Vegetation History

In this project, and to develop a human-climate-environmental system model, palynology and dendrochronology are employed to provide major part of the data on the vegetation and landscape history in Bad Waldsee and its surroundings. In addition, the sediment charcoal macro-(> 150μm) and micro- (10-150 μm) particles are used to reconstruct long-term variations in fire occurrence in the study area. Charcoal analysis quantifies the accumulation of charred particles in sediments during and following a fire event. Stratigraphic levels with abundant charcoal (so-called charcoal peaks) are inferred to be evidence of past fires. Fire size, intensity, and severity affect charcoal production and its transport. the source of the charcoal may be from regional (distant) fires, to nearby the watershed (extralocal fires), or within the watershed (local fires). Charcoal and pollen data from the same sediment core are used to examine the linkages among climate, vegetation, fire, and anthropogenic activities in the past.

Pollen analysis (palynology) is the study of fossil pollen and spores; and it is the principal technique for historical vegetation reconstructions. Pollen-stratigraphical results have provided unique insights into long-term ecological patterns and processes such as dispersal dynamics and distribution changes of tree species, development, and continuity of modern plant communities and biomes, etc. Analysis of the pollen content of sediment samples is also a major method to determine the vegetation response to past environmental change and human impact.

In addition to pollen and charcoal study on sediment cores to assess the environmental conditions, the regional context and the local climatic development can be assessed using provided data by dendrochronology. Dendrochronology is the science of tree-ring analysis and dating. It is the most accurate and precise nondocumentary dating method available to researchers studying records of the past. Tree-ring dates are accurate and precise to the year, and sometimes season. Investigations on historic buildings in Bad Waldsee and its surrounding area provided a significant amount of dendrochronological data at our project partner tree-ring lab “Jahrringlabor Hofmann & Reichle, Nürtingen“ that can be used to build species specific local and regional tree-ring curves by the Hemmenhofen tree-ring lab for a regional climatic reconstruction for Medieval and Modern times period.

The vegetation history and dendrochronological investigations, including technical work for pollen and charcoal analysis are carried out by specialists at the State Office for Cultural Heritage Baden-Württemberg in Hemmenhofen. The project leaders in Hemmenhofen are PD Dr. Elena Marinova-Wolff (head of the archaeobotany lab) and PD Dr. Oliver Nelle (head of the dendrochronology lab), and our colleagues Prof. Dr. Manfred Rösch (project advisor), Dr. Lucia Wick (palynologist and project advisor) and Dr. Sara Saeidi GA (project lab assistant).