Landscape human shaping and spatial mobility of agropastoral practices in the Chaîne des Puys during historical times (Massif Central, France)

Tracking long-term human impacts on landscape, vegetal biodiversity and water quality in the Lake Aydat catchment (Auvergne, France) using pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs and diatom assemblages

“…the Little Ice Age), or historically documented demographic and socio-economic crises of the 14th century (mainly due to the Hundred Years' War or the black plague), or the agricultural crisis of the 16th century (Charbonnier, 1999) had any repercussions on the landscape evolution and any negative impact on the trajectory of increasing exploitation of upland areas. The real interruption coincides with the slow decrease of the agro-pastoral activity associated with modern emigrations of people and a progressive reforestation by pioneer trees from the end of the 18th centuries and into the 19th century (Ballut et al, 2012). At this time land management radically changed and became focuses towards dairy cow husbandry and afforestations with exotic trees (e.g.…”

“…Morvan: Jouffroy-Bapicot et al, 2013; Mont Lozère: Allee et al, 2010) or pitch production (Orengo et al, 2013), and also agriculture in the medium mountain areas (e.g. Ballut et al, 2012). Secondly, palaeoenvironmental studies permit environmental reconstructions of long-term ecological processes -climatic and/or anthropogenicbefore, during, and after an impact.…”

“…Indeed, some recent investigations were performed only on short-term lake or fen records (Ballut et al, 2008;Ballut et al, 2012). The Lake Aydat study differs in this regard having adopted a multi-proxy approach combining abiotic (density, magnetic susceptibility, X-Ray Fluorescence spectrometry, Rock-Eval) and biotic indicators (pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs [NPPs] and molecular biomarkers) (Lavrieux et al, 2013a).…”

Holocene Vegetation Dynamics and First Land-Cover Estimates in the Auvergne Mountains (Massif Central, France): Key Tools to Landscape Management

“…This landscape trajectory is a result of socio-economic strategies and landuse practices developed through time and mainly based on crop planting (especially in rye) and grazing activities, which particularly extended from the 16 th and the 17 th /18 th centuries (including the top of the volcanoes for grazing purposes). This expansion of agro-pastoral activities is mainly explained IANSA 2018 • IX/2 • 179-190 Yannick Miras, Michela Mariani, Paul M. Ledger, Alfredo Mayoral, Léo Chassiot, Marlène Lavrieux: Holocene Vegetation Dynamics and First Land-Cover Estimates in the Auvergne Mountains (Massif Central, France): Key Tools to Landscape Management by the re-organisation of the agricultural religious domains previously created (Ballut et al, 2012), some of them as early as the 12 th /13 th centuries (Miras et al, 2004). This period of diverse and extended land uses corresponds to a phase of high floristic diversity.…”

“…The nomination of the "Chaîne des Puys" to the UNESCO World Heritage list makes the development of sustainable management strategies of current landscapes of the Auvergne mountains a pressing concern (Ballut et al, 2012;Miras et al, 2015). The development of such strategies is a priority as human-induced ecological disturbances are already being observed, particularly a loss in biodiversity in different plant communities (Carrère et al, 2014).…”