Limitations of uniformitarianism in the Anthropocene

For many decades, studies in physical geography, geomorphology, sedimentology and stratigraphy have used uniformitarianism as a guiding principle by which to interpret environmental and land surface changes over different spatial and temporal scales. In this paper we argue that, as the Anthropocene proceeds and Earth systems increasingly move away from the mix of geomorphological processes typical of interglacial periods, significant limitations arise regarding the use of uniformitarianism as a principle by which to interpret Earth surface systems of the present and future. We argue that looking to changes in linked climate and land-surface processes of past interglacial periods is increasingly inappropriate in evaluating the impacts of ongoing climate change on Earth surface processes of the Anthropocene in which complex human-induced land surface feedbacks are increasingly important. We argue that all geoscientists need to critically reconsider whether the long-held assumptions of uniformitarianism are useful in the Anthropocene era.