IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v5y2014i1d10.1038_ncomms4211.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Long livestock farming history and human landscape shaping revealed by lake sediment DNA

Author

Listed:
  • Charline Giguet-Covex

    (Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, CNRS UMR 5553, Université Joseph Fourier
    EDYTEM, Université de Savoie, CNRS Pôle Montagne)

  • Johan Pansu

    (Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, CNRS UMR 5553, Université Joseph Fourier)

  • Fabien Arnaud

    (EDYTEM, Université de Savoie, CNRS Pôle Montagne)

  • Pierre-Jérôme Rey

    (EDYTEM, Université de Savoie, CNRS Pôle Montagne)

  • Christophe Griggo

    (EDYTEM, Université de Savoie, CNRS Pôle Montagne)

  • Ludovic Gielly

    (Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, CNRS UMR 5553, Université Joseph Fourier)

  • Isabelle Domaizon

    (INRA, UMR042 CARRTEL)

  • Eric Coissac

    (Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, CNRS UMR 5553, Université Joseph Fourier)

  • Fernand David

    (CEREGE, Université Aix-Marseille)

  • Philippe Choler

    (Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, CNRS UMR 5553, Université Joseph Fourier
    Station Alpine Joseph Fourier, UMS 3370 CNRS – Université Joseph Fourier)

  • Jérôme Poulenard

    (EDYTEM, Université de Savoie, CNRS Pôle Montagne)

  • Pierre Taberlet

    (Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, CNRS UMR 5553, Université Joseph Fourier)

Abstract

The reconstruction of human-driven, Earth-shaping dynamics is important for understanding past human/environment interactions and for helping human societies that currently face global changes. However, it is often challenging to distinguish the effects of the climate from human activities on environmental changes. Here we evaluate an approach based on DNA metabarcoding used on lake sediments to provide the first high-resolution reconstruction of plant cover and livestock farming history since the Neolithic Period. By comparing these data with a previous reconstruction of erosive event frequency, we show that the most intense erosion period was caused by deforestation and overgrazing by sheep and cowherds during the Late Iron Age and Roman Period. Tracking plants and domestic mammals using lake sediment DNA (lake sedDNA) is a new, promising method for tracing past human practices, and it provides a new outlook of the effects of anthropogenic factors on landscape-scale changes.

Suggested Citation

  • Charline Giguet-Covex & Johan Pansu & Fabien Arnaud & Pierre-Jérôme Rey & Christophe Griggo & Ludovic Gielly & Isabelle Domaizon & Eric Coissac & Fernand David & Philippe Choler & Jérôme Poulenard & P, 2014. "Long livestock farming history and human landscape shaping revealed by lake sediment DNA," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-7, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms4211
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4211
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms4211
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms4211?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. William Rapuc & Charline Giguet-Covex & Julien Bouchez & Pierre Sabatier & Jérôme Gaillardet & Kévin Jacq & Kim Genuite & Jérôme Poulenard & Erwan Messager & Fabien Arnaud, 2024. "Human-triggered magnification of erosion rates in European Alps since the Bronze Age," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Sandra Garcés-Pastor & Eric Coissac & Sébastien Lavergne & Christoph Schwörer & Jean-Paul Theurillat & Peter D. Heintzman & Owen S. Wangensteen & Willy Tinner & Fabian Rey & Martina Heer & Astrid Rutz, 2022. "High resolution ancient sedimentary DNA shows that alpine plant diversity is associated with human land use and climate change," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-16, December.
    3. Bérangère Leys & Christopher Carcaillet, 2016. "Subalpine fires: the roles of vegetation, climate and, ultimately, land uses," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 135(3), pages 683-697, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms4211. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.