Pollen and non-pollen palynomorph evidence of medieval farming activities in southwestern Greenland

Abstract

Radiocarbon dating, pollen and non-pollen palynomorph analyses from a lake core were used to establish the timing and effects of farming activities around Lake Igaliku, Eastern Settlement, Greenland. The absence of agro-pastoral impact before the medieval colonization by Europeans provides an opportunity to understand the development of farming activity in a pristine landscape. The results show that the first phase of clearance and grazing pressure, without the expansion of the Norse apophyte (native plant, in habitats created by humans) Rumex acetosa type, could have occurred in the 9-10th century A.D. The presence of Norse settlers and livestock is clearly recorded from the 11-12th century A.D. with increasing frequencies of the Norse apophytes Rumex acetosa type and Ranunculus acris type, and coprophilous fungi. This colonization phase is followed by a period of decreasing human impact at the beginning of the 14th century, with a decrease in weeds, apophytes and coprophilous fungi suggesting a reduced grazing pressure. The regrowth of Salix and Betula and the disappearance of anthropogenic indicators except Rumex acetosa type between the 15th and 18th century demonstrate the abandonment of the settlement, until the development of contemporary agriculture in the 20th century.

Peatlands and Climate in a Ramsar context

“…138 Climate change is prospected to lead to enhanced warming of the Subarctic and Arctic, which may facilitate this agricultural revolution. Also during the warmer parts of the Medieval Age clearing of pristine landscapes and extensive livestock breeding (overgrazing) took place in southwestern Greenland (Gauthier et al 2010). (Fig.…”

Evolution of pastoralism in Southern Greenland during the last two millennia reconstructed from bile acids and coprophilous fungal spores in lacustrine sediments

“…The fir st cor r esponds to t he Nor se set t lement t hat began in 986 AD and last ed appr oximat ely unt il t he middle of t he XV th cent ur y, coincident wit h t he cooling of t he L it t le I ce Age Copr ophilous fungal spor es, par t icularly Spor or miella spp, wer e count ed in 33 samples spanning t he last 1700 yr in I ga-2007, (Gaut hier et al, 2010) and wer e expr essed as flux of number of spor es (N/cm 2 /an 1 ) in or der t o t ake int o account var iat ion in sediment at ion r ate. Sediment samples (35; 0.5 cm t hick ) fr om I ga-2011 wer e select ed for biomar ker analysis.…”

“…Recent st udies have pr oposed new biomar ker s for r econst r uct ing t he hist or y of agr icult ur e (Oldfield et al, 2003;Jacob et al, 2008;L avr ieux et al, 2013. Concer ning past or alism, copr ophilous fungal spor es in sediment s at t est t o gr azing pr essur e in t he cat chment (Van Geel et al, 2003;Gaut hier et al, 2010 (Bull et al, 2002;Elhmmali et al, 1997;Jar dé et al, 2007;Tyagi et al, 2008). H owever , t hey have r ar ely been applied t o sediment ar y lacust r ine r ecor ds spanning sever al millennia (D'Anjou et al, 2012).…”

Modern pollen rain and fungal spore assemblages from pasture woodlands around Lake Saint-Point (France)

“…8). Sporormiella is known as a strictly local grazing pressure indicator (Blackford and Innes, 2006;Davis and Shafer, 2006) and is commonly used for past grazing pressure reconstruction (van Geel et al, 2003;Gauthier et al, 2010). Here it also seems to be related to open environments, as well as LCE-13, as evidenced by their opposite position to tree cover in RDA despite its small occurrence in ungrazed station F a .…”

“…These recent works brought new insights on the relationships between NPPs, vegetation and human activities. Coprophilous fungal spores, common in pollen slides, are for instance strictly local indicators of grazing pressure due to their low dispersal (van Geel et al, 2003;Blackford and Innes, 2006;Davis and Shafer, 2006;Gauthier et al, 2010;Laine et al, 2010). Furthermore, NPP assemblages found in pollen slides seem reliable when used as indicators of vegetation structure -including edges (Mulder and Janssen, 1999) -and of specific ecological conditions and substrates (Davis and Shafer, 2006;Prager et al, 2006) and their indicative value is also useful for environmental archeology (van Geel et al, 2003).…”