https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2569-5967
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ABSTRACT
Coeval changes in the reconstructed bog surface wetness and the pollen record of a peat sequence extracted from an ombrothropic bog (Calul de Piatră, 1630 m, Apuseni Mountains) allowed the natural and anthropogenic environmental changes over the past 1500 years to be assessed. The assessment of the social and economic context was also possible due to the exceptionally detailed documentary evidence of the investigated region. Four major deforestation periods in the past 1500 years were identified. Significant phases of deforestation coincided with particular social and political changes: (1) between AD 810 and 850, with the collapse of the Avar Khaganate and the expansion of the Bulgarian Empire in the southern areas of the Carpathian Basin; (2) between AD 1060 and 1170, with the establishment of the Kingdom of Hungary (AD 1000) and the foundation of royal, territorial administrative (county) and ecclesiastical centres of the feudal state; (3) in the sixteenth century (AD 1500–1570); and (4) after AD 1700, with population growth and economic development. Our results suggest that the observed deforestation and the consequent spread of subalpine farming were not necessarily related to the warmer or drier climatic periods, but to socioeconomic changes in nearby communities.
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Notes on contributors
Gusztáv Jakab
Gusztáv Jakab is an associate professor in the Institute of Environmental Sciences, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences. His interest focuses on the vegetation development of the Quaternary period.
Ilona Pál
Ilona Pál has a scholarship in the Savaria University Centre (Eötvös Loránd University). Her research interests include Quaternary Palynology and Holocene climate anomalies, and she uses pollen analysis to reveal significant vegetation compositional changes which can be connected to these anomalies.
Lóránd Silye
Lóránd Silye is a lecturer at the Department of Geology, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He is involved in various research projects targeting the reconstruction of palaeoenvironments based on foraminiferal proxies.
Pál Sümegi
Pál Sümegi is a full professor in the Department of Geology and Palaeontology at Szeged University. His interest focuses on the environment development of the Quaternary period.
Attila Tóth
Attila Tóth is a lecturer at the Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania Environmental Science Department. His main field of research is the geography of Transylvania.
Balázs Sümegi
Balázs Sümegi is a contractual research engineer at the Laboratory of Environmental Studies, Institute of Nuclear Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He specialises in the sedimentological development of the Quaternary period.
József Pál Frink
József Pál Frink is a researcher at the “Marin Drăcea” National Institute for Research and Development in Forestry. His main field of research is the recent vegetation of Transylvania.
Enikő Katalin Magyari
Enikő Katalin Magyari is a full professor in the Department of Environmental and Landscape Geography, Eötvös Loránd University. Her main field of research is the vegatation and climate development of the Quaternary period.
Zoltán Kern
Zoltán Kern is a researcher at the Institute for Geological and Geochemical Research, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Science, MTA Centre for Excellence. His interest focuses on the geochemical research of Quaternary sediments.
Elek Benkő
Elek Benkő is director at the HAS Research Centre for the Humanities Institute of Archaeology. He specialises in Medieval history and archaeology. He is the leader of the project called ‘Environmental history of the Carpathian Basin in the Middle Ages’.