From Climatic to Anthropogenic Drivers: A Multi-Proxy Reconstruction of Vegetation and Peatland Development in the French Jura Mountains†
by
Emilie Gauthier 1,*, Vincent E.J. Jassey 2
, Edward A.D. Mitchell 3,4, Mariusz Lamentowicz 5, Richard Payne 6, Frédéric Delarue 7, Fatima Laggoun-Defarge 8, Daniel Gilbert 1 and Hervé Richard 1
Emilie Gauthier 1,*, Vincent E.J. Jassey 2, Edward A.D. Mitchell 3,4, Mariusz Lamentowicz 5, Richard Payne 6, Frédéric Delarue 7, Fatima Laggoun-Defarge 8, Daniel Gilbert 1 and Hervé Richard 1
1
Chrono-Environnement, University de Bourgogne-Franche-Comte UMR CNRS 6249, 16 Route de Gray, 25030 Besancon, France
2
ECOLAB, Université de Toulouse CNRS, 118 Route de Narbonne, CEDEX, 31062 Toulouse, France
3
Laboratory of Soil Biodiversity, University of Neuchâtel, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
4
Neuchâtel Botanical Gardens, Perthuis-du-Sault 58, 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
5
Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Monitoring, and Department of Biogeography and Paleoecology, Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences, Adam Mickiewicz, University, Dzigielowa 27, 61–680 Poznan, Poland
6
Environment and Geography, University of York, York YO105DD, UK
7
Institut de Minéralogie, de Physique des Matériaux et de Cosmochimie, Sorbonne Universités—Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Université Paris 06, UMR CNRS 7590, IRDUMR 206 Paris, France
8
Institute of Earth Sciences, National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and University of Orléans, 45100 Orléans, France
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
We dedicate this study to our co-author Richard Payne who tragically died in a mountaineering accident in May 2019 while climbing a peak in the Himalayas.
Quaternary 2019, 2(4), 38; https://doi.org/10.3390/quat2040038
Received: 10 July 2019 / Revised: 11 November 2019 / Accepted: 14 November 2019 / Published: 2 December 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Peatlands: Outstanding Witnesses of the Environmental Evolution of Southern Europe)
A 4 m core was extracted from the center of a peatland located in the Drugeon valley (France). Thirteen radiocarbon dates were used to build a robust age model. Testate amoebae were used for reconstructing mire surface wetness. High-resolution pollen analysis of the sequence reconstructed 9 millennia of development of the peatland and its surrounding vegetation. During the early/middle Holocene (9500 to 5800 cal BP), warm conditions led to high evapotranspiration and low water levels. The vegetation history is characterized by the development of a Pinus and a mixed Quercus forest. From 5800 cal BP, testate amoebae show wetter conditions, indicating the onset of the cooler Neoglacial period. The cooling is also evidenced by the development of Abies and Fagus trees, replacing the oak forest. The first indicators of human impact appear at about 4800 cal BP, and indicators of farming activity remains very rare until ca. 2600 cal BP, at the beginning of the Iron Age. The development of the peatland responded to climatic fluctuation until 2600 cal BP, after which human impact became the main driver. The last millennium has been characterized by sudden drying and the spread of pine on the peatland.
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Keywords:
palynology; testate amoebae; Jura Mountains; human impact; climate; Holocene
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MDPI and ACS Style
Gauthier, E.; Jassey, V.E.; Mitchell, E.A.; Lamentowicz, M.; Payne, R.; Delarue, F.; Laggoun-Defarge, F.; Gilbert, D.; Richard, H. From Climatic to Anthropogenic Drivers: A Multi-Proxy Reconstruction of Vegetation and Peatland Development in the French Jura Mountains. Quaternary 2019, 2, 38.
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