On April 27, 2022, gill Plunkett and Graeme swindles of Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the open access journal PLoS One 》According to a study published on, a remote community in Ireland is adaptable enough to survive a thousand years of environmental change**
There are many examples of societies in the past that have been severely affected by environmental changes, such as climate change, natural disasters and other dramatic ecological changes, leading to food crises, epidemics and other disasters. However, it is more difficult to determine the long-term impact of environmental disturbances. The authors of the study looked at environmental and community changes in the Antrim plateau in Northern Ireland over the past 1000 years.
The study analyzed peat cores that recorded environmental changes over the past 1000 years at a site called slieveanora. The authors use data from microorganisms, natural plants and crop plants to infer changes in the environment and human occupation. They use ash layers, organic relics and historical records to determine the precise age. In their records, there is no evidence of long-term damage to human occupation due to environmental changes.
These results reflect that a community can get rid of the impact of environmental change or rebound quickly. This surprising resilience from relatively remote areas is likely to be the result of social factors - such as agriculture and trade practices - that make the community flexible and adaptive.
The author believes that not all human communities have the same response to environmental changes, which is largely related to the social conditions of their respective populations. Understanding this complexity is the key to understanding what conditions make communities vulnerable to cultural collapse in the face of environmental change.
"Ireland's highlands look deserted today, but despite climate change, famine and plague, they have been occupied and cultivated for centuries," the authors added