Awareness is growing among scientists about the significance of pre-modern anthropogenic impacts prior to the Industrial Revolution on present-day patterns of biodiversity. In particular, pre-modern energy-intensive industries, such as ironwork, of the sort depicted in the 1997 anime film Princess Mononoke directed by Hayao Miyazaki, were major drivers of ecosystem alteration and have had long-lasting impacts on the distributions of many species. However, the phenomenon remains insufficiently studied and the empirical evidence is quite limited.
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Source: Phys.org