Palaeoecological studies can identify past trends in vegetation communities and processes over long time scales. Pollen, plant macrofossils and charcoal analyses are used to reconstruct vegetation over the last 6400 years and provide information about former human impact and disturbance regimes in Färnebofjärden National Park, Central Sweden. Three specific conservation planning topics were addressed: (1) the changing ratio of conifers to broadleaved trees; (2) the origin and history of the river meadows and the biodiverse Populus tremula meadows; (3) the role of fire in the maintenance of biological values. Early diverse mixed broadleaved forest assemblages with pine were followed by significant declines of the more thermophilic forest elements prior to the expansion of spruce in the Iron Age. The rise to dominance of spruce was a ‘natural’ process that has been exaggerated by anthropogenic disturbance to artificially high levels today. The initial river meadow communities were facilitated by fire and frequent flooding events, but subsequent dynamics have more definitely been supported by human activities. Rural abandonment during the last 100 years has led to woody successions. Fire has been a continual disturbance factor with an influence on conservation issues such as Picea abies dominance and the maintenance of diverse, non-forest communities. Present occurrence of fire is unusually low, but natural fire frequencies are increasing in the region.
AugustoLRangerJBinkleyD, et al. (2002) Impact of several common tree species of European temperate forests on soil fertility. Annals of Forest Science59: 233–253.
2.
BerglundBE (1986) Handbook of Holocene Palaeoecology and Palaeohydrology, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
3.
BiglerCBarnekowLHeinrichsMLet al. (2006) Holocene environmental history of Lake Vuolep Njakajaure (AbiskoNational Park, northern Sweden) reconstructed using biological proxy indicators. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany15: 309–320.
4.
BindlerRSegerströmUPettersson-JensenI-M, et al. (2011) Early medieval origins of iron mining and settlement in central Sweden: multiproxy analysis of sediment and peat records from the Norberg mining district. Journal of Archaeological Science38: 291–300.
5.
BlaauwM (2010) Methods and code for ‘classical’ age-modelling of radiocarbon sequences. Quaternary Geochronology5: 512–518.
6.
BowmanDMJSBalchJKArtaxoP, et al. (2009) Fire in the earth system. Science324: 481–484.
7.
BradshawRHWJonesCSEdwardsSJ, et al. (2015) Forest continuity and conservation value in Western Europe. The Holocene25: 194–202.
8.
BradshawRHWLindbladhM (2005) Regional spread and stand-scale establishment of Fagus sylvatica and Picea abies in Scandinavia. Ecology86: 1679–1686.
9.
BradshawRHWLindbladhMHannonGE (2010) The role of fire in southern Scandinavian forests during the late Holocene. International Journal of Wildland Fire19: 1040–1049.
10.
CarcailletCBouvierMFréchetteB, et al. (2001) Comparison of pollen-slide and sieving methods in lacustrine charcoal analyses for local and regional fire history. The Holocene11: 467–476.
11.
ClearJLMolinariCBradshawRHW (2014) Holocene fire in Fennoscandia and Denmark. International Journal of Wildland Fire23: 781–789.
12.
ClearJLSeppäHKuosmanenN, et al. (2013) Holocene fire frequency variability in Vesijako, Strict Nature Reserve, Finland, and its application to conservation and management. Biological Conservation166: 90–97.
13.
DrobyshevIBergeronYde VernalA, et al. (2016) Atlantic SSTs control regime shifts in forest fire activity of Northern Scandinavia. Scientific Reports6: 22532.
14.
FosterDRSchoonmakerPPickettSTA (1990) Insights from paleoecology to community ecology. Trends in Ecology and Evolution5: 119–122.
15.
GalanterMLeviHICarmichaelGR (2000) Impacts of biomass burning on tropospheric CO, NOx, and O3. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres105: 6633–6653.
16.
GieseckeT (2005) Holocene dynamics of the southern boreal forest in Sweden. The Holocene15: 858–872.
17.
GraceMAkçakayaHRBennettE, et al. (2019) Using historical and palaeoecologicaldata to inform ambitious speciesrecovery targets. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B374: 20190297.
18.
GranströmANiklassonM (2008) Potentials and limitations for human control over historic fire regimes in the boreal forest. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B363: 2353–2358.
GustafssonLDe JongJNorengM (1999) Evaluation of Swedish woodland key habitats using red-listed bryophytes and lichens. Biodiversity & Conservation8: 1101–1114.
21.
HallbäckenLTammCO (1986) Changes in soil acidity from 1927 to 1982–1984 in a forest area of south-west Sweden. Scandinavian Journal of Forest research1: 219–232.
22.
HallgrenF (2008) Identitet i praktik. Lokala, regionala och överregionala sociala sammanhang inom nordlig trattbägarkultur. Arkeologi och antik historia. Uppsala: Uppsala University.
23.
HalsallKMEllingsenVMAsplundJ, et al. (2018) Fossil charcoal quantification using manual and image analysis approaches. The Holocene28: 1345–1353.
24.
HannonGEHalsallKMolinariC, et al. (2018) The reconstruction of past forest dynamics over the last 13,500 years in SW Sweden. The Holocene28: 1791–1800.
25.
HigueraPEHudiburgTWHickeJA (2015) Combining paleoecology and ecosystem modeling to study forest ecosystem consequences of wildfires from decades to millennia. American Geophysical Union AbstractsFall Meeting 2015.
26.
HigueraPEWhitlockCGageJA (2011) Linking tree-ring and sediment-charcoal records to reconstruct fire occurrence and area burned in subalpine forests of Yellowstone National Park, USA. The Holocene21: 327–341.
27.
Houmark-NielsenMKjaerKH (2003) Southwest Scandinavia, 40–15 kyr BP: palaeogeography and environmental change. Journal of Quaternary Science18: 769–786.
28.
HultbergTLageråsPBjörkmanL, et al. (2017) The late-Holocene decline of Tilia in relation to climate and human activities – pollen evidence from 42 sites in southern Sweden. Journal of Biogeography44: 2398–2409.
29.
JacksonSTHobbsRJ (2009) Ecological restoration in the light of ecological history. Science325: 567–569.
30.
JeffersESNogueSWillisKJ (2015) The role of palaeoecological records in assessing ecosystem services. Quaternary Science Reviews112: 17–32.
31.
JensenKLynchEACalcoteR, et al. (2007) Interpretation of charcoal morphotypes in sediments from Ferry Lake, Wisconsin, USA: Do different plant fuel sources produce distinctive charcoal morphotypes?The Holocene17: 907–915.
32.
JessenCARundgrenMBjörckS, et al. (2005) Abrupt climatic changes and an unstable transition into a late Holocene thermal decline: A multiproxy lacustrine record from southern Sweden. Journal of Quaternary Science20: 349–362.
33.
LindbladhMAxelssonA-LHultbergT, et al. (2014) From broadleaves to spruce – the borealization of southern Sweden. Scandinavian Journal of Forest research29: 686–696.
34.
LundqvistG (1963) Beskrivning till Jordartskarta över Gävleborgs Län. Ca. Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning.
35.
MolinariCCarcailletCBradshawRHW, et al. (2020) Fire-vegetation interactions during the last 11,000 years in boreal and cold temperate forests of Fennoscandia. Quaternary Science Reviews241: 106408.
36.
MolinariCLehstenVBlarquezO, et al. (2018) The climate, the fuel and the land use: long-term regional variability of biomass burning in boreal forests. Global Change Biology24: 4929–4945.
37.
MolinariCLehstenVBradshawRHW, et al. (2013) Exploring potential drivers of European biomass burning over the Holocene: A data-model analysis. Global Ecology and Biogeography22: 1248–1260.
38.
NatlandsmyrBHjelleKL (2016) Long-term vegetation dynamics and land-use history: Providing a baseline for conservation strategies in protected Alnus glutinosa swamp woodlands. Forest Ecology and Management372: 78–92.
39.
Naturvårdsverket (2018) Skötselplan för Färnebofjärdens nationalpark. Stockholm: The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, pp.147.
40.
NiklassonMGranströmA (2000) Numbers and sizes of fires: Long-term spatially explicit fire history in a Swedish boreal landscape. Ecology81: 1484–1499.
41.
NilssonCGötmarkF (1992) Protected areas in Sweden: Is natural variety adequately represented?Conservation Biology6: 232–242.
42.
PigottCD (1991) Biological flora of the British Isles Tilia cordata (Miller) (T. europaea L. pro parte, T. parvifolia Ehrh. Ex Hoffm., T. sylvestris Desf., T. foemina folio minore Bauhin). Journal of Ecology79: 1147–1207.
43.
SandegrenRAsklundB (1948) Beskrivning till Kartbladet Söderfors. Sveriges: Geologiska Undersökning.
44.
SchillereffDNChiverrellRCMacdonaldN, et al. (2016) Quantifying system disturbance and recovery from historical mining-derived metal contamination at Brotherswater, northwest England. Journal of Paleolimnology56: 205–221.
45.
SegerströmUEmanuelssonM (2002) Extensive forest grazing and hay-making on mires–vegetation changes in south-central Sweden due to land use since Medieval times. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany11: 181–190.
46.
SeppäHAleniusTBradshawRHW, et al. (2009) Invasion of Norway spruce (Picea abies) and the rise of the boreal ecosystem in Fennoscandia. Journal of Ecology97: 629–640.
47.
SFS (1982) Svensk författningssamling Naturvårdslag. 1982:1097.
48.
StåhlP (2015) Växter vid Färnebofjärden - en inventering av kärlväxter och vegetation i Färnebofjärdens national park 2011-2013. 87.
49.
ThöleLSchwörerCColombaroliD, et al. (2016) Reconstruction of Holocene vegetation dynamics at Lac de Bretaye, a high-mountain lake in the Swiss Alps. The Holocene26: 380–396.
50.
WillisKJBhagwatSA (2010) Questions of importance to the conservation of biological diversity: Answers from the past. Climate of the past6: 759–769.
51.
WillisKJBirksHJB (2006) What is natural? The need for a long-term perspective in biodiversity conservation. Science314: 1261–1265.
52.
ZackrissonO (1977) Influence of forest fires on the North Swedish boreal forest. Oikos29: 22–32.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
