The Origin and Development of the Central European Man-made Landscape, Habitat and Species Diversity as Affected by Climate and its Changes – a Review

Poschlod, Peter

doi:10.24916/iansa.2015.2.5

Cited by 18 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 180 publications

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“…BP according to the age-depth model for that site (Hájková et al, 2016). This development is strongly consistent with the general paradigm of Central-European palaeoecology and archaeology of a warm and humid Neolithic climate optimum (Ložek, 1964;Poschlod, 2015), although some studies from low land regions of east-central Europe including the Morava river valley (ca. 55 km eastward from our study site; Kuneš et al, 2015) assume, using Macrophysical Climate Models, rather dry climate in this period.…”

Section: Ka Cal Bp)supporting

confidence: 84%

A complete Holocene climate and environment record for the Western Carpathians (Slovakia) derived from a tufa deposit

et al. 2018

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Calcareous tufas are great archives of geochemical information for the reconstruction of past climate. Their importance increases in the regions where other proxies are rare, such as Western Carpathians. Here, we present the first whole-Holocene palaeoclimatic reconstruction for this region based on geochemical proxies. We analysed δ18O, δ13C and Mg/Ca ratio on tufa calcite of the Mituchovci site (White Carpathian Mountains, W Slovakia) and compared these with pollen, plant macrofossil and mollusc data. According to δ18O, two distinct thermal maxima occurred in the region, around 11.4 ka and between 7.3 and 6.9 ka BP. According to δ13C and Mg/Ca ratio, a steep increase in moisture and rainfall took place around 8.5 ka cal. BP, preceded by a cold and dry event. These events are well reflected in the biotic proxies and are suggested also by other palaeoenvironmental studies from the Carpathians. We found some later fluctuations, with dry and warm Bronze Age (ca. 3.6 ka cal. BP), cold and wet Urnfield period (ca. 2.8 ka cal. BP), warm Roman period (ca. 2 ka cal. BP) and cold but humid Migration period (ca. 1.5 ka cal. BP). We observed extreme abruptness and amplitude of the variation in all geochemical proxies in the last 500 years, when biotic proxies imply a very intense human deforestation. Land-use changes may have altered both the temperature regime in the studied fen and the carbon cycle in the recharge area.

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Section: Ka Cal Bp)supporting

confidence: 84%

A complete Holocene climate and environment record for the Western Carpathians (Slovakia) derived from a tufa deposit

et al. 2018

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“…Secondly, the change in forest composition becomes apparent. The change from Ulmus, Tilia and Corylus avellana in the Early Neolithic to Picea abies, Abies alba, Pinus and increasingly Fagus sylvatica in the following epochs mirrors the general development in the forest composition during the Holocene (Küster, 2010; Magri, 2008; Poschlod, 2015, 2017). Third, the strong association of the old samples with Arboreal Pollen and the more recent samples with Non-Arboreal Pollen reflects the landscape changes, from closed natural forests to a more open landscape with Plantago lanceolata , Poaceae and cereal type pollen.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The history of human land use activities in the Northern Alps since the Neolithic Age. A reconstruction of vegetation and fire history in the Mangfall Mountains (Bavaria, Germany)

Gilck

Poschlod

2020

The Holocene

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Millenia of sustainable, low intensity land use have formed the cultural landscapes of central Europe. Studies from the Central Alps show that mountain pastures also look back onto many thousand years of land use history. In this palynological and pedoanthracological study in the border region between Germany and Austria in the Mangfall Mountains, we aim to close the knowledge gap that exists for the German part of the Northern Alps, where no conclusive evidence for the onset of pastoral activities has been presented so far. Our results reveal strong evidence, that mountain pasture use in this region reaches back to the Iron Age at least. However, the reconstruction of vegetation and fire history indicates human interaction with the environment much earlier, starting in the Neolithic Age, where we found evidence of slash and burn activities and first occurrences of pasture indicator pollen. A rising number of mega charcoal pieces dated to the Bronze Age suggests increased slash and burn activities, possibly linked to the creation of open space for pasturing. Therefore, our results provide profound evidence of human interaction with the mountain environment, beginning in the Neolithic Age and clear evidence of mountain pasture use beginning during the Iron Age at 750 BC. Based on palynology and pedoanthracology it is, however, difficult to clearly differentiate between pasturing, hunting and other human interactions with the environment. Further archaeological studies in this area could add valuable information to our findings and shed more light onto the early history of farming activities in the Northern Alps.

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“…Thus, whilst grass and herbs can withstand frequent fire, this shift in fire regime may have harmed previously dominant tree species adapted to infrequent fire (He and Lamont, 2018). Although, short-term, field-based burning experiments in Hungary found conflicting results about the effect of fire on grassland biodiversity (Valkó et al, 2014(Valkó et al, , 2018b, controlled laboratory and small-scale field experiments examining the effect of fire on seeds found a predominantly negative effect of fire on seed germination in grassland species, however, some positive effects (mainly from Fabaceae family) also emerged (Ruprecht et al, 2013;2015). Disturbances by fire have recently been considered essential for increased grassland competition over trees during the Holocene in Central Eastern Europe (Magyari et al, 2010;Feurdean et al, 2015).…”

Section: Firementioning

confidence: 99%

Biodiversity-rich European grasslands: Ancient, forgotten ecosystems

Feurdean

Ruprecht

Molnár

et al. 2018

Biological Conservation

128

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Worldwide reforestation has been recommended as a landscape restoration strategy to mitigate climate change in areas where the climate can sustain forest. This approach may threaten grassland ecosystems of unique biodiversity as such policies are based on the false assumption that most grasslands are man-made. Here, we use multiple lines of evidence (palaeoecological, pedological, phylogenetic, palaeontological) from Central Eastern Europe and show that various types of grasslands have persisted in this area throughout postglacial i.e. the past 11,700 years. A warm and dry climate, frequent fires, herbivore pressure, and early Neolithic settlements kept forests open until widespread forest clearance beginning 4000-3000 years ago. Closed forest cover has been the exception for the past two million years. This long-term persistence has likely contributed to the high biodiversity of these grasslands. Consequently, we call for a more cautious prioritisation of the protection of what may be erroneously considered natural, i.e. forests, by many environmental specialists and managers. Instead we provide a new framework for a better understanding of the evolution and persistence of different grassland types and their biodiversity, so that grasslands can be better understood, valued and conserved.

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The Origin and Development of the Central European Man-made Landscape, Habitat and Species Diversity as Affected by Climate and its Changes – a Review

Cited by 18 publications

References 180 publications

A complete Holocene climate and environment record for the Western Carpathians (Slovakia) derived from a tufa deposit

A complete Holocene climate and environment record for the Western Carpathians (Slovakia) derived from a tufa deposit

The history of human land use activities in the Northern Alps since the Neolithic Age. A reconstruction of vegetation and fire history in the Mangfall Mountains (Bavaria, Germany)

Biodiversity-rich European grasslands: Ancient, forgotten ecosystems

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