•We examined the evolution of European land management over the past 200 years.•The study was based on 28 country-level narratives on drivers of land use-change.•7 land-management regimes were ...identified along with their drivers.•Land reforms and technological innovations were major drivers of regime change.•Land-system changes should be conceived as path-dependent processes.
Land use is a cornerstone of human civilization, but also intrinsically linked to many global sustainability challenges—from climate change to food security to the ongoing biodiversity crisis. Understanding the underlying technological, institutional and economic drivers of land-use change, and how they play out in different environmental, socio-economic and cultural contexts, is therefore important for identifying effective policies to successfully address these challenges. In this regard, much can be learned from studying long-term land-use change. We examined the evolution of European land management over the past 200 years with the aim of identifying (1) key episodes of changes in land management, and (2) their underlying technological, institutional and economic drivers. To do so, we generated narratives elaborating on the drivers of land use-change at the country level for 28 countries in Europe. We qualitatively grouped drivers into land-management regimes, and compared changes in management regimes across Europe. Our results allowed discerning seven land-management regimes, and highlighted marked heterogeneity regarding the types of management regimes occurring in a particular country, the timing and prevalence of regimes, and the conditions that result in observed bifurcations. However, we also found strong similarities across countries in the timing of certain land-management regime shifts, often in relation to institutional reforms (e.g., changes in EU agrarian policies or the emergence and collapse of the Soviet land management paradigm) or to technological innovations (e.g., drainage pipes, tillage and harvesting machinery, motorization, and synthetic fertilizers). Land reforms frequently triggered changes in land management, and the location and timing of reforms had substantial impacts on land-use outcomes. Finally, forest protection policies and voluntary cooperatives were important drivers of land-management changes. Overall, our results demonstrate that land-system changes should not be conceived as unidirectional developments following predefined trajectories, but rather as path-dependent processes that may be affected by various drivers, including sudden events.
Results of the initial analysis of wood charcoal and on-site pollen from the large, long-used Neolithic Vinča tell are combined with the data from wild-gathered seed/fruit assemblage towards the ...reconstruction of the vegetation composition around the Neolithic settlement in its final phases of occupation (around 4500 cal BC). The ecology of the identified vegetation forms, in conjunction with the published geological and botanical information, is used to infer the distribution of plant resources in the vicinity of the site. Further, the potential roles of different vegetation types in the economy of the settlement are explored, and possible responses of palaeovegetation to the anthropogenic disturbance assessed. The evidence from Vinča suggests the presence of a range of vegetation formations and the limited human impact on their availability. The abundance and careful management of the natural resources may have been the key to the longevity of this site.
Mountain grazing and ore processing had a significant impact on the Alpine environment in the last 5000 years, but few studies have so far focused on environmental changes of the south eastern Alps. ...This study investigates the vegetation history and sedimentary processes in the catchment of Lake Bohinj (Julian Alps, Slovenia), where a 12-m-long core was collected in the central part of the lake. Sediment in the early Holocene section of the core was partially reworked due to a major seismic event dated to 6711–6523 yr cal BP (Rapuc et al. 2018), therefore a detailed palaeoenvironmental reconstruction was performed only for the top 4.4 m of the core. Here the results of mineralogical, sedimentological, geochemical, stable isotope (δ13C and δ15N), and pollen analysis are presented in order to better understand the impact of people (agriculture, grazing, mining) on the environment, and climate-human interactions over the last 6600 years.
The results of palynological research suggest that at ca. 6000 yr cal BP Lake Bohinj was surrounded by mixed forest composed of Picea, Abies, deciduous Quercus, with Fagus becoming dominant after ca. 3300 yr cal BP. In the Bronze and especially the Iron Age (3500–2500 yr cal BP), when the region was, according to archaeological data, densely populated, clearing of forests due to agriculture, livestock production and metallurgical activities was detected through Cerealia type pollen, Plantago lanceolata, and the decline of Abies. These activities probably triggered soil erosion recorded as increased sedimentation rates. In the subsequent centuries human impact on the environment continued (increased), but it seems that the watershed was not destabilised again. Several periods of high terrigenous input were recorded at 6100–6000, 5700–5550, 5000–4600, 3900, 3700–3550, 2300–2200 yr cal BP and could be associated with a mobilisation of river inflow from the eastern flysch bearing catchment, due to river migration during periods of wetter climate. These flood patterns match with periods of enhanced flood activity in the wider Alpine region.
•Vegetation history and sedimentary processes at Lake Bohinj were investigated.•Several periods of wetter climate were recorded in the last 6600 years.•Human impact (grazing and fire disturbance) intensified in the Bronze Age.•In the Iron Age (2600 BP) human activity triggered massive soil erosion.
This study examines the variability of the Holocene landscape and the extent of human impact on the vegetation of Bela krajina region (southeastern Slovenia). Pollen and microcharcoal records of two ...small palaeoecological sites Mlaka and Griblje (G3), located just c. 10 km apart, indicate that human impact, manifested as forest clearance and burning, was significant throughout the Holocene and led to change of forest composition, impoverishment of soils, increased biodiversity and formation of a mosaic landscape with significant differences between the two sites. On both sites the strongest human impact associated with Fagus decline and the appearance of taxa characteristic for meadows, fields and pastures was detected from approximately 6000 cal. yr. BP onwards. However, differences between study sites were significant. At Mlaka, located on predominantly limestone bedrock, the human impact was very intensive and the present-day open landscape was formed by the Mediaeval period at c. 1000 cal. BP. In comparison the landscape around Griblje (on sandy bedrock) remained predominantly forested to the present.
The Slovenian climate has undergone significant fluctuations, and an understanding of the past climate is necessary to improve models and recognise long-term patterns. The cryosphere environment, ...such as ice core samples, provides valuable palaeoclimate data. Palynology and dendroclimatology are also effective ways to study long-term changes in vegetation and reconstruct past climates using pollen and tree proxies. Sediment cores from various locations in Slovenia have been studied to understand past environmental changes. Borehole temperature profiles as well as historical records were also used to reconstruct past climate conditions. Studies have shown specific periods when climatic changes likely played a major role, but a complete timeline of the Slovenian climate throughout the Holocene has not yet been fully developed.
Small mountain lakes are natural archives for understanding long‐term natural and anthropogenic impact on the environment. This study focused on long‐term (last ca. 13 000 years) vegetation changes ...and sedimentary processes in the catchment area of Lake Planina pri jezeru (1430 m a.s.l.) by using mineralogical, geochemical and palynological methods. Palynological results suggest that regional vegetation between 12 900 and 11 700 cal a bp was a herbaceous–forest tundra (Pinus, Artemisia, Poaceae). Climate warming at the beginning of the Holocene (ca. 11 700 cal a bp) caused the transition from a wetland (Cyperaceae) to an eutrophic lake with alternating anoxic (pyrite) and oxic conditions (gypsum). In addition, the surrounding area became forested (Picea, Larix, Ulmus). Fagus expanded at 10 200 cal a bp and Abies at 8200 cal a bp. Between 7500 and 4300 cal a bp, human impact on the environment was barely noticeable and mostly limited to grazing. During 4300–430 cal a bp human impact became more evident and gradually increased. The greatest influence was observed from 430 cal a bp onwards, when excessive exploitation of the surrounding area (logging and grazing) severely eutrophicated the lake.
Wildfire occurrence is influenced by climate, vegetation and human
activities. A key challenge for understanding the risk of fires is quantifying the mediating effect of vegetation on fire
regimes. ...Here, we explore the relative importance of Holocene land cover,
land use, dominant functional forest type, and climate dynamics on biomass
burning in temperate and boreo-nemoral regions of central and eastern Europe
over the past 12 kyr. We used an extensive data set of Holocene pollen and
sedimentary charcoal records, in combination with climate simulations and
statistical modelling. Biomass burning was highest during the early Holocene
and lowest during the mid-Holocene in all three ecoregions (Atlantic, continental and boreo-nemoral) but was more spatially variable over the past 3–4 kyr. Although climate explained a
significant variance in biomass burning during the early Holocene, tree
cover was consistently the highest predictor of past biomass burning over
the past 8 kyr. In temperate forests, biomass burning was high at
∼45 % tree cover and decreased to a minimum at between 60 % and
70 % tree cover. In needleleaf-dominated forests, biomass burning was
highest at ∼ 60 %–65 % tree cover and steeply declined at
>65 % tree cover. Biomass burning also increased when arable
lands and grasslands reached ∼ 15 %–20 %, although this
relationship was variable depending on land use practice via ignition
sources, fuel type and quantities. Higher tree cover reduced the amount of
solar radiation reaching the forest floor and could provide moister, more
wind-protected microclimates underneath canopies, thereby decreasing fuel
flammability. Tree cover at which biomass burning increased appears to be
driven by warmer and drier summer conditions during the early Holocene and
by increasing human influence on land cover during the late Holocene. We suggest that long-term fire hazard
may be effectively reduced through land cover management, given that land
cover has controlled fire regimes under the dynamic climates of the
Holocene.
The discovery of sites preserving tephra layers from multiple volcanic centres is key to constructing a single European tephrostratigraphic framework for the Late Quaternary. Until now, the ...tephrostratigraphy of Europe has been divided into two halves: sites in the North Atlantic and northern Europe regions link the Icelandic, Eifel, and the Massif Central volcanic histories; whilst sites in southern Europe record the sequence of tephra layers produced by circum-Mediterranean volcanic provinces. The missing link, able to tie together these two halves, is found in the tephrostratigraphic record of Lake Bled, Slovenia.
Lake Bled, in the Julian Alps, Slovenia, holds a high resolution multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental archive for the Lateglacial of south-central Europe. Cryptotephra investigations have revealed three tephra layers: two closely spaced within Younger Dryas stadial sediments and one shortly after the start of the Bølling-Allerød interstadial warming. Two of the tephra layers (Bld_T120 and Bld_T240) are of Campanian origin and are correlated to deposits of the Pomici Principali (PP) and Neapolitan Yellow Tuff (NYT) eruptions, respectively. The third layer (Bld_T122) correlates to the Icelandic Vedde Ash (VA), extending the known fallout of this widespread marker layer farther to the southeast.
The Lake Bled record also allows the stratigraphic relationship and relative ages of the VA and the PP eruption to be discerned for the first time. Whilst existing numerical age estimates for these two deposits are indistinguishable within errors, their close occurrence in the same lacustrine sediment sequence shows that the VA was erupted shortly prior to the PP eruption.
The tephrostratigraphy of Lake Bled developed here helps us to tie together regional volcanic stratigraphies into a broader, continental-scale lattice of sites, with the potential to allow the transfer of dates between remote sequences and the construction of relative chronologies, beneficial in particular for environmental and archaeological research.
►Three Lateglacial cryptotephra have been found in the sediments of Lake Bled. ► Tephra from Icelandic and Italian volcanoes are found together for the first time. ► The record links North Atlantic, European and Mediterranean tephrostratigraphies. ► A new date is established for the Pomici Principali tephra 12077 ± 94 cal yr BP.
Sequences of lake sediments often form long and continuous records that may be sensitive recorders of seismic shaking. A multi‐proxy analysis of Lake Bohinj sediments associated with a ...well‐constrained chronology was conducted to reconstruct Holocene seismic activity in the Julian Alps (Slovenia). A seismic reflection survey and sedimentological analyses identified 29 homogenite‐type deposits related to mass‐wasting deposits. The most recent homogenites can be linked to historical regional earthquakes (i.e. 1348 ad, 1511 ad and 1690 ad) with strong epicentral intensity greater than ‘damaging’ (VIII) on the Medvedev–Sponheuer–Karnik scale. The correlation between the historical earthquake data set and the homogenites identified in a core isolated from local stream inputs, allows interpretation of all similar deposits as earthquake related. This work extends the earthquake chronicle of the last 6600 years in this area with a total of 29 events recorded. The early Holocene sedimentary record is disturbed by a seismic event (6617 ± 94 cal yr bp) that reworked previously deposited sediment and led to a thick sediment deposit identified in the seismic survey. The period between 3500 cal yr bp and 2000 cal yr bp is characterized by a major destabilization in the watershed by human activities that led to increases in erosion and sedimentation rates. This change increased the lake's sensitivity to recording an earthquake (earthquake‐sensitivity threshold index) with the occurrence of 72 turbidite‐type deposits over this period. The high turbidite frequency identified could be the consequence of this change in lake earthquake sensitivity and thus these turbidites could be triggered by earthquake shaking, as other origins are discarded. This study illustrates why it is not acceptable to propose a return period for seismic activity recorded in lake sediment if the sedimentation rate varies significantly.
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