2700 years of Mediterranean environmental change in central Italy: a synthesis of sedimentary and cultural records to interpret past impacts of climate on society
Journal Article
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· Quaternary Science Reviews
- University of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States)
- DAFNE Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Viterbo (Italy)
- Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Rome (Italy)
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata, Rome (Italy)
We report abrupt climate change in the past is thought to have disrupted societies by accelerating environmental degradation, potentially leading to cultural collapse. Linking climate change directly to societal disruption is challenging because socioeconomic factors also play a large role, with climate being secondary or sometimes inconsequential. Combining paleolimnologic, historical, and archaeological methods provides for a more secure basis for interpreting the past impacts of climate on society. We present pollen, non-pollen palynomorph, geochemical, paleomagnetic and sedimentary data from a high-resolution 2700 yr lake sediment core from central Italy and compare these data with local historical documents and archeological surveys to reconstruct a record of environmental change in relation to socioeconomic history and climatic fluctuations. Here we document cases in which environmental change is strongly linked to changes in local land management practices in the absence of clear climatic change, as well as examples when climate change appears to have been a strong catalyst that resulted in significant environmental change that impacted local communities. During the Imperial Roman period, despite a long period of stable, mild climate, and a large urban population in nearby Rome, our site shows only limited evidence for environmental degradation. Warm and mild climate during the Medieval Warm period, on the other hand, led to widespread deforestation and erosion. The ability of the Romans to utilize imported resources through an extensive trade network may have allowed for preservation of the environment near the Roman capital, whereas during medieval time, the need to rely on local resources led to environmental degradation. Cool wet climate during the Little Ice Age led to a breakdown in local land use practices, widespread land abandonment and rapid reforestation. Our results present a high-resolution regional case study that explores the effect of climate change on society for an under-documented region of Europe.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC52-07NA27344
- OSTI ID:
- 1901993
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL-JRNL-665781; 787205
- Journal Information:
- Quaternary Science Reviews, Journal Name: Quaternary Science Reviews Journal Issue: N/A Vol. 116; ISSN 0277-3791
- Publisher:
- ElsevierCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Historical ecology reveals landscape transformation coincident with cultural development in central Italy since the Roman Period
The stratigraphic record of recent climate change in mid-Atlantic USA
Journal Article
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Wed Jan 31 19:00:00 EST 2018
· Scientific Reports
·
OSTI ID:1460938
The stratigraphic record of recent climate change in mid-Atlantic USA
Conference
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Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1994
· Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America; (United States)
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OSTI ID:7164146