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Human and climatic impact on mires: a case study of Les Amburnex mire, Swiss Jura Mountains

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Abstract

Modern period long-term human and climatic impacts on a small mire in the Jura Mountains were assessed using testate amoebae, macrofossils and pollen. This multiproxy data analysis permitted detailed interpretations of local and regional environmental change and thus a partial disentanglement of the different variables that influence long-term mire development. From the Middle Ages until a.d. 1700 the mire vegetation was characterised by ferns, Caltha and Vaccinium, but then abruptly changed into the modern vegetation characterised by Cyperaceae, Potentilla and Sphagnum. The cause for this change was most probably deforestation, possibly enhanced by climatic cooling. A decrease in trampling intensity by domestic animals from a.d. 1950 onwards allowed Sphagnum growth and climatic warming in the a.d. 1980s and 1990s may have been responsible for considerable changes in the species composition. The mire investigated is an example of the rapid changes in mire vegetation and peat development that occurred throughout the central European mountain region during the past centuries as a result of changing climate and land-use practice. These processes are still active today and will determine the future development of high-altitude mires.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Brigitta Ammann, Edward A. D. Mitchell and W. O. van der Knaap for encouragement and interesting discussions. Florencia Oberli provided technical support and prepared many of the samples. Christian Kamenik, Jacqueline van Leeuwen, Pascal Vittoz and Herbert Wright have also made important contributions. Comments by the referees Keith Barber and Andy Lotter have been very helpful for the final version. This paper is a contribution to NCCR Plant Survival and was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF).

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  1. Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, CH-3013, Bern, Switzerland

    Per Sjögren

  2. Institute of Palaeogeography and Geo-ecology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Dziegielowa 27, 61-680, Poznań, Poland

    Mariusz Lamentowicz

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  1. Per Sjögren
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Correspondence to Per Sjögren.

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Communicated by F. Bittmann.

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Sjögren, P., Lamentowicz, M. Human and climatic impact on mires: a case study of Les Amburnex mire, Swiss Jura Mountains. Veget Hist Archaeobot 17, 185–197 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-007-0095-9

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