The paper untangles the drivers of vegetation change at Lake Ljøgottjern in southeastern Norway using an interdisciplary approach, combining analysis of pollen, sedimentary ancient DNA, geochemical composition, climate data, archaeological evidence of local human settlement, and regional human population dynamics. It has now been published in Quaternary Science Reviews.
Read about it here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107175
Highlights:
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Integration of pollen, sedaDNA, geochemical, archaeological and climate data.
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Natural processes drove vegetation succession at Lake Ljøgottjern until Early Iron Age.
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Matching pollen and sedaDNA records show rapid intensification of agropastoralism.
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Deviations between pollen and sedaDNA reflect distance to farms since the Bronze Age.
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Major plant community shift coincided with growing human population in Early Iron Age.
