Alpine Glacier Reveals Ecosystem Impacts of Europe's Prosperity and Peril Over the Last Millennium
Alpine Glacier Reveals Ecosystem Impacts of Europe's Prosperity and Peril Over the Last Millennium
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DOI：
10.1029/2021gl095039
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发表时间：
2021-10-28
影响因子：
5.2
通讯作者：
Tinner, W.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Brugger, S. O.;Schwikowski, M.;Tinner, W.
关于过去生态系统动态和人类活动的信息存储在瑞士阿尔卑斯山的Colle Gnifetti冰川的冰中。不利的气候间隔导致作物歉收和饥荒，并引发了森林植被的重建，但也通过创新促进了社会复原力。历史文献和湖泊沉积物在局部区域尺度上记录了这些变化，但往往难以全面记录大陆尺度对生态系统的影响。在这里，我们提供了独特的大规模生态系统，土地利用和气候动态在过去的千年从Colle Gnifetti微体化石和氧同位素记录的多代理证据。微化石数据表明，在1750年之前，在历史记录的气候变化和流行病造成的社会危机期间，森林和休耕土地迅速取代了作物种植。随后，随着技术的发展和更有适应力的作物的引进，欧洲社会适应了小冰期的寒冷时期，但资源的过度开发和工业化导致了新的区域乃至全球规模的环境挑战。简明语言摘要对瑞士阿尔卑斯山罗莎山冰川冰的复杂显微镜和地球化学分析揭示了欧洲气候、植被、农业、污染、在过去的一千年里，害虫和火灾。我们新颖的时间序列表明，社会和环境动态主要受到气候、流行病和技术创新的控制。通过将冰川信息放入历史背景中，我们揭示了欧洲过去创造繁荣和危险的一些机制。玉米和其他新作物的工业化和进口使欧洲社会能够超越世纪小冰河时代气候时期的作物歉收和饥荒，但也造成了意想不到的环境后果，现在最终导致全球变暖和物种丧失。保存在冰芯中的代用指标将土地利用变化与气候事件和干旱引起的社会挑战联系起来农业改革和工业化破坏了气候和土地利用之间的联系，导致了当前的环境挑战
Information about past ecosystem dynamics and human activities is stored in the ice of Colle Gnifetti glacier in the Swiss Alps. Adverse climatic intervals incurred crop failures and famines and triggered reestablishment of forest vegetation but also societal resilience through innovation. Historical documents and lake sediments record these changes at local-regional scales but often struggle to comprehensively document continental-scale impacts on ecosystems. Here, we provide unique multiproxy evidence of broad-scale ecosystem, land use, and climate dynamics over the past millennium from a Colle Gnifetti microfossil and oxygen isotope record. Microfossil data indicate that before 1750 CE forests and fallow land rapidly replaced crop cultivation during historically documented societal crises caused by climate shifts and epidemics. Subsequently, with technology and the introduction of more resilient crops, European societies adapted to the Little Ice Age cold period, but resource overexploitation and industrialization led to new regional to global-scale environmental challenges.Plain Language Summary Sophisticated microscopy and geochemistry analyses of glacier ice from the Monte Rosa Massif in the Swiss Alps reveal close linkages among European climate, vegetation, agriculture, pollution, pests, and fire during the past millennium. Our novel time series shows that societal and environmental dynamics were mainly controlled by climate, pandemics, and technological innovations. By placing the glacial information into historical context, we reveal some of the mechanisms that created prosperity and peril in Europe's past. Industrialization and import of maize and other new crops enabled European societies to transcend the crop failures and famines of the Little Ice Age climate period during the 19th century, but unintended environmental consequences resulted, which are now culminating in global warming and species loss.Key PointsNovel ice core microfossil data reveal large-scale dynamics among ecosystems, land use, and climate in EuropeProxies preserved in ice cores link land-use change to societal challenges caused by climate events and epidemicsAgricultural reforms and industrialization disrupted links between climate and land use and led to current environmental challenges