How Joannites’ economy eradicated primeval forest and created anthroecosystems in medieval Central Europe

Abstract

During European states’ development, various past societies utilized natural resources, but their impact was not uniformly spatially and temporally distributed. Considerable changes resulted in landscape fragmentation, especially during the Middle Ages. Changes in state advances that affected the local economy significantly drove trajectories of ecosystems’ development. The legacy of major changes from pristine forest to farming is visible in natural archives as novel ecosystems. Here, we present a high-resolution densely dated multi-proxy study covering the last 1500 years from a peatland located in CE Europe. The economic activity of medieval societies was highly modified by new rulers—the Joannites (the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller). We studied the record of these directorial changes noted in the peat profile. Our research revealed a rapid critical land-use transition in the late Middle Ages and its consequences on the peatland ecosystem. The shift from the virgin forest with regular local fires to agriculture correlates well with the raising of local economy and deforestations. Along with the emerging openness, the wetland switched from alkaline wet fen state to acidic, drier Sphagnum-dominated peatland. Our data show how closely the ecological state of wetlands relates to forest microclimate. We identified a significant impact of the Joannites who used the novel farming organization. Our results revealed the surprisingly fast rate of how feudal economy eliminated pristine nature from the studied area and created novel anthroecosystems.

Tracking fire activity and post-fire limnological responses using the varved sedimentary sequence of Lake Jaczno, Poland

“…Although a number of sites have been investigated to reconstruct wildfire regimes in Poland (e.g. Dietze et al, 2018Dietze et al, , 2019Gałka et al, 2013Gałka et al, , 2014Lamentowicz et al, 2008Lamentowicz et al, , 2020Marcisz et al, 2015Marcisz et al, , 2017Marcisz et al, , 2019Marcisz et al, , 2020Wacnik et al, 2014Wacnik et al, , 2016 the relationships of climate change, human impact, and vegetation are still not well understood. Combinations of high-resolution proxies, chronology, macrocharcoal and related morphotypes, and historical data have rarely been presented.…”

“…In recent years, severe wildfires have occurred in countries such as Sweden, Germany, or Poland (Bonk, 2019), which were previously considered as low-risk regions due to the assumed low flammability of forests (Adámek et al, 2015). However, despite the increasing research on past fire regimes (Vannière et al, 2014), especially in central Europe (Carter et al, 2018; Dietze et al, 2018; Lamentowicz et al, 2020; Marcisz et al, 2020), a knowledge gap in understanding complex interrelations between climate, human activity and vegetation fires still exists (Feurdean and Vannière, 2017). Moreover, a little attention has been paid to the post-fire implications for limnological processes.…”

Synthesis of palaeoecological data from the Polish Lowlands suggests heterogeneous patterns of old-growth forest loss after the Migration Period

“…In contrast, western Poland revealed asynchronous decline ranging from the eleventh and fourteenth centuries 47 , 48 . However, only a few high-resolution studies covering the last 1500 years are available in this region (Fig.…”

“…The data discussed above suggest that the key indicator/proxy of early Slavic expansion and economic growth is the phase of rapid deforestation (which mainly affected hornbeam) in Poland's north-western and north-central areas that occurred between 800–1000. The loss of extensive natural forest areas during the Slavic expansion can be considered the beginning of the formation of anthroecosystems 9 , and involved processes that significantly accelerated with further development of state structures 47 , 48 . This pattern, however, was delayed in the north-eastern area of modern-day Poland (formerly Prussia), most likely due to the presence of different types of settlements in the area, which points to a much later forest decline caused by Prussian tribes and, subsequently, by the Teutonic Order 29 , 91 – 93 .…”

“…73 ca. 72 5 (1, 1, 2), AMS 210 Pb Czechowskie 37 , 71 2019 5 108 No data 21 (8, 6,4), AMS Varvochronology, 1875 Askja tephra, 137 Cs Pawski Ług 47 2020 24 122 400 330 39 (19, 7, 3), AMS Szurpiły 57 2019 48 183 ca. 780 ca.…”