Dendro-archeo-ecology in North America and Europe: Re-purposing Historical Materials to Study Ancient Human-Environment Interactions

Domínguez‐Delmás, Marta; Pearson, Charlotte; Pederson, Neil; Rubino, Darrin L.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-61669-8_16

Cited by 9 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 96 publications

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“…Recognizing that old‐growth sites were predominantly located on low‐productivity sites that were less suitable for agriculture (Table ), this synchronous event at both site types (historic and old growth) is not consistent with agricultural clearing. It is, however, consistent with a recruitment event previously documented throughout eastern North America in live trees, historic logs and archaeological samples (Pederson et al, and references therein; Trouet, Dominguez‐Delmas, Pearson, Pederson, & Rubino, ). Evidence of this recruitment pulse across both site types suggests that recruitment may have been associated with regional climate variability rather than, or in addition to, land abandonment.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…These dates are likely biased towards more recent decades since we were not able to estimate how close samples were to the pith or the height at which samples were taken (Villalba & Veblen, 1997). Recognizing that old-growth sites were predominantly located on low-productivity sites that were less suitable for agriculture ( Rubino, 2018). Evidence of this recruitment pulse across both site types suggests that recruitment may have been associated with regional climate variability rather than, or in addition to, land abandonment.…”

Section: Recruitment In Historic Log Recordmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Do historic log buildings provide evidence of reforestation following depopulation of Indigenous Peoples?

Graauw

Hessl

2020

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim To test the previously published hypothesis that there was widespread reforestation following the depopulation of Indigenous Peoples in the 16th and 17th centuries. Location The central Appalachian Mountains of eastern North America. Taxon Quercus alba, Liriondendron tulipifera Methods To test for reforestation following depopulation, we used tree‐ring evidence of tree recruitment, early radial growth and growth releases from 18 historic log buildings (n = 361 logs) and eight old‐growth forest sites (n = 197 trees). We used inner‐ring dates to determine if a synchronous recruitment event(s) was present at historic sites but absent from old‐growth sites following depopulation. We used cluster analysis to determine if historic logs established in a clearing (fast early growth) or under a canopy (slow early growth). Similarly, we calculated disturbance rates (growth releases per 100 years) to determine if historic logs grew in a clearing (low disturbance) or under a canopy (high disturbance). Results Historic log and old‐growth forest sites both document a period of elevated recruitment beginning in the 1670s. This event was observed in previous studies and across site types, suggesting that either climate variability or the absence of low‐intensity land use (e.g. fire) may have also contributed to forest establishment. Most historic sites (61%–83%) had fast early growth, indicating growth of trees in high‐light conditions. The rate of disturbance was lower at historic sites with fast early growth (5.3 events/century, 95% Cl [3.6, 7.0]) than at old‐growth sites with slow early growth (23.5 events/century, 95% Cl [17.5, 29.5]), consistent with the idea that most historic logs were harvested from fast‐growing, second‐growth forests that established after depopulation. Main Conclusions Our results support the hypothesis of reforestation in upland forests of the central Appalachian Mountains following depopulation and suggest that upland forests, at the time of European immigration, were at least in part, a legacy of indigenous land use practices. However, the timing of a regional drought event, depopulation and subsequent recruitment of trees, all within the period of ~1650–1690 CE, warrants further research into interactions between indigenous land use and climate during a pivotal period in North American history.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Recruitment In Historic Log Recordmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do historic log buildings provide evidence of reforestation following depopulation of Indigenous Peoples?

Graauw

Hessl

2020

Journal of Biogeography

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“…These data show that large, infrequent disturbances may synchronize gap dynamics in temperate mesic forests at larger scales, a finding that was also recently documented in European forests (Senf & Seidl, 2017). We believe that even greater insight is possible from combining multi-century, (Scharf, 2014;Trouet et al, 2017), fine-scale pollen analysis (Fuller, Foster, McLachlan, & Drake, 1998) Although determining mesoscale forest dynamics and the scales of their underlying drivers is not trivial, frameworks exist for attributing disturbance regimes to the resulting forest dynamics at various scales. Where disturbance drivers have already been characterized, researchers can infer connections from the disturbance event to the forest response using the characteristics of those disturbance regimes, including their frequency, rotation period, size and severity (Turner, 2010).…”

Section: Con Clus Ion: Opp Ortunitie S For Re Ve Aling Fore S T Dynsupporting

confidence: 67%

“…We believe that even greater insight is possible from combining multi‐century, site‐based studies across broad geographical regions with modelling to span spatial and temporal scales further. Relatively untapped sources include historical documentary data (Mock, Mojzisek, McWaters, Chenoweth, & Stahle, ), historical structures (de Graauw, ; Trouet, Domínguez‐Delmás, Pearson, Pederson, & Rubino, ), archaeological data (Scharf, ; Trouet et al, ), fine‐scale pollen analysis (Fuller, Foster, McLachlan, & Drake, ) and the continued development of tree‐ring networks (Babst, Poulter, Bodesheim, Mahecha, & Frank, ; Pederson, Young, Stan, Ariya, & Martin‐Benito, ) along with simulation modelling (Bond‐Lamberty et al, ).…”

Section: Conclusion: Opportunities For Revealing Forest Dynamics At Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

Redefining temperate forest responses to climate and disturbance in the eastern United States: New insights at the mesoscale

Druckenbrod

Martín-Benito

Orwig

et al. 2019

Global Ecol Biogeogr

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Aim Climate and disturbance alter forest dynamics, from individual trees to biomes and from years to millennia, leaving legacies that vary with local, meso‐ and macroscales. Motivated by recent insights in temperate forests, we argue that temporal and spatial extents equivalent to that of the underlying drivers are necessary to characterize forest dynamics across scales. We focus specifically on characterizing mesoscale forest dynamics because they bridge fine‐scale (local) processes and the continental scale (macrosystems) in ways that are highly relevant for climate change science and ecosystem management. We revisit ecological concepts related to spatial and temporal scales and discuss approaches to gain a better understanding of climate–forest dynamics across scales. Location Eastern USA. Time period Last century to present. Major taxa studied Temperate broadleaf forests. Methods We review regional literature of past tree mortality studies associated with climate to identify mesoscale climate‐driven disturbance events. Using a dynamic vegetation model, we then simulate how these forests respond to a typical climate‐driven disturbance. Results By identifying compound disturbance events from both a literature review and simulation modelling, we find that synchronous patterns of drought‐driven mortality at mesoscales have been overlooked within these forests. Main conclusions As ecologists, land managers and policy‐makers consider the intertwined drivers of climate and disturbance, a focus on spatio‐temporal scales equivalent to those of the drivers will provide insight into long‐term forest change, such as drought impacts. Spatially extensive studies should also have a long temporal scale to provide insight into pathways for forest change, evaluate predictions from dynamic forest models and inform development of global vegetation models. We recommend integrating data collected from spatially well‐replicated networks (e.g., archaeological, historical or palaeoecological data), consisting of centuries‐long, high‐resolution records, with models to characterize better the mesoscale response of forests to climate change in the past and in the future.

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“…For example, Witt et al (2017) used a combination of wood element levels (as detected by x-ray fluorescence, or ‘XRF’) and stable isotope data to find tree-ring boundaries in an Australian Acacia species. As expansion of ‘nontraditional species’ continues, new insights are continually being added to fields such as archaeology (Boswijk and Johns, 2018), ecology (Argent et al, 2004; Grau et al, 2003; O’Donnell et al, 2010; Rozendaal and Zuidema, 2011; Schweingruber et al, 2013), and climatology (Amoroso et al, 2017; Trouet et al, 2017). It is also increasingly recognized that climate-sensitive conifers and select angiosperms can only inform on certain aspects of climate, forest dynamics, and ecology (Duchesne et al, 2017; Klesse et al, 2018).…”

Section: Nontraditional Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

New frontiers in tree-ring research

et al. 2020

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From its inception as a scientific discipline, tree-ring research has been used as a trans-disciplinary tool for dating and environmental reconstruction. Tree-ring chronologies in some regions extend back many thousands of years, opening up new potential for the study of climate, people, and ecology at annual and sub-annual resolution. As such, they are a frequently used resource for a diverse range of studies spanning the Holocene. They are also the focus of a constantly evolving array of analytical techniques and multidisciplinary approaches to research questions. This literature review discusses case studies at the cutting-edge of interdisciplinary tree-ring research, notes recent breakthroughs and limitations, and identifies key frontiers for the future of tree-ring research.

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Dendro-archeo-ecology in North America and Europe: Re-purposing Historical Materials to Study Ancient Human-Environment Interactions

Cited by 9 publications

References 96 publications

Do historic log buildings provide evidence of reforestation following depopulation of Indigenous Peoples?

Do historic log buildings provide evidence of reforestation following depopulation of Indigenous Peoples?

Redefining temperate forest responses to climate and disturbance in the eastern United States: New insights at the mesoscale

New frontiers in tree-ring research

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