Search

International audience

In the 12,000 years preceding the Industrial Revolution, human activities led to significant changes in land cover, plant and animal distributions, surface hydrology, and biochemical cycles. Earth system models suggest that this anthropogenic land cover change influenced regional and global climate. However, the representation of past land use in earth system models is currently oversimplified. As a result, there are large uncertainties in the current understanding of the past and current state of the earth system. In order to improve representation of the variety and scale of impacts that past land use had on the earth system, a global effort is underway to aggregate and synthesize archaeological and historical evidence of land use systems. Here we present a simple, hierarchical classification of land use systems designed to be used with archaeological and historical data at a global scale and a schema of codes that identify land use practices common to a range of systems, both implemented in a geospatial database. The classification scheme and database resulted from an extensive process of consultation with researchers worldwide. Our scheme is designed to deliver consistent, empirically robust data for the improvement of land use models, while simultaneously allowing for a comparative, detailed mapping of land use relevant to the needs of historical scholars. To illustrate the benefits of the classification scheme and methods for mapping historical land use, we apply it to Mesopotamia and Arabia at 6 kya (c. 4000 BCE). The scheme will be used to describe land use by the Past Global Changes (PAGES) LandCover6k working group, an international project comprised of archaeologists, historians, geographers, paleoecologists, and modelers. Beyond this, the scheme has a wide utility for creating a common language between research and policy communities, linking archaeologists with climate modelers, biodiversity conservation workers and initiatives.

Supplemental material, Supplementary for The prehistory and early history of the Šumava Mountains (Czech Republic) as seen through anthropogenic pollen indicators and charcoal data by Radka Kozáková, Přemysl Bobek, Dagmar Dreslerová, Vojtěch Abraham and Helena Svobodová-Svitavská in The Holocene

International audience

International audience

Práce se zabývá vztahy mezi pravěkými zemědělskými kulturami a vybranými faktory přírodního prostředí v Čechách. Největší pozornost je věnována klimatu, jehož charakter a změny ovlivňují všechny další prvky ekosystému včetně lidské společnosti. Dále jsou zkoumány vztahy k nadm. výšce, půdám, teplotám a srážkám, způsoby pravěkého zemědělství, vývoj porostu, míra odlesňování. Mapy prostorového rozšíření pravěkých kultur a předpokládaná hustota osídlení tvoří podklady pro odhad intenzity lidského vlivu na prostředí. Všechny sledované parametry (včetně klimatu) jsou regionálně omezené a i závěry z nich vyvozené mají pouze regionální platnost. Na základě rozvoje orného zemědělství a vztahu archeologických období k půdním a klimatickým podmínkám jsou stanoveny čtyři etapy pravěkého vývoje: neolit ¸ eneolit - starší fáze starší doby bronzové, mladší fáze starší doby bronzové - latén, doba římská - doba stěhování národů. Tyto etapy jsou konfrontovány s klimatickou historií modelovanou podle archeoklimatického modelu MCM. Zdá se, že závislost společnosti na klimatu a dalších sledovaných prvcích přírodního prostředí je silnější ve starší části pravěku, ale nejpozději během starší doby bronzové se uvolňuje. Po celé pravěké období se zdá být vztah prostředí - společnost uniformní, to znamená, že je vždy dávána...

In the 12,000 years preceding the Industrial Revolution, human activities led to significant changes in land cover, plant and animal distributions, surface hydrology, and biochemical cycles. Earth system models suggest that this anthropogenic land cover change influenced regional and global climate. However, the representation of past land use in earth system models is currently oversimplified. As a result, there are large uncertainties in the current understanding of the past and current state of the earth system. In order to improve representation of the variety and scale of impacts that past land use had on the earth system, a global effort is underway to aggregate and synthesize archaeological and historical evidence of land use systems. Here we present a simple, hierarchical classification of land use systems designed to be used with archaeological and historical data at a global scale and a schema of codes that identify land use practices common to a range of systems, both implemented in a geospatial database. The classification scheme and database resulted from an extensive process of consultation with researchers worldwide. Our scheme is designed to deliver consistent, empirically robust data for the improvement of land use models, while simultaneously allowing for a comparative, detailed mapping of land use relevant to the needs of historical scholars. To illustrate the benefits of the classification scheme and methods for mapping historical land use, we apply it to Mesopotamia and Arabia at 6 kya (c. 4000 BCE). The scheme will be used to describe land use by the Past Global Changes (PAGES) LandCover6k working group, an international project comprised of archaeologists, historians, geographers, paleoecologists, and modelers. Beyond this, the scheme has a wide utility for creating a common language between research and policy communities, linking archaeologists with climate modelers, biodiversity conservation workers and initiatives.

In the 12,000 years preceding the Industrial Revolution, human activities led to significant changes in land cover, plant and animal distributions, surface hydrology, and biochemical cycles. Earth system models suggest that this anthropogenic land cover change influenced regional and global climate. However, the representation of past land use in earth system models is currently oversimplified. As a result, there are large uncertainties in the current understanding of the past and current state of the earth system. In order to improve representation of the variety and scale of impacts that past land use had on the earth system, a global effort is underway to aggregate and synthesize archaeological and historical evidence of land use systems. Here we present a simple, hierarchical classification of land use systems designed to be used with archaeological and historical data at a global scale and a schema of codes that identify land use practices common to a range of systems, both implemented in a geospatial database. The classification scheme and database resulted from an extensive process of consultation with researchers worldwide. Our scheme is designed to deliver consistent, empirically robust data for the improvement of land use models, while simultaneously allowing for a comparative, detailed mapping of land use relevant to the needs of historical scholars. To illustrate the benefits of the classification scheme and methods for mapping historical land use, we apply it to Mesopotamia and Arabia at 6 kya (c. 4000 BCE). The scheme will be used to describe land use by the Past Global Changes (PAGES) LandCover6k working group, an international project comprised of archaeologists, historians, geographers, paleoecologists, and modelers. Beyond this, the scheme has a wide utility for creating a common language between research and policy communities, linking archaeologists with climate modelers, biodiversity conservation workers and initiatives.

The present thesis focuses on the impact of human communities on postglacial vegetation changes and landscape transformation in the region of Central-Eastern Europe. The main aim of the study was to evaluate how past human activities are reflected in pollen spectra from different types of mostly small-sized sites. Since the Middle Holocene onwards, human impact contributed to the formation and spread of various types of open habitats, altered the vegetation composition by introducing new species, influenced forest structure and supported the acceleration of geomorphic processes such as soil erosion or sediment accumulation. Human-induced alteration of the landscape cover and vegetation composition is reflected in pollen spectra, but it is often difficult to identify. Considered as direct evidence of human activities are the presence of pollen grains of cultivated plants in pollen spectra. Besides, there are several indirect traces of human impact on the landscape such as the spread of secondary anthropogenic indicators (apophytes), fluctuation in pollen curves of trees as a consequence of change in landscape cover or woodland composition, increases of micro-charcoal particles due to human-induced fire or erosion processes. Chapter 1 presents confirmation of the assumption that Neolithic human...