Large Scale Anthropogenic Reduction of Forest Cover in Last Glacial Maximum Europe
Reconstructions of the vegetation of Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) are an enigma. Pollen-based analyses have suggested that Europe was largely covered by steppe and tundra, and forests persisted only in small refugia. Climate-vegetation model simulations on the other hand have consist...
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Online Access: | https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54911.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54912.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54913.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54914.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54915.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54916.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54917.pdf https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0166726 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/ |
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ftarchimer:oai:archimer.ifremer.fr:53210 2023-05-15T18:40:28+02:00 Large Scale Anthropogenic Reduction of Forest Cover in Last Glacial Maximum Europe Kaplan, Jed O. Pfeiffer, Mirjam Kolen, Jan C. A. Davis, Basil A. S. 2016-11 application/pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54911.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54912.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54913.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54914.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54915.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54916.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54917.pdf https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0166726 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/ eng eng Public Library Science info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/FP7/603447/EU//HERCULES https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54911.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54912.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54913.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54914.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54915.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54916.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54917.pdf doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0166726 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/ 2016 Kaplan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess restricted use CC-BY Plos One (1932-6203) (Public Library Science), 2016-11 , Vol. 11 , N. 11 , P. e0166726 (1-17) text Publication info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2016 ftarchimer https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0166726 2021-09-23T20:30:28Z Reconstructions of the vegetation of Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) are an enigma. Pollen-based analyses have suggested that Europe was largely covered by steppe and tundra, and forests persisted only in small refugia. Climate-vegetation model simulations on the other hand have consistently suggested that broad areas of Europe would have been suitable for forest, even in the depths of the last glaciation. Here we reconcile models with data by demonstrating that the highly mobile groups of hunter-gatherers that inhabited Europe at the LGM could have substantially reduced forest cover through the ignition of wildfires. Similar to hunter-gatherers of the more recent past, Upper Paleolithic humans were masters of the use of fire, and preferred inhabiting semi-open landscapes to facilitate foraging, hunting and travel. Incorporating human agency into a dynamic vegetation-fire model and simulating forest cover shows that even small increases in wildfire frequency over natural background levels resulted in large changes in the forested area of Europe, in part because trees were already stressed by low atmospheric CO2 concentrations and the cold, dry, and highly variable climate. Our results suggest that the impact of humans on the glacial landscape of Europe may be one of the earliest large-scale anthropogenic modifications of the earth system. Article in Journal/Newspaper Tundra Archimer (Archive Institutionnelle de l'Ifremer - Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer) PLOS ONE 11 11 e0166726 |
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Open Polar |
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Archimer (Archive Institutionnelle de l'Ifremer - Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer) |
op_collection_id |
ftarchimer |
language |
English |
description |
Reconstructions of the vegetation of Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) are an enigma. Pollen-based analyses have suggested that Europe was largely covered by steppe and tundra, and forests persisted only in small refugia. Climate-vegetation model simulations on the other hand have consistently suggested that broad areas of Europe would have been suitable for forest, even in the depths of the last glaciation. Here we reconcile models with data by demonstrating that the highly mobile groups of hunter-gatherers that inhabited Europe at the LGM could have substantially reduced forest cover through the ignition of wildfires. Similar to hunter-gatherers of the more recent past, Upper Paleolithic humans were masters of the use of fire, and preferred inhabiting semi-open landscapes to facilitate foraging, hunting and travel. Incorporating human agency into a dynamic vegetation-fire model and simulating forest cover shows that even small increases in wildfire frequency over natural background levels resulted in large changes in the forested area of Europe, in part because trees were already stressed by low atmospheric CO2 concentrations and the cold, dry, and highly variable climate. Our results suggest that the impact of humans on the glacial landscape of Europe may be one of the earliest large-scale anthropogenic modifications of the earth system. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kaplan, Jed O. Pfeiffer, Mirjam Kolen, Jan C. A. Davis, Basil A. S. |
spellingShingle |
Kaplan, Jed O. Pfeiffer, Mirjam Kolen, Jan C. A. Davis, Basil A. S. Large Scale Anthropogenic Reduction of Forest Cover in Last Glacial Maximum Europe |
author_facet |
Kaplan, Jed O. Pfeiffer, Mirjam Kolen, Jan C. A. Davis, Basil A. S. |
author_sort |
Kaplan, Jed O. |
title |
Large Scale Anthropogenic Reduction of Forest Cover in Last Glacial Maximum Europe |
title_short |
Large Scale Anthropogenic Reduction of Forest Cover in Last Glacial Maximum Europe |
title_full |
Large Scale Anthropogenic Reduction of Forest Cover in Last Glacial Maximum Europe |
title_fullStr |
Large Scale Anthropogenic Reduction of Forest Cover in Last Glacial Maximum Europe |
title_full_unstemmed |
Large Scale Anthropogenic Reduction of Forest Cover in Last Glacial Maximum Europe |
title_sort |
large scale anthropogenic reduction of forest cover in last glacial maximum europe |
publisher |
Public Library Science |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54911.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54912.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54913.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54914.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54915.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54916.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54917.pdf https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0166726 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/ |
genre |
Tundra |
genre_facet |
Tundra |
op_source |
Plos One (1932-6203) (Public Library Science), 2016-11 , Vol. 11 , N. 11 , P. e0166726 (1-17) |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/FP7/603447/EU//HERCULES https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54911.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54912.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54913.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54914.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54915.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54916.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/54917.pdf doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0166726 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00421/53210/ |
op_rights |
2016 Kaplan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess restricted use |
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CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0166726 |
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PLOS ONE |
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