The history of Fagus forest in southwestern Sweden during the last 1500 years

Abstract

In the recent past, Fagus forests in southwestern Sweden were more common and widespread than today. The Fagus forest area has decreased considerably due to cultural activities, mainly during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The pollen records of two small adjacent forest hollows (lying c. 50 m apart) in the Bocksten area in central Halland indicate that the pre- Fagus forest was of a rich memoral type with many woody taxa present. Quercus, Tilia, Alnus, and Corylus were important components of this forest type. Fagus became established in the area around 145014C years BP, and rapidly became dominant in the forest. The expansion of Fagus was remarkably rapid, and probably facilitated by slight human disturbance. The rather pure Fagus stands found today in the area are a product of recent human activities. The high pollen percentages of Tilia at one of the sites (site A) until 200 BP is remarkable, and stands in contrast to the picture seen in regional-scale pollen diagrams from Sweden. At this site, Tilia grew in a mixture with Fagus, Quercus and Corylus for almost 1200 years until the stand was suddenly cleared c. 200 BP. At the other site (B), Tilia shows a gradual decrease beginning before the establishment of Fagus, which is in agreement with the regional picture. It is evident that stand-level differences in vegetation is not possible to detect with conventional pollen diagrams based on regional-scale sites. Different grazing regimes, or human influence, may have caused these stand-scale differences in vegetation. The boreo-nemoral forest type found today in the studied area is domi nated by intensively managed Picea plantations and Fagus stands. This forest type has little resemblance to the vegetation that existed during earlier periods.