Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
1040824 | Quaternary International | 2015 | 19 Pages |
Abstract
The new anthracological investigations of kiln sites in the Harz Mountains focus on higher elevations (>600Â mNN) and date to (early) modern times, showing a temporal and spatial shift of woodland exploitation to more remote, higher elevated areas. As expected, all typical taxa of the natural montane woodlands were used. Thus, local topographical conditions and natural woodland composition mainly regulate wood usage rather than human selection. Picea abies is the dominant species in all the records. However, surprisingly, local scale expansion of the montane beech woodland (Calamagrostio villosae-Fagetum) was identified, which reaches areas that today are fully covered by spruce woodland. Thus, the new results contradict the previously accepted assumption that the Harz Mountains above 750Â mNN were covered by pure, natural stands of spruce until the 17th century. A recommendation for the woodland conservancy concept of the Harz national park, which includes tree planting to push woodland renaturalization is to add the planting of Fagus and Acer in elevations above 600Â m.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Geology
Authors
Hannes Knapp, Oliver Nelle, Wiebke Kirleis,