Before conflict
Preparation, training, military infrastructure, and material demand create environmental pressures before fighting begins.
UNDERSTAND THE SCIENCE
Follow the process.
Question the evidence.
Definitions, dated findings and environmental pathways, together in one guide.
Browse all maps, stories and tools ↗01 / UNDERSTANDING THE FIELD
A wider lens
on warfare.
Warfare ecology studies the relationships between warfare and ecological systems across preparation, armed conflict, and postwar activities.
This plain-language definition follows Machlis and Hanson’s foundational synthesis. The field connects pollution, habitat change, biodiversity, resource use, and recovery. Its boundaries extend beyond the battlefield and beyond the ceasefire.
Machlis & Hanson, 2008 · BioScience ↗During conflict
Physical destruction and pollutant releases interact with displacement, resource extraction, and disrupted environmental management.
After conflict
Contaminated sites, abandoned materials, land-use change, reconstruction, and restoration shape the environmental legacy.
These stages overlap. They are an organizing framework, not a fixed sequence. Hanson, 2018 ↗
02 / EVIDENCE IN CONTEXT
The numbers need
their boundaries.
Conflict and biodiversity overlap
118 of 146 major conflicts in a 1950–2000 dataset occurred wholly or partly within biodiversity hotspots.
Geographic overlap does not measure the amount of ecological damage. The study included conflicts with more than 1,000 casualties.
Hanson et al., 2009 ↗Conflict in protected areas
Conflict occurred in 71% of African protected areas considered in a study spanning 1946–2010.
This is a finding for the studied protected areas and period, not all protected areas worldwide.
Daskin & Pringle, 2018 ↗Elements surveyed at Palmyra
A targeted XRF survey examined 25 elements in soils and sediments at a former WWII naval air station.
This is the number of elements surveyed, not the number exceeding thresholds. Targeted sampling is not an atoll-wide prevalence estimate.
Struckhoff et al., 2018 ↗Turn damage into a research questionExamples of evidence to look for
A VISUAL GUIDE / FOLLOW THE CONSEQUENCE
From visible damage
to answerable questions.
Three ways to look beyond the photograph.
Start with what changed. Identify a possible pathway. Then ask what observations or measurements would establish its effects.
Water systems
ILLUSTRATIVE PATHWAY
- Starting pointDamaged pipes or sanitation systems
- Environmental questionPossible changes in water quality
- Evidence neededWhich substances are present, where, and at what concentrations?
Soil & sediment
ILLUSTRATIVE PATHWAY
- Starting pointDebris or a disturbed landscape
- Environmental questionMaterial left on land or moved with sediment
- Evidence neededWhat is in the material, and has it stayed in place or moved?
Habitats & recovery
ILLUSTRATIVE PATHWAY
- Starting pointForest loss and resource pressures
- Environmental questionChanged habitat and conditions for regrowth
- Evidence neededAre vegetation and wildlife recovering over time?
Conceptual illustrations, not data plots or predictions. These pathways are selected interpretations of the linked briefs; they do not occur in every conflict or establish contamination, exposure or recovery at a particular site.
03 / FOLLOW THE CONSEQUENCE
From release
to legacy.
A concentration tells us what was measured. Understanding fate requires evidence of what happened next.
A few distinctions that matter
Detection: a substance was measured above an analytical reporting threshold. Detection alone does not establish its source, retention time, transport, or biological harm.
Legacy contamination: pollution remaining from past activities; present measurements may also reflect continuing or mixed sources.
Exposure and effect: organisms encountering a contaminant and organisms experiencing harm are related but distinct questions.
Environmental warfare: deliberate use or alteration of the environment as a means of warfare. Warfare ecology also examines unintended consequences; it does not presume deliberate environmental targeting.
Plain-language interpretive glossary. Study-specific definitions and methods take precedence.
Explore the LEAD model
Test how ammunition lead inventory and soil mass affect a synthetic concentration scenario. Inspect the assumptions, mass accounting and evidence still needed.
Open the LEAD scenario calculator ↗