The Holocene expansion of grassland in northern Europe reconstructed from molluscan assemblages

Granai, Salomé; Limondin-Lozouët, Nicole

doi:10.1111/bor.12304

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…kyr BP, that is, between the middle of the Bronze Age and the middle of the Iron Age. One could hypothesise an anthropogenic phase of forest clearance, especially since a human-induced expansion of grasslands was widely observed in north-western Europe during this period (Granai and Limondin-Lozouet, 2018). However, there is no evidence of human settlement in the vicinity of the sequence or of landscape opening at the same time in Waldbillig’s charcoal data (Pernaud, 2001) and Echternach’s pollen data (Couteaux, 1970), both located around 20 km away.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene palaeoenvironments from the Direndall tufa (Luxembourg) reconstructed from the molluscan succession and stable isotope records

et al. 2020

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This paper reports the results of new malacological analyses from a thick tufa sequence at Direndall (Luxembourg). The study is temporally contextualised with radiocarbon dates and an age–depth model. The malacological study focuses on species associations to reconstruct palaeoenvironmental developments. The gradual appearance of several shade-demanding species reflects the expansion of forest environments during the early Holocene. After c. 7.5 cal. kyr BP, three phases of maximal expansion of shade-demanding species are interspersed with two phases of decline of these taxa dated between c. 7.1 and 6.5 cal. kyr BP and between c. 3.5 and 2.4 cal. kyr BP. Malacological data are discussed with previously published calcite stable isotope data from the same sequence. Strong correlations between malacological data and δ13C profile are highlighted over the whole sequence. Combined influences of local environmental conditions and regional climatic trends are emphasised. The sequence provides a palaeoenvironmental succession free of any anthropic influence.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene palaeoenvironments from the Direndall tufa (Luxembourg) reconstructed from the molluscan succession and stable isotope records

et al. 2020

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“…It is therefore clear that as in the lower Poohří (Juřičková et al, 2013a), we have a documented continuity of steppe communities in these lowlands from the Late Glacial across the Holocene. This seems to be a different landscape development trajectory than that described in the Seina Basin in France (Granai and Limondin-Lozouet, 2018), where the transformation of the landscape into an open one takes place in three phases characterised by increasing human influence but demanding steppe or forest elements never occur here, so comparing both mollusc successions is difficult.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Holocene transformation of natural steppe into an agricultural landscape in the Polabí and Pojizeří Lowlands, Czech Republic, based on mollusc evidence

Horáčková,

Podroužková,

Juřičková

2023

The Holocene

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Recent zonal steppes of Eastern Europe and South-West Asia have their origin in the glacial steppe with its specific continental climate. The westernmost edge of the steppe belt in Central Europe has been climatically shifted from a continental course during the Last Glacial to a rather oceanic one during the Holocene. Steppe enclaves could survive only locally in the driest parts of this area, but as we have confirmed, early arrival of Neolithic agriculture played a significant role in their preservation as well. While pollen analyses can provide the main pattern of landscape development, mollusc successions provide more information about landscape details we need for a better understanding of a steppe transformation towards the recent agricultural ecosystems. Based on the study of 18 mollusc successions in two neighbouring lowlands in the chernozems and alluvial areas of Central and North Bohemia, we described a postglacial development of these two climatically different agricultural landscapes. Based on mollusc evidence, we illustrated the impoverishment of forest communities and the continual occurrence of open habitats throughout the forest climatic optimum of the Holocene. Since the Neolithic colonisation, several erosion events were observed in many profiles documented by a lack of preserved fossil molluscs and layer redeposition which are in excellent agreement with the reconstruction of the fluvial sedimentation and vegetation in the Elbe River floodplain and with the continual settlement of this area. Because we have evidence of a fully developed forest fauna in the Eem interglacial from the Polabí lowland we know that the impoverishment of forest communities and the occurrence of open habitats during the interglacial forest climatic optimum is characteristic only of the Holocene.

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“…1b). In contrast, other regions of the southeastern Caucasus, including the lower Alazani region next to the Azerbaijan border, were settled by late-Neolithic-Chalcolithic cultures (Varazashvili, 1980(Varazashvili, , 1984Chataigner et al, 2014;Lyonnet et al, 2016;Hamon et al, 2016;von Suchodoletz and Faust, 2018;Fig. 6a).…”

Section: Vegetation History Of the Upper Alazani Floodplainmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, under favorable conservation conditions local and regional paleoecological and paleoclimatic information can also be obtained based on biogenic proxies such as plant macrofossils, charcoal pieces, pollen grains, di-atoms or leaf wax biomarkers (Kittel et al, 2016;Scott et al, 2016;Bliedtner et al, 2018a). Furthermore, similar to other sediment archives such as loess-paleosol and dunepaleosol sequences or colluvial deposits (Moine et al, 2008;Faust et al, 2015;New et al, 2019;Richter et al, 2019), also species distribution and/or isotopic composition of gastropods from carbonate-rich fluvial sediments were investigated for paleoecological and paleoclimatic reconstructions during the last years (Fuhrmann, 2008;Zielhofer et al, 2010;Murelaga et al, 2012;Alexandrowicz, 2013;Juřičková et al, 2013;Granai and Limondin-Lozouet, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Snail assemblages in Holocene floodplain research – an example from the southern Caucasus

Suchodoletz

Richter

Walther

et al. 2020

E&G Quaternary Sci. J.

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Abstract. During the last decades, rivers and their deposits in different regions were intensively studied to better understand the late-Quaternary landscape evolution and former human activities. One proxy for paleoecological and paleoclimatic reconstructions is the analysis of gastropods (snails) from carbonatic river sediments. In the scope of this study, we investigated gastropod assemblages from a Holocene fluvial sediment–paleosol sequence at the upper Alazani River in the southeastern Caucasus. On the one hand, we aimed to derive reliable independent information about possible long-lasting human activity since the late Neolithic–Chalcolithic in the upper Alazani floodplain. This was formerly suggested by n-alkane biomarker vegetation reconstructions from the fluvial sediments. However, the reliability of that method is still debated. On the other hand, we aimed to obtain reliable information about a formerly suggested, possibly tectonic-driven, large-scale shift of the river course during the Late Holocene. In agreement with the n-alkane biomarkers, our results demonstrate that the studied site was free of the natural forests during the Early and Middle Holocene until ca. 4.5 cal kyr BP. Since this contrasts with a pollen-based vegetation reconstruction from a neighboring floodplain that was covered with forests during that time, the open vegetation in the upper Alazani valley was probably caused by continuous settlement activity as is also indicated by archeological finds in the sequence. Therefore, using our paleoecological proxies it is possible that we identified a settlement center in the upper Alazani floodplain that was populated from the late Neolithic–Chalcolithic. This center was not known thus far, since the settlement remains are covered by thick floodloam today that hindered their detection during archeological surface surveys. Therefore, our findings suggest that the area in the southern Caucasus region that was settled during the late-Neolithic–Chalcolithic period should have been larger than was known thus far. Furthermore, increasing contributions of wetland gastropods since ca. 4 cal kyr BP confirm a local shift of the river course towards the investigated site during the Late Holocene, possibly linked with ongoing tectonic activity. However, in contrast to former suggestions our gastropod assemblages indicate a slow rather than abrupt process. Our study demonstrates the high value of gastropod assemblages for geoarcheological and geomorphological research in floodplains with carbonatic river sediments at both a regional and local spatial scale.

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The Holocene expansion of grassland in northern Europe reconstructed from molluscan assemblages

Cited by 9 publications

References 40 publications

Holocene palaeoenvironments from the Direndall tufa (Luxembourg) reconstructed from the molluscan succession and stable isotope records

Holocene palaeoenvironments from the Direndall tufa (Luxembourg) reconstructed from the molluscan succession and stable isotope records

Holocene transformation of natural steppe into an agricultural landscape in the Polabí and Pojizeří Lowlands, Czech Republic, based on mollusc evidence

Snail assemblages in Holocene floodplain research – an example from the southern Caucasus

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