Detecting human impacts: Non-Pollen Palynomorphs as proxies for human impact on the environment

Human impact inferred from palynological analysis is an important field of investigation among palaeoecological studies. Reconstructing and quantifying human impact (e.g. farming activities, clearing, fire, erosion process) is an important step to understand how, when and to what extent humans have changed ecosystems and landscape during the Holocene. The study of Non-Pollen Palynomorphs (NPPs) has opened a new field of investigation and improved our knowledge of past human impact. However, NPPs analysis further is a “young science” and questions about their specific use to highlight human activities have been arising. In addition to taxa used as anthropogenic indicators in palynology, NPPs provide reliable information about human impact, in terms of grazing pressure, soil erosion, fire in relation with land management and lakes eutrophication. We propose here a review of current knowledge on the use of NPPs as proxies for human impact, with emphasis on the contribution of modern studies. The purpose of this chapter is to explore some specific questions that both beginners and more experienced scientists may have about methodology in data acquisition and result interpretation. Each section addresses a specific question and a choice of examples illustrates the potential of NPPs as anthropogenic indicators. As Shumilovskikh and van Geel (2020) have recently published a paper about NPPs in archaeological context, we have focused on the use of NPPs as anthropogenic indicators in studies investigating natural archives such as lakes and wetlands.

The Last Hundred Years of Land Use History in the Southern Part of Valdai Hills (European Russia): Reconstruction by Pollen and Historical Data

The last one hundred years of land use history in the southern part of Valdai Hills (European Russia) were reconstructed on the base of high resolution pollen data from the peat monolith taken from the Central Forest State Reserve supplementing with historical records derived from maps of the General Land Survey of the 18th and 19th centuries and satellite images. According to the created age model provided by dating using radio-nuclides 210Pb and 137Cs, pollen data of the peat monolith allow us to reconstruct vegetation dynamics during the last one hundred years with high time resolution. The obtained data showed that, despite the location of the studied peatland in the center of the forest area and rather far away from possible croplands and hayfields, the pollen values of plants – anthropogenic indicators (Secale sereale, Centaurea cyanus, Plantago, Rumex, etc.) and micro-charcoal concentration are relatively high in the period since the beginning of the 20th century to the 1970s, especially in the peat horizon formed in the 1950s. In the late 1970s – the early 1980s when the pollen values of cereals gradually diminished in assemblages, the quantity of pollen of other anthropogenic indicators were also significantly reduced, which reflects the overall processes of the agriculture decline in the forest zone of the former USSR.