes it is possible to evaluate more comprehensively the role of terraces in catchments. This includes studies at the grain-history level and the role of historical management through organic proxies and even potentially at the molecular level. We can now exploit the synergies between our methods – sediment-based dating methods and grain provenance, organic matter dating and soil organic carbon sequestration etc. The paper also considers the geomorphological processes that underpin the sustainability and resilience of terraces landscapes, that also conditions the role of terraces in landscape-scale adaptations to changing climatic regimes in temperate and semi-arid environments. Examples will be drawn from an on-going ERC funded project TerrACE (TerrACE.no) which is using a multi-method approach to understanding both the history and environmental benefits (ecosystem services) of these systems across Europe.