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Paul Bishop's contribution to the earth sciences is profound. His work on large spatial and temporal scale landscape evolution is well known, but he also (and coevally) directed his attention to the complexities of human–environmental interactions, with all their site-based and short-term cultural idiosyncrasies. His focus on mainland SE Asia, and Thailand in particular, reflects a long-standing fascination in and affection for the region and its people. His natural inquisitiveness stimulated work in historic climate change, the emergence of complex states, Quaternary landscape evolution and the geochronology of anthropogenically modified sediments, among many other areas. His work on human–environment interactions drew on and strengthened links with many people and institutions, and between Geographical and Earth Sciences and the Scottish Universities Research Centre at the University of Glasgow, in particular. Just as important as his contribution to the earth sciences was his contribution to the development of his students and other mentees, and his role in shaping our careers was enormous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical societies reshaped their environment in various ways; by clearing forest, cultivating crops, mining, and modifying waterways. Evidence of these activities persists in palaeoenvironmental archives, which represent comprehensive histories of human activity in a landscape. Analysis of settlement networks across landscapes is another common approach to investigating how past societies operated, but these analyses rarely incorporate palaeoenvironmental data. Here, we combine these two data sources to examine past socio‐political relationships in a society that experienced disruption and transformation. Applying network analysis, and using settlement histories built from palaeoenvironmental proxies for occupation and land use, this paper reconstructs population dynamics at several key nodes (cities) within the Khmer kingdom of Southeast Asia, before and after the climate stress and political upheaval of the 14th–15th centuries ce. Our results reveal how the Khmer city network transformed across space and the nature of the relationships that existed within the network prior to its disruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternative models exist for the movement of large urban populations following the 15th-century CE abandonment of Angkor, Cambodia. One model emphasizes an urban diaspora following the implosion of state control in the capital related, in part, to hydroclimatic variability. An alternative model suggests a more complex picture and a gradual rather than catastrophic demographic movement. No decisive empirical data exist to distinguish between these two competing models. Here we show that the intensity of land use within the economic and administrative core of the city began to decline more than one century before the Ayutthayan invasion that conventionally marks the end of the Angkor Period. Using paleobotanical and stratigraphic data derived from radiometrically dated sediment cores extracted from the 12th-century walled city of Angkor Thom, we show that indicia for burning, forest disturbance, and soil erosion all decline as early as the first decades of the 14th century CE, and that the moat of Angkor Thom was no longer being maintained by the end of the 14th century. These data indicate a protracted decline in occupation within the economic and administrative core of the city, rather than an abrupt demographic collapse, suggesting the focus of power began to shift to urban centers outside of the capital during the 14th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yeak Loam is a volcanic crater lake in Cambodia’s northeastern uplands, and represents an important economic and cultural resource for local ethnic minority groups. The lake and the surrounding crater rim are currently protected as part of a community based natural resource management scheme. Despite this, development pressure remains high, and visible deterioration of the lake’s water quality is of great concern for the local community, visiting tourists, and the Cambodian Ministry of Environment. In this paper we blend scientific analyses with vernacular, place-based knowledge – coherent with the critical physical geography concept – to provide an integrated understanding of water quality change over more than 50 years. We find that changes in water quality have occurred episodically and irregularly over that period. Further, we find that these events are triggered by natural biogeochemical cycles within the lake, and in this instance are unlikely to be related to the type of land use within the protected area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consequences of protected areas for proximal human communities are diverse. Protected areas can alleviate poverty by providing a range of economic opportunities for people that live and work within them. Equally, however, they may also disempower and disposes local communities. For communities adapting to systemic environmental change, proximity to protected areas can act to limit potential adaptive pathways. Here, we employ social science methods to explore the impact of an internationally significant protected area on adjacent communities in the Tonle Sap Lake basin, Cambodia. Semi-structured interviews, informed by a scenario framework, reveal an awareness of declining fish yields and a perceived lack of economic alternatives. Vulnerability to hydroclimatic extremes, particularly storms, flood, drought and – increasingly – fire, are exacerbated as a result of proximity to the protected area. We conclude that the impact of protected areas on local communities is heterogenous, and that the development of adaptive and effective management policies requires sensitivity to local conditions and impacts. • The proximity of resource-dependent communities to protected areas may restrict their adaptive capacity. • Fishing communities adjacent to Ramsar wetlands are vulnerable to environmental change. • Options for alternative livelihoods are perceived to be limited. • Fire is an ascendant natural hazard in seasonal tropical wetlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Angkorian temples are characterised by one or more encircling moats that are excavated into the alluvial substrate. As a key part of the overall design of the temple, the moats are important symbolically and are presumed to be contemporaneous with the associated temple. They also represent important depositional basins for sediment and other materials and can therefore yield vertical profiles of sediment that has accumulated since the moat was originally excavated. Unconformities in these moat profiles can be dated absolutely using small-sample, high-precision AMS radiocarbon techniques. These unconformities are likely to represent periodic re-excavation or maintenance of the moat and therefore indicate the presence of large, presumably centrally organised workforces. In some instances, presumed anthropogenic unconformities occur centuries after Angkor was supposedly abandoned. In this way, radiocarbon dates themselves are being used as a proxy indicator of cultural activity and are being used to challenge the historiography of Angkor’s famous demise. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]