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Short-Term Medieval Settlement Activities Irreversibly Changed Forest Soils and Vegetation in Central Europe

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Abstract

In Europe, many contemporary forests are not continuous, but were established on former agricultural land in territories of deserted villages. We aimed to explore whether medieval settlement activities of only 60 years irreversibly changed soil properties and whether these changes were reflected by contemporary forest vegetation. The research was performed in the deserted village of Kří, which existed from 1357 to ca 1420 AD in a current oak forest on sandy soils in the Czech Republic. We identified four former land-use types (building sites, courtyards, the village square, and gardens), where we analyzed soil properties and plant species composition of the forest understory. Higher concentrations of plant-available P, K, Ca, and Mg as well as the total concentrations of organic C and trace elements (As, Cd, Cu, and Zn) were recorded at former building sites with neutral soils, compared to the other former land-use types with acidic soils. The four-times higher species richness at former building sites compared to the former gardens indicate the strong effect of soil pH and nutrient availability on plant species composition, even on the spatial scale of several square metres. Understanding recent patterns in soil properties and biodiversity in Central European forests requires detailed knowledge of former land use over centuries. Analysis of contemporary soil properties together with analysis of vegetation can help to identify former land-use types in deserted villages.

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Acknowledgments

Michal Hejcman was supported by project GAČR 521/08/1131, Jiří Ondráček by project CIGA 20104208 and Tomáš Klír by project GAČR P405/12/P715. Anonymous reviewers are gratefully acknowledged for their useful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Kamýcká 1176, Suchdol, 165 21, Prague 6, Czech Republic

    M. Hejcman & J. Ondráček

  2. Institute of Prehistory and Early History, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, Náměstí Jana Palacha 2, 116 38, Prague 1, Czech Republic

    M. Hejcman & T. Klír

  3. Department of Dendrology and Forest Breeding, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Kamýcká 1176, Suchdol, Prague 6, 165 21, Czech Republic

    P. Karlík

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  1. M. Hejcman
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Correspondence to M. Hejcman.

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Author contributions

M. Hejcman: conceived of or designed study, wrote the paper. P. Karlík: performed research, analyzed data. J. Ondráček: performed research, analyzed data. T. Klír: contributed new methods or models.

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Hejcman, M., Karlík, P., Ondráček, J. et al. Short-Term Medieval Settlement Activities Irreversibly Changed Forest Soils and Vegetation in Central Europe. Ecosystems 16, 652–663 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-013-9638-3

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