Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

A consilience-driven approach to land use history in relation to reconstructing forest land use legacies

  • Research Aticle
  • Published:
Landscape Ecology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Context

The importance of societal factors in shaping forest area, structure and composition through economic activity, policy, governance, and population changes is frequently acknowledged in ecologic studies, however the specific socioeconomic factors that lead to land use change through time are rarely articulated.

Objectives

We present a consilience-driven approach for integrating socioeconomic and paleoecologic data to explore land use legacies and interpret causes of past abrupt environmental change.

Methods

We combine paleoecologic history reconstructed from pollen analysis of lake sediments and contemporary historical narratives of socioeconomic change developed from archival sources illustrated by three case studies from two sites in the Italian Apennines.

Results

We found that in the Rieti Basin, central Italy, between 850 and 900 AD (coeval with the beginning of the Medieval Climate Anomaly—MCA), under the new Carolingian rule, the imperially sponsored monastery at Farfa consolidated small landholdings, leading to more active land management and significant forest loss for agricultural activities. In contrast, at Pollino in southern Italy between 1050 and 1100 AD, also during the MCA, Norman conquest helped to convert a deforested landscape into an actively managed fir forest for timber needed for construction. At both sites, depopulation and land management between 1350 and 1400 AD caused by the Black Death, led to forest rewilding, however each site took a different trajectory.

Conclusions

The studies presented offer examples of how the integration of detailed historical narratives with high-resolution paleoecologic reconstructions can provide a more nuanced examination of the interrelationship between societal factors and climate forcing in shaping land-use legacies and has the capacity to illuminate the link between specific human pressures and pathways of ecological change over many centuries.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abulafia D (1981) Southern Italy and the florentine economy, 1265–1370. Econ Hist Rev 34(3):377–388. https://doi.org/10.2307/2595879

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aide TM, Clark ML, Grau HR, López-Carr D, Levy MA, Redo D, Bonilla-Moheno M, Riner G, Andrade-Núñez MJ, Muñiz M (2013) Deforestation and reforestation of latin America and the Caribbean (2001–2010). Biotropica 45(2):262–271. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7429.2012.00908.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Archer C, Noble P, Kreamer D, Piscopo V, Petitta M, Rosen M, Poulson S, Piovesan G, Mensing S (2017) Hydrochemical determination of source water contributions to Lake Lungo and Lake Ripasottile (central Italy). J Limnol 76(2):326–342

    Google Scholar 

  • Arroyo-Rodríguez V, Melo FPL, Martínez-Ramos M, Bongers F, Chazdon RL, Meave JA, Norden N, Santos BA, Leal IR, Tabarelli M (2017) Multiple successional pathways in human-modified tropical landscapes: new insights from forest succession, forest fragmentation and landscape ecology research. Biol Rev 92(1):326–340. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12231

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Arthur P (2004) From vicus to village: Italian landscapes, Ad 400–1000. In: Christie N (ed) Landscapes of change: rural evolutions in late antiquity and the early middle ages. Ashgate, Aldershot, pp 111–122

    Google Scholar 

  • Barney SA, Lewis WJ, Beach JA, Berghof O (2006) The etymologies of isidore of seville. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Bartlett R (1994) The making of Europe: conquest, colonization, and cultural change, 950–1350. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Barton AM, Keeton WS (2018) Ecology and recovery of eastern old-growth forests. Island Press, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergès L, Dupouey J (2020) Historical ecology and ancient forests: progress, conservation issues and scientific prospects, with some examples from the French case. J Veg Sci. https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12846

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bevan A, Palmisano A, Woodbridge J, Fyfe R, Roberts CN, Shennan S (2019) The changing face of the Mediterranean—land cover, demography and environmental change: introduction and overview. The Holocene 29:703–707. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683619826688

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bianchi G (2015) Analyzing fragmentation in the Early Middle Ages: the Tuscan model and the countryside in central-northern Italy. In: Gelichi S, Hodges R (eds) New directions in early medieval European archaeology: Spain and Italy compared: essays for Riccardo Francovich. Brepols, Turnhout, pp 301–333

    Google Scholar 

  • Boynton S (2006) Shaping a monastic identity: liturgy & history at the imperial abbey of Farfa, 1000–1125. Cornell University Press, Ithaca

    Google Scholar 

  • Büntgen U, Teleg W, Nicolussi K, McCormick M, Frank D, Trouet V, Kaplan JO, Herzing F, Heussner K-U, Wanner H, Luterbacher J, Esper J (2011) 2500 years of European climate variability and human susceptibility. Science 311:578–582

    Google Scholar 

  • Bürgi M, Östlund L, Mladenoff D (2017) Legacy effects of human land use: ecosystems as time-lagged systems. Ecosystems 20:94–103

    Google Scholar 

  • Butzer K (1971) Environment and archaeology. An ecological approach to prehistory. Aldine, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Butzer K (2012) Collapse, environment and society. Proc Natl Acad Sci 109(10):3632–3639

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Butzer K, Enfield G (2012) Critical perspectives on historical collapse. Proc Natl Acad Sci 109(10):3626–3631

    Google Scholar 

  • Casana J (2008) Mediterranean valleys revisited: linking soil erosion, land use and climate variability in the Northern Levant. Geomorphology 101(3):429–442

    Google Scholar 

  • Corrao P (1989) Boschi e Legno. In: Musca G (ed) Uomo e ambiente nel mezzogiorno Normanno-Svevo. Atti delle ottave giornate Normanno-Sveve. Bari 20–23 Ottobre 1987. Bari: Dedalo.Car, pp. 135–164

  • Costambeys M (2007) Power and patronage in early medieval Italy: local society, Italian politics and the abbey of Farfa, c.700–900. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies A (2019) Dung fungi as an indicator of large herbivore dynamics in peatlands. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 271:104–108

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis O, Shafer D (2006) Sporormiella fungal spores, a palynological means of detecting herbivore density. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 237:40–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Delogu P (1995) Lombard and Carolingian Italy. In: McKitterick R (ed) The new Cambridge medieval history, vol. II: c. 700–c. 900. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 290–319

    Google Scholar 

  • Devroey J-P (2020) Monastic economics in the carolingian age. In: Beach AI, Cochelin I (eds) The Cambridge history of medieval monasticism in the latin west. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 466–484

    Google Scholar 

  • Di Cosmo N, Hessl A, Leland C, Byambasuren O, Tian H, Nachin B, Pederson N, Andreu-Hayles L, Cook ER (2018) Environmental stress and steppe nomads: rethinking the history of the Uyghur empire (744–840) with paleoclimate data. J. Interdiscipl. Hist. 48(4):439–463. https://doi.org/10.1162/JINH_a_01194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunning N, Beach T, Juzzadder-Beach S (2012) Kax and kol: collapse and resilience in lowland Maya civilization. Proc Natl Acad Sci 109(10):3652–3657

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dupouey J, Dambrine E, Laffite J, Moares C (2002) Irreversible impact of land use on forest soils and biodiversity. Ecology 83(11):2879–2984

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellenberg H (1988) Vegetation ecology of central Europe. Cambridge University Press

  • England A, Eastwood WJ, Roberts CN, Turner R, Haldon JF (2008) Historical landscape change in Cappadocia (central Turkey): a palaeoecological investigation of annually laminated sediments from Nar lake. The Holocene 18(8):1229–1245. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683608096598

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Esper J, Klippel L, Krusic PJ, Konter O, Raible CC, Xoplaki E, Luterbacher J, Büntgen U (2019) Eastern Mediterranean summer temperatures since 730 CE from Mt. Smolikas tree-ring densities. Clim Dyn. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-019-05063-x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Faegri K, Iversen J (1989) Textbook of pollen analysis, 4th edn. Hafner Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Forman R, Alexander L (1998) Roads and their major ecological effects. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 29:207–231

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert J, Keen C, Williams E (2017) The Italian angevins: Naples and beyond, 1266–1343. Italian Stud 72(2):121–127. https://doi.org/10.1080/00751634.2017.1306941

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haldon J, Mordechai L, Newfield T, Chase A, Izdebski A, Guzowski P, Labuhn I, Roberts N (2018) History meets paleoscience: consilience and collaboration in studying past societal responses to environmental change. Proc Natl Acad Sci 115(13):3210–3218

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Haldon J, Roberts N, Izdebski A, Fleitmann D, McCormick M, Cassis M, Doonan O, Eastwood W, Elton H, Ladstätter S, Manning S, Newhard J, Nicoll K, Telelis I, Xoplaki E (2014) The climate and environment of Byzantine Anatolia: integrating science, history, and archaeology. J Interdiscipl Hist 45(2):113–161. https://doi.org/10.1162/JINH_a_00682

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hammer Ø, Harper D, Ryan P (2001) PAST: paleontological statistics software package for education and data analysis. Palaeontol Electron 4:99

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris WV (ed) (2013) The ancient mediterranean environment between science and history. Brill, Leiden

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes R, Weiberg E, Bonnier A, Finné M, Kaplan J (2018) Quantifying land use in past societies from cultural practice and archaeological data. Land 7:9. https://doi.org/10.3390/land7010009

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Izdebski A, Holmgren K, Weiberg E, Stocker SR, Büntgen U, Florenzano A, Gogou A, Leroy SAG, Luterbacher J, Martrat B, Masi A, Mercuri AM, Montagna P, Sadori L, Schneider A, Sicre M-A, Triantaphyllou M, Xoplaki E (2016) Realising consilience: how better communication between archaeologists, historians and natural scientists can transform the study of past climate change in the Mediterranean. Quatern Sci Rev 136:5–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.10.038

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ladurie E (1971) Times of feast, times of famine: a history of climate since the year 1000. Doubleday, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamb HH (2011) Climate: present, past and future (Routledge revivals). Taylor & Francis, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Leggio T (1989) Forme di insediamento in Sabina e nel Reatino nel medioevo. Alcune considerazioni. Bull Dell’Istituto Storico Ital per il Medio Evo e Arch Muratoriano 95:165–202

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindbladh M, Fraver S, Edvardsson J, Felton A (2013) Past forest composition, structures and processes—how paleoecology can contribute to forest conservation. Biol Conserv 168:116–127

    Google Scholar 

  • Ljungqvist FC, Tegel W, Krusic PJ, Seim A, Gschwind FM, Haneca K, Herzig F, Heussner KU, Hofmann J, Houbrechts D, Kontic R, Kyncl T, Leuschner HH, Nicolussi K, Perrault C, Pfeifer K, Schmidhalter M, Seifert M, Walder F, Westphal T, Büntgen U (2018) Linking European building activity with plague history. J Archaeol Sci 98:81–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2018.08.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lo Cascio E, Malanima P (2005) Cycles and sability. Italian population before the demographic transition (225 B.C.—A.D. 1900). Riv di Storia Econ 21:5–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Loyn H (2014) Anglo saxon England and the norman conquest. Routledge

  • Lüning S, Schulte L, Garcés-Pastor S, Danladi IB, Gałka M (2019) The medieval climate anomaly in the mediterranean region. Paleoceanogr Paleoclimatol 34(10):1625–1649. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019PA003734

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCormick M, Büntgen U, Cane M, Cook E, Harper K, Huybers P, Nicolussi K (2012) Climate change during and after the Roman Empire: reconstructing the past from scientific and historical evidence. J Interdiscipl Hist 43(2):169–220

    Google Scholar 

  • Mensing SA, Schoolman EM, Tunno I, Noble PJ, Sagnotti L, Florindo F, Piovesan G (2018) Historical ecology reveals landscape transformation coincident with cultural development in central Italy since the Roman Period. Sci Rep. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-20286-4

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Mensing S, Tunno I, Cifani G, Passigli S, Noble P, Archer C, Piovesan G (2016) Human and climatically induced environmental change in the mediterranean during the medieval climate anomaly and little ice age: a case from central Italy. Anthropocene 15:49–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2016.01.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mensing S, Tunno I, Sagnotti L, Florindo F, Noble P, Archer C, Zimmermann S, Pavón-Carrasco F, Cifani G, Passigli S, Piovesan G (2015) 2700 years of Mediterranean environmental change in central Italy: a synthesis of sedimentary and cultural records to interpret past impacts of climate on society. Quatern Sci Rev 116:72–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Naveh Z (2000) What is holistic landscape ecology? A conceptual introduction. Landsc Urban Plan 20:7–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostrom E (2009) A general framework for analyzing sustainability of social-ecological systems. Science 325(5939):419–422. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1172133

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Palli J. 2019. Ricostruzione paleoecologica a scala millenaria e fasi di variazione nella fisionomia della vegetazione dei territori adiacenti il Lago del Pesce (Parco Nazionale del Pollino). Masters Thesis. Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy, p 48

  • Peters-Custot A (2002) Le monastère de Carbone au début du XIVe siècle. Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome 114:1045–1066

    Google Scholar 

  • Petritan IC, Commarmot B, Hobi ML, Petritan AM, Bigler C, Abrudan IV, Rigling A (2015) Structural patterns of beech and silver fir suggest stability and resilience of the virgin forest Sinca in the Southern Carpathians, Romania. For Ecol Manage 356:184–195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2015.07.015

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piovesan G, Biondi F, Baliva M, Dinella A, Di Fiore L, Marchiano V, Presutti SE, De Vivo G, Schettino A, Di Filippo A (2019a) Tree growth patterns associated with extreme longevity: implications for the ecology and conservation of primeval trees in Mediterranean mountains. Anthropocene. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2019.100199

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piovesan G, Biondi F, Baliva M, De Vivo G, Marchianò V, Schettino A, Di Filippo A (2019b) Lessons from the wild: slow but increasing long-term growth allows for maximum longevity in European beech. Ecology 100(9):e02737. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2737

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Quezada ML, Arroyo-Rodríguez V, Pérez-Silva E, Aide TM (2014) Land cover changes in the Lachuá region, Guatemala: patterns, proximate causes, and underlying driving forces over the last 50 years. Reg Environ Change 14(3):1139–1149. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-013-0548-x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rhemtulla J, Mladenoff D (2007) Why history matters in landscape ecology. Landsc Ecol 22:1–3. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-007-9163-x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts N, Fyfe RM, Woodbridge J, Gaillard MJ, Davis BAS, Kaplan JO, Marquer L, Mazier F, Nielsen AB, Sugita S, Trondman AK, Leydet M (2018) Europe’s lost forests: a pollen-based synthesis for the last 11,000 years. Sci Rep 8:716. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-18646-7

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson G (1928–1930) History and cartulary of the Greek monastery of St. Elias and St. Anastasius of Carbone. Roma: Institutum Orientalium Studiorum

  • Russo G (2017) Il monastero cistercense di Santa Maria del Sagittario di Chiaromonte dalla fondazione alla commenda e le sue più antiche pergamene (1320–1472). Arch Storico per la Calabria e la Lucania 83:39–148

    Google Scholar 

  • Sadori L, Giardini M (2007) Charcoal analysis, a method to study vegetation and climate of the Holocene: the case of Lago di Pergusa (Sicily, Italy). Geobios 40(2):173–180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geobios.2006.04.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sadori L, Giraudi C, Masi A, Magny M, Ortu E, Zanchetta G, Izdebski A (2016) Climate, environment and society in southern Italy during the last 2000 years. A review of the environmental, historical and archaeological evidence. Quatern Sci Rev 136:173–188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.09.020

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sangüesa-Barreda G, Esper J, Büntgen U, Camarero J, Di Filippo A, Baliva M, Piovesan G (2020) Climate-human interactions contributed to historical forest recruitment dynamics in mediterranean subalpine ecosystems. Glob Change Biol. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15246

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schoolman EM, Mensing S, Piovesan G (2018) From the late medieval to the arly modern in the Rieti basin (AS 1325–1601). Hist Geogr 46:103–128

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoolman EM, Mensing S, Piovesan G (2019) Land use and the human impact on the environment in medieval Italy. J Interdiscipl Hist 49(3):419–444. https://doi.org/10.1162/jinh_a_01303

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Squatriti P (2013) Landscape and change in early medieval italy: chestnuts, economy, and culture. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Stephens L, the ArchAEOGLOBE Project members (2019) Archaeological assessment reveals Earth’s early transformation through land use. Science 365:897–902. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aax1192

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stoddart S, Woodbridge J, Palmisano A, Mercuri AM, Mensing SA, Colombaroli D, Sadori L, Magri D, Di Rita F, Giardini M, Mariotti LM, Montanari C, Bellini C, Florenzano A, Torri P, Bevan A, Shennan S, Fyfe R, Roberts CN (2019) Tyrrhenian central Italy: holocene population and landscape ecology. The Holocene 29:761–775. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683619826696

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stroll M (1997) The medieval abbey of Farfa, target of papal and imperial ambitions. BRILL, Leiden

    Google Scholar 

  • Szabó P (2015) Historical ecology: past, present and future. Biol Rev 90:997–1014. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12141

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Szabó P, Kuneš P, Svobodová-Svitavská H, Švarcová MG, Křížová L, Suchánková S, Müllerová J, Hédl R (2017) Using historical ecology to reassess the conservation status of coniferous forests in Central Europe. Conserv Biol 31(1):150–160. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12763

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Szabó P, Müllerová J, Suchánková S, Kotačka M (2015) Intensive woodland management in the middle ages: spatial modelling based on archival data. J Hist Geogr 48:1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2015.01.005

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • van Geel B, Zazula G, Schweger C (2007) Spores of coprophilous fungi from under the Darwin tephra (25,300 14C years BP) Yukon Territory, northwestern Canada. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 252:481–485

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiss H (ed) (2017) Megadrought and collapse: from early agriculture to Angkor. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitlock C, Colombaroli D, Conedera M, Tinner W (2017) Land-use history as a guide for forest conservation and management. Conserv Biol. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12960

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Whitlock C, Larsen C (2001) Charcoal as a fire proxy. In: Smol JP, Birks HJB, Last WM, Last WM (eds) Terrestrial, algal, and siliceous indicators, tracking environmental change using lake sediments. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp 75–97

    Google Scholar 

  • Whyte I (2013) Introduction what is environmental history. In: Whyte I (ed) A dictionary of environmental history. I. B. Tauris, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Wickham C (1984) The other transition: from the ancient world to feudalism. Past Present 103:3–36

    Google Scholar 

  • Wickham C (1990) European forests in the early middle ages: landscape and land clearance. L'ambiente vegetale nell'alto medioevo, t. 2. Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo, Spoleto, pp 479–548

  • Wirth C, Messier C, Bergeron Y, Frank D, Fankhänel A (2009) Old-growth forest definitions: a pragmatic view. Springer, Berlin, pp 11–33

    Google Scholar 

  • Xoplaki E, Fleitmann D, Luterbacher J, Wagner S, Haldon JF, Zorita E, Telelis I, Toreti A, Izdebski A (2016) The Medieval Climate Anomaly and Byzantium: a review of the evidence on climatic fluctuations, economic performance and societal change. Quatern Sci Rev 136:229–252. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.10.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the “FISR-MIUR Italian Mountain Lab” project and MIUR (Ministry for Education, University and Research) initiative Department of Excellence (Law 232/2016) to G.P. and National Science Foundation award (GSS-1228126) to SM. We thank Giuseppe De Vivo, Vittoria Marchianò and Aldo Schettino for the support during the coring activity of Lago di Pesce in the Pollino National Park, Irene Tunno for pollen analysis, Leonardo Sagnotti, Fabio Florindo, and Susan Zimmerman for development of the Lago Lungo age model, and Paula Noble and Claire Archer for field assistance.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Scott Mensing.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Land-use legacies and forest change: understanding the past to forecast the future, 10 IALE Congress, Milano, Italy 2019.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 56 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mensing, S., Schoolman, E.M., Palli, J. et al. A consilience-driven approach to land use history in relation to reconstructing forest land use legacies. Landscape Ecol 35, 2645–2658 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-01079-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-01079-5

Keywords

Navigation