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Anne Birgitte Nielsen

Anne Nielsen

Project coordinator

Anne Birgitte Nielsen

3000 Years of past regional and local land-use and land-cover change in the southeastern Swedish coastal area : Early human-induced increases in landscape openness as a potential nutrient source to the Baltic Sea coastal waters

Author

  • Olena Vinogradova
  • Marie José Gaillard
  • Elinor Andrén
  • Veronica Palm
  • Johan Rönnby
  • Martin Dahl
  • Elisabeth Almgren
  • Jon Karlsson
  • Anne Birgitte Nielsen
  • Christine Åkesson
  • Thomas Andrén
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Summary, in English

Reconstructions of past land use and related land-cover changes at local and regional scales are needed to evaluate the potential long-term impacts of land use on the coastal waters of the Baltic Sea. In this purpose, we selected the Gamleby area at the Swedish Baltic Sea coast for a case study. We use a new, high resolution pollen record from a small lake (Lillsjön) located 3.6 km NNW of the bay Gamlebyviken and detailed analysis of the available archeological data to reconstruct local land-use changes over the last 3000 years. To estimate land-cover change at local (2–3 km radius area) and regional (50 km radius area) scales we use four additional, published pollen records from two small and two large lakes (25–70 km S of Lillsjön) and the Landscape Reconstruction Algorithm, a pollen-vegetation modeling scheme. Results show that regional and local (small lakes Lillsjön and Hyttegöl) land-cover changes are comparable over the last 1500 years (Late Iron Age to present), and that landscape openness was much larger locally than regionally (difference of 20–40% cover over the last 500 years). The periods of largest potential impacts on the Gamlebyviken Bay from regional and local land use are 200–950 CE (Late Iron Age) and 1450 CE to present, and of lowest potential impacts 950–1450 CE. The question on whether the large landscape openness 1150–50 BCE and significant afforestation 50 BCE–200 CE reconstructed for Lillsjön’s area are characteristic of the Gamlebyviken region will require additional pollen records in the catchment area.

Department/s

  • Quaternary Sciences
  • MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Publishing year

2024

Language

English

Pages

56-73

Publication/Series

Holocene

Volume

34

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Topic

  • Physical Geography

Keywords

  • Archeological data
  • Gamlebyviken
  • Landscape Reconstruction Algorithm
  • Late Holocene
  • pollen analysis
  • REVEALS and LOVE models

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0959-6836