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Two hundred years of land-use change in the South Swedish Uplands: comparison of historical map-based estimates with a pollen-based reconstruction using the landscape reconstruction algorithm

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Abstract

Long-term records of environmental history at decadal to millennial time-scales enable an assessment of ecosystem variability and responses to past anthropogenic disturbances and are fundamental for the development of environmental management strategies. This study examines the local variability of land-use history in the South Swedish Uplands over the last 200 years based on pollen records from three lake-sediment successions. Temporal changes in the proportional cover of 14 plant taxa were quantified as percentages using the landscape reconstruction algorithm (LRA). The LRA-based estimates of the extent of four land-use categories (cropland, meadows/grassland, wetland, outland/woodland) were compared to corresponding estimates based on historical maps and aerial photographs from ad 1769–1823, 1837–1895, 1946 and 2005. Although the LRA approach tends to overestimate grassland cover by 10–30 % for the two earliest time periods, the reconstructed vegetation composition is generally in good agreement with estimates based on the historical records. Subsequently, the LRA approach was used to reconstruct the 200-year history of local land-use dynamics at 20-year intervals around two small lakes. The qualitative assessment of difference approach, which requires fewer assumptions and parameters than LRA for objective evaluation of between-site differences in plant abundances, provides consistent results in general. Significant differences exist in the land-use history between the sites. Local catchment characteristics, such as soil conditions and wetland cover, appear important for the development of human impact on the landscape. Quantifications of past vegetation dynamics provide information on the amplitude, frequency and duration of the land-use changes and their effects on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and should be taken into account when nature conservation strategies are developed.

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Acknowledgments

We are very thankful to all members of the NordForsk network LANDCLIM (coordinated by M.J. Gaillard, Linnaeus University, Sweden) for useful and inspiring discussions during the numerous network workshops (2009–2011). This work was funded by the Swedish Research Council Formas through Grants 2006–547 to W. Granéli and 2007-1012 to A. Broström. S.S. was supported by the funding available through the Estonian Mobilitas Programme (MTT3), and F.M. by the French project ANR 2010 JCJC 1804 01 ≪MODE RESPYR≫ (http://www.w3.mode-respyr.univtlse2.fr/index.php). We are also grateful to Sheila Hicks for careful checking and editing the text and to three reviewers (Thomas Giesecke and two anonymous) for valuable suggestions for revisions and corrections of an earlier version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CNRS GEODE UMR 5602, Jean Jaurès University, Toulouse, France

    Florence Mazier

  2. Department of Geology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Florence Mazier, Anna Broström, Pétra Bragée, Daniel Fredh, Li Stenberg & Dan Hammarlund

  3. Swedish National Heritage Board, Lund, Sweden

    Anna Broström

  4. WSP Environmental, Helsingborg, Sweden

    Li Stenberg

  5. Lund municipality, Lund, Sweden

    Géraldine Thiere

  6. Institute of Ecology, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia

    Shinya Sugita

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  1. Florence Mazier
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Correspondence to Florence Mazier.

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Communicated by F. Bittmann.

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Mazier, F., Broström, A., Bragée, P. et al. Two hundred years of land-use change in the South Swedish Uplands: comparison of historical map-based estimates with a pollen-based reconstruction using the landscape reconstruction algorithm. Veget Hist Archaeobot 24, 555–570 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-015-0516-0

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