Trends and events through seven centuries: the history of a wetland landscape in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Environmental change can be viewed as the combined result of long-term processes and singular events. While long-term trends appear to be readily available for observation (in the form of temporal comparisons or space-for-time substitution), it is more difficult to gain information on singular events in the past, although these can be equally significant in shaping ecosystems. We examined the past 700 years in the history of a lowland wetland landscape in the Czech Republic with the help of palaeoecological, ecological, landscape archaeological, and archival data. Macrofossil and pollen data were compared to known drainage works in the area and historical climatological data. Trends and events in habitat conditions were assessed using species indicator values. Results showed that ecological succession was the general process in the study area, detected as a trend towards eutrophication, desiccation and vegetation closure. Short-term events influenced development at the sites mainly from the second half of the 19 century. This is consistent with drainage history, although bias related to sample frequency cannot be excluded. On the whole, long-term trends and discrete events were complementary on different scales. We conclude that humans facilitated and accelerated background processes, which can be most likely associated with the succession of open wetlands towards terrestrial ecosystems.

Modified, Ecologically Destructed, and Disappeared – History of Urban Wetlands in Helsinki Metropolitan Area

“…The blooms reduce oxygen and block sunlight in the water. As a result, this leads to an excess of nutrients and biodiversity loss, especially the disappearance of many fish species and the growing abundance of some cyprinid fish (Bergström et al 2016, Szabó et al 2017).…”

“…Moreover, during the course of the years, the Kangaslampi pond has been highly eutrophicated. Indeed, water eutrophication occurs when nutrients in the water increase and threaten the pond's existence (Szabó et al 2017). In 2019, a study was carried out by the city of Helsinki that revealed:…”

“…The environmental history of urban wetlands can be used as a basis for evaluating how humans have interacted with wetlands and affected them (Swetnam et al 1999, Kim andKim 2010). The environmental history of wetlands can also help in effectively managing these environments (Robertson andMcGee 2003, Simpson andNewsome 2017), as wetlands' history can provide essential information on hydrology, ecology, and structure of wetlands (Szabó et al 2017). This information can therefore enhance our perception of the importance of wetlands and their functional roles in urban areas.…”

“…The state-of-the-art research in the literature applies different approaches to studying urban wetlands. For example, the study in (Szabó et al 2017) uses data from four disciplines, including palaeoecology, ecology, landscape archaeology, and archival data, to study wetlands. The research in Simpson and Newsome (2017) investigates wetland water quality, native flora, and fauna using historical photos, documents, and reports from the wetland.…”

“…In addition, the research in (Stein et al 2010) uses ArcGIS to stack historical maps to create a geographic database for river watersheds. The rest of the studies (Owen 1998, Szabó et al 2017) consider water chemistry, and palaeoecological analysis e.g., macrofossil, and vegetation changes in wetlands. In literature, the studies that carry out the environmental history evaluation consider natural resources and green spaces other than wetlands (Clark 2006, Schönach 2016, Luckin et al 2017.…”