Fire ecology N and S of the Alps since the last ice age
- From: "Peter Alaca" <P.Alaca@xxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 10 May 2006 20:32:18 +0200
Fire ecology north and south of the Alps since the last ice age
Tinner, W; M. Conedera, B. Ammann & AF Lotter
The Holocene, 15( 8) 2005, pp. 1214-1226
http://tinyurl.com/g4zos (contents page, the pdf is 13 pp, 1.14 mb)
Abstract: Wildfires are very rare in central
Europe, which is probably why fire effects on
vegetation have been neglected by most central
European ecologists and
palaeoecologists.Presently, reconstructions of
fire history and fire ecology are almost absent.
We analysed sediment cores from lakes on the
Swiss Plateau (Lobsigensee and Soppensee)
for pollen and charcoal to investigate the
relationship between vegetation and fire.
Microscopic charcoal evidence suggests
increasing regional fire frequencies during the
Neolithic (7350-4150 cal. BP, 5400-2200 BC)
and the subsequent prehistoric epochs at
Lobsigensee, whereas at Soppensee burnings
remained rather rare until modern times.
Neolithic peaks of charcoal at 6200 and 5500
cal. BP (4250 and 3550 BC) coincided with
declines of pollen of fire-sensitive taxa at both
sites (e.g., Elm, Lime, Ivy, Beech), suggesting
synchronous vegetational responses to fire at
regional scales.
However, correlation analysis between charcoal
and pollen for the period 6600-4400 cal. BP
(4650-2650 BC) revealed no signifi-cant link
between fire and vegetation at Soppensee,
whereas at Lobsigensee increases of Hazel
and decreases of Beach were related to fire
events.
Fire impact on vegetation increased during the
subsequent epochs at both sites. Correlation
analyses of charcoal and pollen data for the
period 4250-1150 cal. BP (2300 BC-AD 800)
suggest that fires were intentionally set to
disrupt forests and to provide open areas for
arable and pastoral farming (e.g., significant
positive correlations between charcoal and
culture indicators).
These results are compared with southern
European records (Lago di Origlio, Lago di
Muzzano), which are situated in particularly
fire-prone environments. Post-Neolithic land-use
practices involving (controlled) burning culmina-
ted in both regions at about 2550 cal. BP (c.
600 BC). However, fire-caused disappearances
of entire forest communities were confined to
the southern sites.
Such differences in fire effects among the sites
are explained by the dissimilar importance of
fire as a result of different climatic conditions
and cultural activities.
.
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