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Intensive land use in the Swedish mountains between AD 800 and 1200 led to deforestation and ecosystem transformation with long-lasting effects

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Abstract

Anthropogenic deforestation has shaped ecosystems worldwide. In subarctic ecosystems, primarily inhabited by native peoples, deforestation is generally considered to be mainly associated with the industrial period. Here we examined mechanisms underlying deforestation a thousand years ago in a high-mountain valley with settlement artifacts located in subarctic Scandinavia. Using the Heureka Forestry Decision Support System, we modeled pre-settlement conditions and effects of tree cutting on forest cover. To examine lack of regeneration and present nutrient status, we analyzed soil nitrogen. We found that tree cutting could have deforested the valley within some hundred years. Overexploitation left the soil depleted beyond the capacity of re-establishment of trees. We suggest that pre-historical deforestation has occurred also in subarctic ecosystems and that ecosystem boundaries were especially vulnerable to this process. This study improves our understanding of mechanisms behind human-induced ecosystem transformations and tree-line changes, and of the concept of wilderness in the Scandinavian mountain range.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank two anonymous reviewers for useful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. The English has been corrected by Sees-Editing, UK. This study was financially supported by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Fund and the Swedish Environmental Protection agency and their Mountain Research Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 901 83, Umeå, Sweden

    Lars Östlund & Olle Zackrisson

  2. Institute for Subarctic Landscape Research, The Silver Museum, Torget, 938 21, Arjeplog, Sweden

    Greger Hörnberg, Thomas H. DeLuca, Lars Liedgren, Olle Zackrisson & Torbjörn Josefsson

  3. School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, 102 Anderson Hall, Seattle, WA, 98195-2100, USA

    Thomas H. DeLuca

  4. Peder Wikström Skogsanalys AB, Huldrans väg 1, 901 72, Umeå, Sweden

    Peder Wikström

  5. Sweden Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 901 83, Umeå, Sweden

    Torbjörn Josefsson

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  1. Lars Östlund
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Correspondence to Torbjörn Josefsson.

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Östlund, L., Hörnberg, G., DeLuca, T.H. et al. Intensive land use in the Swedish mountains between AD 800 and 1200 led to deforestation and ecosystem transformation with long-lasting effects. Ambio 44, 508–520 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-015-0634-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-015-0634-z

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