Pattern and process in south Swedish forests during the last 3000 years, sensed at stand and regional scales

Lindbladh, Matts; Bradshaw, Richard; Holmqvist, Björn

doi:10.1046/j.1365-2745.2000.00429.x

Cited by 94 publications

(93 citation statements)

References 51 publications

(55 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In the British examples, long forest continuity and a close-to-nature disturbance regime were apparently not critical properties for the maintenance of important biological values. These findings fully support very similar observations made from four bryophyterich Quercus woodlands in Snowdonia, Wales, where pollen analysis showed significant forest disturbance during the last 300 years (Edwards 1986), and from Killarney National Park, Ireland (Mitchell 1988;Mitchell 1990;Mitchell 2013 (Lindbladh, Bradshaw et al 2000). All these sites are from local sites with high spatial resolution, but taken together they indicate consistent sequences of events.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Forest continuity and conservation value in Western Europe

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:Long forest continuity has often been linked with high conservation value in western European Quercus and Fagus woodlands, but this assumption of long continuity has rarely been tested. Birks (1993) discussed the antiquity of bryophyte-rich Quercus woodland in western United Kingdom presenting evidence that the modern plant communities developed during the late Holocene influenced by human activities. We use pollen data from forest hollows to show that the modern communities within ancient woodlands are all significantly influenced by recent human disturbance. A short period of deforestation in Johnny's Wood, Cumbria, UK dates from the late nineteenth century and is not of Viking age as previously thought. The brief opening of the forest is associated with the local loss of Tilia cordata and Taxus baccata, but a rich bryophyte community exists today. Rich lichen floras of high conservation interest growing on Fagus sylvatica in southwestern Sweden occur despite a recent history of human disturbance and local immigration of Fagus as recently as the ninth century AD. Wistman's Wood, Cornwall, UK had a diverse tree flora until the eleventh century AD and then experienced heavy browsing and grazing until AD 1850, after which time the present Quercus woodland developed with its associated flora of high conservation value. Most western European forests today have long and diverse histories of anthropogenic disturbance and current conservation values incorporate both natural and cultural features. Pollen studies with high spatial resolution demonstrate that simple temporal concepts like 'natural baselines' and the continuity of forest cover underestimate the complexity of the past. Long forest continuity may be of importance for the local survival of higher plants, but for the insects, fungi, lichens and bryophytes that are so valued in contemporary European temperate and boreal forests, habitat diversity maintained by dynamic processes would appear to be of greater significance. spatial resolution demonstrate that simple temporal concepts like 'natural baselines' and the continuity of forest cover underestimate the complexity of the past. Long forest continuity may be of importance for the local survival of higher plants, but for the insects, fungi, lichens and bryophytes that are so valued in contemporary European temperate and boreal forests, habitat diversity maintained by dynamic processes would appear to be of greater significance.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Forest continuity and conservation value in Western Europe

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…1000 yr, often including a prominent expansion at ca. AD 900-1200 (Lindbladh and Bradshaw, 1995;Björkman, 1996;Lagerås, 1996;Lindbladh, 1999;Lindbladh et al, 2000;Andersson Palm, 2001;Berglund et al, 2002), which is not consistent with our record. However, some pollen diagrams do show equally high, and sometimes higher, openness between AD 0 and 500 compared to the last 1000 yr (Lagerås, 1996;Björkman, 1996).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 72%

The impact of land-use change on floristic diversity at regional scale in southern Sweden 600 BC–AD 2008

Fredh

Broström²,

Rundgren

et al. 2013

Biogeosciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. This study explores the relationship between land-use and floristic diversity between 600 BC and AD 2008 in the uplands of southern Sweden. We use fossil pollen assemblages and the Regional Estimates of Vegetation Abundance from Large Sites (REVEALS) model to quantitatively reconstruct land cover at a regional scale. Floristic richness and evenness are estimated using palynological richness and REVEALS-based evenness, respectively. We focus on the period AD 350 to 750 to investigate the impact of an inferred, short-lived (< 200 yr) period of land-use expansion and subsequent land abandonment on vegetation composition and floristic diversity. The observed vegetation response is compared to that recorded during the transition from traditional to modern land-use management at the end of the 19th century. Our results suggest that agricultural land use was most widespread between AD 350 and 1850, which correlates broadly with high values of palynological richness. REVEALS-based evenness was highest between AD 500 and 1600 which indicates a more equal cover among taxa during this time interval. Palynological richness increased during the inferred land-use expansion after AD 350 and decreased during the subsequent regression AD 550–750, while REVEALS-based evenness increased throughout this period. The values of palynological richness during the last few decades are within the range observed during the last 1650 yr. However, REVEALS-based evenness shows much lower values during the last century compared to the previous ca. 2600 yr, which indicates that the composition of present-day vegetation is unusual in a millennial perspective. Our results show that regional scale changes in land use have had clear impacts on floristic diversity in southern Sweden, with a vegetation response time of less than 20 to 50 yr. We show the importance of traditional land use to attain high biodiversity and suggest that ecosystem management should include a regional landscape perspective.

show abstract

“…due to between-species/taxa differences in pollen productivity (Björse et al, 1996;Lindbladh et al, 2000), or applying the self-organized mapping method (neural networks) combined with the "correction factors" (Holmqvist and Bradshaw, 2008). The first REVEALS-based reconstructions of Holocene vegetation in southern Sweden indicate that changes in human impact on vegetation/land-cover over the last 6000 years, as well as landscape openness during the Early Holocene (11 500-10 000 cal.…”

Section: Pollen-based Reconstruction Of Past Vegetation and Land Covermentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene land-cover reconstructions for studies on land cover-climate feedbacks

et al. 2010

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 484M.-J. Gaillard et al.: Holocene land-cover reconstructions for studies on land cover-climate feedbacks Abstract. The major objectives of this paper are: (1) to review the pros and cons of the scenarios of past anthropogenic land cover change (ALCC) developed during the last ten years, (2) to discuss issues related to pollen-based reconstruction of the past land-cover and introduce a new method, REVEALS (Regional Estimates of VEgetation Abundance from Large Sites), to infer long-term records of past landcover from pollen data, (3) to present a new project (LAND-CLIM: LAND cover -CLIMate interactions in NW Europe during the Holocene) currently underway, and show preliminary results of REVEALS reconstructions of the regional land-cover in the Czech Republic for five selected time windows of the Holocene, and (4) to discuss the implications and future directions in climate and vegetation/land-cover modeling, and in the assessment of the effects of human-induced changes in land-cover on the regional climate through altered feedbacks. The existing ALCC scenarios show large discrepancies between them, and few cover time periods older than AD 800. When these scenarios are used to assess the impact of human land-use on climate, contrasting results are obtained. It emphasizes the need for methods such as the REVEALS model-based land-cover reconstructions. They might help to fine-tune descriptions of past landcover and lead to a better understanding of how long-term changes in ALCC might have influenced climate. The RE-VEALS model is demonstrated to provide better estimates of the regional vegetation/land-cover changes than the traditional use of pollen percentages. This will achieve a robust assessment of land cover at regional-to continental-spatial scale throughout the Holocene. We present maps of RE-VEALS estimates for the percentage cover of 10 plant functional types (PFTs) at 200 BP and 6000 BP, and of the two open-land PFTs "grassland" and "agricultural land" at five time-windows from 6000 BP to recent time. The LAND-CLIM results are expected to provide crucial data to reassess ALCC estimates for a better understanding of the land suface-atmosphere interactions.

show abstract

Pattern and process in south Swedish forests during the last 3000 years, sensed at stand and regional scales

Cited by 94 publications

References 51 publications

Forest continuity and conservation value in Western Europe

Forest continuity and conservation value in Western Europe

The impact of land-use change on floristic diversity at regional scale in southern Sweden 600 BC–AD 2008

Holocene land-cover reconstructions for studies on land cover-climate feedbacks

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About