Long-term changes in floristic diversity in southern Sweden: palynological richness, vegetation dynamics and land-use |
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Authors: | Björn E Berglund Marie-José Gaillard Leif Björkman Thomas Persson |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Geology/Quaternary Sciences, GeoBiosphere Centre, Lund University, S?lvegatan 12, 223 62, Lund, Sweden 2. Biology and Environmental Science, University of Kalmar, 391 82, Kalmar, Sweden
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Abstract: | The rarefaction technique is applied to two Holocene pollen sequences (covering the last 12,000 calendar years) from two lakes
in southern Sweden. One represents an open agricultural landscape, the other a partly wooded and less cultivated landscape.
The inferred palynological richness is interpreted as an approximate measure of floristic diversity at the landscape scale.
The overall trend is an increased diversity from the mid-Holocene to the Modern period, which is linked to a parallel rise
in human impact. The pattern is similar for the two sites with peaks corresponding to archaeological periods characterised
by deforestation and expanding settlement and agriculture. The highest diversity was reached during the Medieval period, about
a.d. 1,000–1,400. Declining diversity during the last 200 years characterises the agrarian landscape. These results confirm, for
southern Scandinavia, the “intermediate disturbance” hypothesis for biodiversity at the landscape scale and on millennial
to century time scales. They have implications for landscape management in modern nature conservation that has the purpose
of maintaining and promoting biodiversity. |
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Keywords: | Southern Sweden Rarefaction analysis Disturbance Human impact Prehistoric land-use Landscape management |
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