Post-Glacial Fire, Vegetation, and Human History on the Northern Alpine Forelands, South-Western Germany

Clark, James S.; Merkt, Josef; Müller, Heino

doi:10.2307/2260813

Cited by 190 publications

(145 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

136

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…During this period farming economies became more intensive. The use of fire in European Neolithic cultures for land-use and clearance is widely attested (Clark et al, 1989;Carcaillet, 1998;Tinner et al, 1999;Vannière and Martineau, 2005). Tinner et al (2005) reported charcoal increases in lacustrine sedimentary sequences on the Swiss plateau at ca 6200 and 5500 cal.…”

Section: Holocene Fire Regime and Human Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bergeron and Archambault, 1993;Flannigan et al, 1998; [Tinner et al, 2006a] and [Tinner et al, 2006b]). On a longer-time perspective, fire hazard has generally increased due increases in population size since prehistory, changes in husbandry practices, and increases in human ignition sources (Clark et al, 1989;Tinner et al, 1999;Carcaillet et al, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Climate versus human-driven fire regimes in Mediterranean landscapes: the Holocene record of Lago dell’Accesa (Tuscany, Italy)

Vannière

Colombaroli

Chapron

et al. 2008

Quaternary Science Reviews

216

169

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A high-resolution sedimentary charcoal record from Lago dell'Accesa in southern Tuscany reveals numerous changes in fire regime over the last 11.6 kyr cal. BP and provides one of the longest gap-free series from Italy and the Mediterranean region. Charcoal analyses are coupled with gamma density measurements, organic-content analyses, and pollen counts to provide data about sedimentation and vegetation history. A comparison between fire frequency and lake-level reconstructions from the same site is used to address the centennial variability of fire regimes and its linkage to hydrological processes. Our data reveal strong relationships among climate, fire, vegetation, and land-use and attest to the paramount importance of fire in Mediterranean ecosystems. The mean fire interval (MFI) for the entire Holocene was estimated to be 150 yr, with a minimum around 80 yr and a maximum around 450 yr. Between 11.6 and 3.6 kyr cal. BP, up to eight high-frequency fire phases lasting 300-500 yr generally occurred during shifts towards low lake-level stands (ca 11,300, 10,700, 9500, 8700, 7600, 6200, 5300, 3400, 1800 and 1350 cal. yr BP). Therefore, we assume that most of these shifts were triggered by drier climatic conditions and especially a dry summer season that promoted ignition and biomass burning. At the beginning of the Holocene, high climate seasonality favoured fire expansion in this region, as in many other ecosystems of the northern and southern hemispheres. Human impact affected fire regimes and especially fire frequencies since the Neolithic (ca 8000-4000 cal. yr BP). Burning as a consequence of anthropogenic activities became more frequent after the onset of the Bronze Age (ca 3800-3600 cal. yr BP) and appear to be synchronous with the development of settlements in the region, slash-and-burn agriculture, animal husbandry, and mineral exploitation. The anthropogenic phases with maximum fire activity corresponded to greater sensitivity of the vegetation and triggered significant changes in vegetational communities (e.g. temporal declines of Quercus ilex forests and expansion of shrublands and macchia). The link between fire and climate persisted during the mid-and late Holocene, when human impact on vegetation and the fire regime was high. This finding suggests that climatic conditions were important for fire occurrence even under strongly humanised ecosystem conditions.

show abstract

Section: Holocene Fire Regime and Human Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate versus human-driven fire regimes in Mediterranean landscapes: the Holocene record of Lago dell’Accesa (Tuscany, Italy)

Vannière

Colombaroli

Chapron

et al. 2008

Quaternary Science Reviews

216

169

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Fire has often been used by man for clearing forested land, and is therefore seen as an indicator of early human activity in several charcoal records in Europe, America and Southeast Asia (Clark et al 1989;Carcaillet et al 2002). Increasing charcoal levels are often accompanied with decreasing tree pollen and increasing cereal and weed pollen, indicating human cultivation and domesticated grazing animals (Roberts 1998;Williams 2000).…”

Section: Firementioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of human land-use on the global carbon cycle during the last 6,000 years

Olofsson

Hickler

2007

Veget Hist Archaeobot

150

142

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Humanity has become a major actor within the Earth system, particularly through transforming large parts of the land surface and by altering the gaseous composition of the atmosphere. Deforestation for agricultural purposes started thousands of years ago, which might have resulted in a detectable human influence on climate much earlier than the industrial revolution.This study presents a first attempt to estimate dynamic changes in anthropogenic carbon fluxes over the last 6000 years. A global gridded data set on the spread of permanent and nonpermanent agriculture over this time period was developed and integrated within the LundPotsdam-Jena Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (LPJ-DGVM). The model was run with and without human land-use, and the differences in terrestrial carbon pools were calculated as an estimate of anthropogenic carbon release to the atmosphere.The modelled total carbon release during the industrial period (1850-1998) was 162 gigatons of carbon (GtC), of which 36 GtC originated from non-permanent agriculture. For preindustrial times (6000 BP until AD 1850), human-related carbon release was 79 GtC from permanent agriculture and an additional 35 GtC as a result of non-permanent agriculture. The modelled total carbon release was considerably lower than would be required for a substantial influence on the climate system. POPULÄRVETENSKAPLIG SAMMANFATTNINGMänniskan har blivit en viktig aktör inom systemet jorden, bland annat genom en betydande omvandling av stora landarealer och en stor påverkan på atmosfärens sammansättning. En omfattande avskogning för jordbruksändamål inleddes redan för tusentals år sedan vilket bland annat har medfört ett kolflöde till atmosfären. Enligt en nyligen framlagd hypotes skulle mänsklighetens markanvändning därmed troligen ha orsakat en märkbar klimatpåverkan långt tidigare än med den storskaliga förbränningen av fossila bränslen med resulterande koldioxidutsläpp som inleddes vid industrialiseringens begynnelse för 200 år sedan.Studien är ett första försök att uppskatta förändringar i antropogena (orsakade av människan) kolflöden på grund av markanvändning under de senaste 6000 åren. En global rutnätsbaserad databas över utvecklingen av permanent och icke-permanent jordbruk för tidsperioden har tagits fram och integrerats i Lund-Potsdam-Jena Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (LPJ-DGVM), som med klimatdata (temperatur, nederbörd, solinstrålning, koldioxidhalt) mekanistiskt simulerar växtlivet uppdelat i vegetationstyper. Modellen kördes under 6000 år såväl med som utan den globala databasen över markanvändning. Skillnaden i vegetationsoch markkollager mellan de två körningarna beräknades som en uppskattning av nettokolflödet till atmosfären på grund av mänsklig markanvändning.Det modellerade nettokolflödet orsakat av markanvändning under industrialiseringen (1850-1998) var 162 gigaton kol (GtC), av vilka 36 GtC var ett resultat av icke-permanent jordbruk. Som jämförelse uppskattas kolflödet från förbränning av fossila bränslen under samma tid till 262 GtC. Under...

show abstract

“…Tolonen, 1978;Huttunen 1980;Pitkänen and Huttunen, 1999;Pitkänen et al, 1999aPitkänen et al, ,b, 2001Pitkänen et al, , 2002. The study by Clark et al (1989) was the first entire Holocene fire record from central Europe. More recent studies were performed in the Southern Alps (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Harrison and Dodson, 1993;Haberle and Ledru, 2001;Black and Mooney, 2006), few European investigations correlate fire history with climate change, while many studies discuss human activity as a cause of fire in the past (e.g. Clark et al, 1989;Innes and Blackford, 2003;Mouillot and Field, 2005;Froyd, 2006). Tinner et al (1999) suggested that increased fire in the Alps for the period 7000-5000 cal yr BP resulted from the combined effects of intensified land-use activities and centennial-scale shifts to warmer and drier climatic conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A continuous record of fire covering the last 10,500 calendar years from southern Sweden — The role of climate and human activities

Olsson¹,

Gaillard²,

Lemdahl³

et al. 2010

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Post-Glacial Fire, Vegetation, and Human History on the Northern Alpine Forelands, South-Western Germany

Cited by 190 publications

References 20 publications

Climate versus human-driven fire regimes in Mediterranean landscapes: the Holocene record of Lago dell’Accesa (Tuscany, Italy)

Climate versus human-driven fire regimes in Mediterranean landscapes: the Holocene record of Lago dell’Accesa (Tuscany, Italy)

Effects of human land-use on the global carbon cycle during the last 6,000 years

A continuous record of fire covering the last 10,500 calendar years from southern Sweden — The role of climate and human activities

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About