Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
May 2025
Rapid social-ecological intensification is a recurrent feature of human history. It occurred in different forms and contexts; its outcomes may have been sustainable or transient. Until recently, such intensifications usually accompanied state formation: Consolidation of political power was often coupled with exponential increase in human exploitation of the environment of a given area.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Environ Radioact
February 2025
This study concerned high-resolution age reconstructions of modern organic deposits collected from peatlands distributed in Central Europe. The main focus was on Pb radioisotope as a fundamental geochronometer along with C and Pu radioisotopes used for dating verification. In addition to simple classical models such as CF/CS or CF, the new approach formulated upon the Plum method was implemented.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuman impact on Central European forests dates back thousands of years. In this study we reanalyzed 36 published pollen data sets with robust chronologies from Polish Lowlands to determine the patterns of large-scale forest decline after the Migration Period (fourth to sixth century CE). The study revealed substantial heterogeneity in the old-growth forest decline patterns.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Total Environ
September 2022
In the time of the global climate crisis, it is vital to protect and restore peatlands to maintain their functioning as carbon sinks. Otherwise, their transformations may trigger a shift to a carbon source state and further contribute to global warming. In this study, we focused on eutrophication, which resulted in the transition from rich fen to poor fen conditions on the Kazanie fen (central Greater Poland, western Poland Central Europe).
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