In northern Central Europe, larger sub-spontaneous occurrences of the European yew developed in the 20th/twenty-first century in the vicinity of settlements. Using the example of such an occurrence on the Telegrafenberg hill at Potsdam, the population characteristics and dynamics of the yew as well as the local forest vegetation and site characteristics were investigated. For this purpose methods from population ecology, geobotany, dendrochronology, and soil science were applied. Starting from yews planted as ornamental trees at the end of the nineteenth century, a population of 2341 specimens has developed over an area of 27 ha, largely characterised by sub-spontaneous individuals. Trees with a height up to 1 m predominate. The maximum tree height is 11 m. Whereas the oldest specimen is 116 years old (AD 1909), most yews are only a few decades old, as the root collar diameters demonstrate. The tree-ring site chronology developed for 14 yew trees indicates a strong common growth signal. Local tree growth seems to profit to some extent from high temperatures in late winter to spring, but mainly from precipitation in late spring to summer and suffers, but not lethally, from high temperatures in summer. The sub-spontaneous yews are part of older sessile oak stands, which previously also included Scots pine disappearing recently due to drought-related dieback. These stands are characterised by a dense shrub layer, consisting of yews and mainly Norway and sycamore maple, black cherry and others. The soils are sandy podzolised Cambisols (Dystric Arenosols) with moder humus. Both forest vegetation and soil properties indicate a poor to medium nutrient supply and a medium dry soil water regime at Telegrafenberg. This local example underlines the potential of yew as a relatively drought-resistant species, offering a forest tree that is well adapted to an increasingly warm and dry regional climate. In general, sub-spontaneous yew occurrences complement well autochthonous stands of this endangered and protected tree species in the wider region.

The potential of alluvial geoarchives for revealing the Holocene landscape history of a Central European low mountain range was systematically evaluated. Sedimentary stream sections and their surroundings in the headwaters of the Izera river at an altitude of approx. 830 m a.s.l. were analysed. An interdisciplinary approach was applied, using data from sedimentology, geochemistry, applied geophysics, palaeobotany, dendrochronology, and historical sciences. Two 250 cm-thick profiles show a variety of alluvial sediment types, including fluvial gravel, sand and silt, lacustrine silt, and peat. Subfossil wood, i.e. coarse woody debris consisting of spruce, was found in certain layers in the profiles as well as in the surrounding stream sections. It dates from the mid- to the late Holocene. Palynological and radiometric data show that the alluvial fillings were formed since the turn of the early to the mid-Holocene. Forest phases were synthesised from the locally available pollen data, which prove a local dominance of spruce forests since the Atlantic biozone. First anthropogenic impulses became evident in the Subboreal in the form of grazing indicators. Human-induced changes in the tree species composition did not take place before the late Subatlantic, i.e. in the 13th century. Historical documents point to the very late clearing of the local mountain forest in the 17th century and the establishment of a scattered settlement. The obtained chronologically long alluvial record since the mid-Holocene represents a new feature compared to the stream fillings previously investigated in the adjacent low mountain ranges. The studied alluvial geoarchive complements well the long-term environmental record derived from peat-bogs in the region.

The forests along the southern Baltic Sea coast harbour some stands of the rare and endangered European yew ( Taxus baccata L.), which are hypothesised to be autochthonous. Using the example of an occurrence on the Darss-Zingst peninsula, the population dynamics of the yew since the late Holocene are interdisciplinarily investigated and linked to the forest history of this area. Pollen analysis shows that yew has been present in the study area for at least 2600 years and thus indeed represents an autochthonous tree species in the area. The yew was probably originally part of a second tree storey and of forest margins within a mixed forest mainly consisting of several deciduous tree species and Scots pine. Historical evidence reveals that yew was still occurring in the forest in the middle of the eighteenth century, but then had nearly disappeared by the end of the nineteenth century. This was caused by several factors including forest grazing by livestock, high game populations and clear-cutting. First replanting of yew took place in the 1930s/1940s and 1950s/1960s, followed by planting campaigns in the 1990s and 2000s. Planting material from local and regional autochthonous relict populations was used, at least in part. The current yew population mainly comprises young individuals with a total number of ca. 1300 trees. It has thus been possible here to re-establish an autochthonous yew occurrence that was nearly extinct in historical times. This local example of targeted re-enrichment of native tree diversity may also encourage further measures to give this species a new chance again elsewhere in the wider region.

The methodically complex analysis of alluvial sediments from stream valleys makes it possible to reconstruct the medieval and early modern history of vegetation and land use in low mountain ranges. For this purpose, eight alluvial sections were documented and analysed in the central part of the Ore Mountains at an altitude interval of 700-800 m a.s.l. An interdisciplinary approach was applied using methods from archaeology, micro-artefact analysis, geomorphology, radiocarbon dating, pedology, sedimentology, geochemistry, and archaeobotany. Our results show that the alluvial valley fills are about 1-2 m thick and consist of various sediment types including coarse wood remains. According to radiocarbon dating, these fills represent the last millennium. Before local medieval clearing in the second half of the 13th century CE, the wet valley floors were covered by spruce, supplemented by alder and other woody taxa. The adjacent dry slopes and plateaus were predominantly overgrown by beech and fir. Silver mining of hydrothermal vein deposits, iron smelting, agriculture, and rural settlements were recognised as specific types of medieval and early modern land use in the study area. These different land-use forms occurred contemporarily, but sometimes spatially separated. Over the course of time strong human impact in the area becomes evident, which has led to deforestation, changes in vegetation and relief, soil erosion, siltation of stream valleys, and local geochemical contamination. A special feature, in comparison with other Central European low mountain ranges, is the existence of a mixed mining-agricultural colonisation in the Ore Mountains, as opposed to a mode in which mining and metallurgy clearly precede permanent rural settlement.

This study discusses the potential of archaeological organic objects in anthropogenic sediments in terms of research into human impact on the medieval landscape and environment. In the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, at a mid-altitudinal stream valley site (ca. 510 m asl), remains of a cut medieval forest stand with anthropogenic wooden structures and buried by technogenic sediments (e.g., ore, gangue and tailings) were archaeologically excavated. The site was analysed using an interdisciplinary approach, applying methods from archaeology, archaeobotany, sedimentology, pedology and geochemistry as well as dendrochronology and radiometric dating. The vegetation can be reconstructed as forest with a dominance of fir and an admixture of spruce and alder. The surrounding slopes were covered by broadleaf trees. Remains of wooden technical structures, stamped, ground and washed ores and gangue, together with fragments of grinding stones, allow the interpretation of the site as an ore and stamp mill linked to ore washing equipment. This record of a buried medieval fir forest can be likewise used as a historical testimony and analogue for present-day issues on ecology and forestry, aiming at ecological revitalisation and adaptation of forests to ongoing climate change in Central Europe.

The ongoing ecological conversion of mountain forests in central Europe from widespread Picea monocultures to mixed stands conceptually also requires a historical perspective on the very long-term, i.e. Holocene, vegetation and land-use dynamics. Detailed sources of information for this are palynological data. The Erzgebirge in focus here, with a maximum height of 1244 m a.s.l., represents an extreme case of extensive historical deforestation since the Middle Ages due to mining, metallurgy, and other industrial activities, as well as rural and urban colonisation. For this regional review we collected and evaluated 121 pollen diagrams of different stratigraphic, taxonomic, and chronological resolution. This number makes this region an upland area in central Europe with an exceptionally high density of palynological data. Using well-dated diagrams going back to the early Holocene, main regional vegetation phases were derived: the Betula–Pinus phase (ca. 11 600–10 200 cal yr BP), the Corylus phase (ca. 10 200–9000 cal yr BP), the Picea phase (ca. 9000–6000 cal yr BP), the Fagus–Picea phase (ca. 6000–4500 cal yr BP), the Abies–Fagus–Picea phase (ca. 4000–1000 cal yr BP), and the anthropogenic vegetation phase (ca. 1000–0 cal yr BP). Some diagrams show the presence or even continuous curves of potential pasture and meadow indicators from around 2000 cal BCE at the earliest. Even cereal pollen grains occur sporadically already before the High Medieval. These palynological indications of a local prehistoric human impact also in the higher altitudes find parallels in the (geo-)archaeologically proven Bronze Age tin placer mining and in the geochemically proven Iron Age metallurgy in the Erzgebirge. The pollen data show that immediately before the medieval clearing, i.e. beginning at the end of the 12th century CE, forests were mainly dominated by Fagus and Abies and complemented by Picea with increasing share towards the highest altitudes. According to historical data, the minimum of the regional forest cover was reached during the 17th–18th centuries CE. The dominance of Picea in modern pollen spectra is caused by anthropogenic afforestation in the form of monocultures since that time. Future palynological investigations, preferably within the framework of altitudinal transect studies, should aim for chronologically and taxonomically high-resolution and radiometrically well-dated pollen diagrams from the larger peatlands.

Lake‐level reconstructions are a key tool in hydro‐climate reconstructions, based on the assumption that lake‐level changes primarily reflect climatic changes. Although it is known that land cover changes can affect evapotranspiration and groundwater formation, this factor commonly receives little attention in the interpretation of past lake‐level changes. To address this issue in more detail, we explore the effects of land cover change on Holocene lake‐level fluctuations in Lake Tiefer See in the lowlands of northeastern Germany. We reconstruct lake‐level changes based on the analysis of 28 sediment records from different water depths and from the shore. We compare the results with land cover changes inferred from pollen data. We also apply hydrological modelling to quantify effects of land cover change on evapotranspiration and the lake level. Our reconstruction shows an overall lake‐level amplitude of about 10 m during the Holocene, with the highest fluctuations during the Early and Late Holocene. Only smaller fluctuations during the Middle Holocene can unambiguously be attributed to climatic fluctuations because the land cover was stable during that period. Fluctuations during the Early and Late Holocene are at least partly related to changes in natural and anthropogenic land cover. For several intervals the reconstructed lake‐level changes agree well with variations in modelled groundwater recharge inferred from land cover changes. In general, the observed amplitudes of lake‐level fluctuations are larger than expected from climatic changes alone and thus underline that land cover changes in lake catchments must be considered in climatic interpretations of past lake‐level fluctuations.

Instrumental data show that the groundwater and lake levels in Northeast Germany have decreased over the past decades, and this process has accelerated over the past few years. In addition to global warming, the direct influence of humans on the local water balance is suspected to be the cause. Since the instrumental data usually go back only a few decades, little is known about the multidecadal to centennial-scale trend, which also takes long-term climate variation and the long-term influence by humans on the water balance into account. This study aims to quantitatively reconstruct the surface water areas in the Lower Havel Inner Delta and of adjacent Lake Gülpe in Brandenburg. The analysis includes the calculation of surface water areas from historical and modern maps from 1797 to 2020. The major finding is that surface water areas have decreased by approximately 30% since the pre-industrial period, with the decline being continuous. Our data show that the comprehensive measures in Lower Havel hydro-engineering correspond with groundwater lowering that started before recent global warming. Further, large-scale melioration measures with increasing water demands in the upstream wetlands beginning from the 1960s to the 1980s may have amplified the decline in downstream surface water areas.

The sharp decline in seminatural areas worldwide is undisputed, but the consequences of this decline, apart from the loss of biodiversity, cannot be fully assessed.To restore ecosystems or landscapes, it is essential to have so-called reference sites.We want to show how reliable reference sites can be found in heavily used landscapes with the help of independent sources, and we present an approach that can be used in other regions, because it is very well suited for developing essential databases in the context of theses at different levels.A forest of seminatural stocking was selected in northeast Germany as a case study.The mapping of archival sources and the analyses of historical maps as well as field investigations were combined to reconstruct the dynamics of vegetation and soil for the last several centuries to thousands of years.Palynological data from nearby sites show that the study area has been forested for several millennia and has been less influenced by humans in the last 450 years.Together with historical maps of tree species composition, it allows to infer that the specific forest has been preserved in good ecological conditions for at least 250 years.Soil inventory and field studies on two catenas and corings support this conclusion, as they rarely show signs of anthropogenic erosion and related colluviation.Using a multisource approach, it is possible to identify potential reference sites that provide a reliable basis for ecosystem or landscape restoration.

Trend analyses are widely used to check for climate change effects on hydrological systems. However, often inconsistent patterns have been found, that is, non-significant as well as significant but opposing trends in the same data set. These inconsistencies have often been ascribed to local, mostly anthropogenic effects like wetland draining or land use change. In this study local effects were subtracted from time series of lake water level and groundwater head covering a 28 years period in Northeast Germany. But this did hardly affect the observed inconsistent trends. In contrast, the apparent inconsistent behavior could be ascribed to different degrees of low-pass filtering of the groundwater recharge signal. Due to successively increasing attenuation of high frequency oscillations during the passage through the vadose zone minor long-term oscillations in the input signal became increasingly more visible, resulting in apparent monotonic trends for the 28 year period. There is strong evidence that this phenomenon could be ascribed to frequency-dependent damping of the input signal which has been found for a wide range of natural processes, including hydrological systems.

Colluvial sediments originating from soil erosion on slopes have proven to constitute significant evidence for tracing past human impact on mountain landscapes. In the Central European Erzgebirge (Ore) Mountains, colluvial sediments are associated with specific landforms (footslopes, slope flattenings, dells) and cover a share of 11% (11,905 ha) of the regional soil landscape. Thirteen pedosedimentary sections with colluvial layers were investigated at five forested sites (520–730 m a.s.l.) within a context of mining archaeology, integrating data from pedology, archaeology, palaeobotany, and geochronology. The thickness of the gravel-bearing loamy, silty, and sandy colluvial layers is up to 70 cm, which are mostly located on top of the sections. The geochronological ages and archaeological data reveal a high to late medieval to post-medieval age of the colluvial sediments. Pollen data show a drastic decline of the mountain forests in the late twelfth to fifteenth centuries AD accompanied by an increase of pioneer trees and spruce at the expense of fir and beech. The primary cause of soil erosion and subsequent colluvial deposition at the sites investigated is medieval to post-medieval mining and other early industrial activities. A compilation of 395 radiocarbon and OSL ages, obtained from colluvial sediments at 197 upland sites in Central Europe, shows that anthropogenically initiated colluvial dynamics go as far back as the late Bronze Age to the early Iron Age. Most ages derive from the medieval to post-medieval period, corresponding to the general intensification of settlement and land-use activities including deforestation and widespread ore mining.

BackgroundThe sharp decline in near-natural areas worldwide is undisputed, but the consequences of this decline, apart from the loss of biodiversity, cannot be fully assessed. Biotic components of a landscape are usually more easily assessed than the abiotic components, since biotic components are often more easily detectable. A forest of (semi)natural stocking was selected in the northeastern part of Brandenburg (northeast Germany) to check whether it can serve as reference site for near-natural conditions or not. Analyses of archival sources and historic maps as well as field investigations were combined to reconstruct the dynamics of vegetation and soil as far back in time as possible.ResultsPalynological data from nearby sites provide evidence that the investigated area has been forested for several thousands of years and has hardly been structurally influenced by humans in the last 450 years. This evidence together with historical maps of tree species composition allows us to infer that the specific forest has been very close to a natural state for at least 250 years. Soil investigations support this conclusion, since a soil inventory, field studies on two catenas and corings at selected depressions rarely show signs of anthropogenic erosion and related colluviation. Parts of the area were cleared in prehistory, but near-natural soils have been preserved in other parts. ConclusionsThe area with these undisturbed parts is regarded as an ideal reference site. With this study, we show that using a multi-source approach it is possible to find potential reference sites and that such an approach is applicable in other regions.

Knowledge of the distribution, types and properties of buried soils, i.e. palaeosols, is essential in understanding how lowlands in northern central Europe have changed over past millennia. This is an indispensable requirement for evaluating long-term human impact including soil erosion and land-cover dynamics. In the Serrahn area (62 km(2)), a young glacial landscape representative for northeastern Germany and part of the Muritz National Park, 26 pedosedimentary sections were documented and analysed. To this end, a multiproxy-approach was applied using pedology, micromorphology, geochronology, and palaeoecology. Statistical and spatial analyses of c. 5200 soil profiles, of which 10% contain palaeosols, show that buried soils cover an area of 5.7 km(2), i.e. 9% of the area studied. Most palaeosols are Cambisols, Arenosols and Gleysols. Palaeosols are mainly covered by aeolian and colluvial sands, as well as by lacustrine sands and peat. Radiocarbon and luminescence dating together with palynological and anthracological data reveal that former land surfaces were dominantly buried through erosion triggered by human activity in the late Holocene. In addition, but to a clearly smaller extent, Lateglacial/early Holocene palaeosols and cover sediments occur. Following Medieval clear-cutting and intensive land use, the study area is today again widely forested. The high share of buried land surfaces detected here is expected to be representative for the hilly glacial landscapes even in the wider region, i.e. in northern central Europe, and should be considered in soil mapping, soil carbon budgeting and assessments of past human impact.

Knowledge of historic changes in vegetation, relief, and soil is key in understanding how the uplands in central Europe have changed during the last millennium, being an essential requirement for measures on forest conversion and nature conservation in that area. Evidence of forest-clearing horizons from the medieval period could be systematically documented at four low- to mid-altitudinal sites (360-640 meters above mean sea level) in the Harz (Harz Mountains), Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains), and Ceskomoravska vrchovina (Bohemian-Moravian Highlands). Subfossil trees with traces of human cutmarks and burning were recovered from buried wet-organic soils (paleosols) within a context of mining and settlement archaeology, applying a multiproxy-approach by using data from archaeology, paleobotany, geochronology, dendrochronology, and pedology. Tree stumps and trunks, as well as small-scale wood remains represent an in situ record of local conifer stands (spruce, fir, and pine). Some deciduous tree taxa also occur. Dating of the tree remains yielded ages from the 10th/11th to the 13th/14th centuries A.D. After deforestation, the tree remains were buried by technogenic and alluvial-colluvial deposits. The reconstructed conifer-dominated woodlands on wet soils mirror the local vegetation structure immediately before the medieval deforestation. As such wet sites are common in the uplands, conifers were significantly present in the natural vegetation even at mid and lower altitudes.

Since the twelfth century, forest areas in the upper reaches of the low mountain ranges of central Europe provided an important source of wood and charcoal especially for mining and smelting as well as glass production. In this case study from a site in the upper Erzgebirge region (Ore Mountains), results from archeological, geophysical, pedo-sedimentological, geochemical, anthracological, and palynological analyses have been closely linked to allow for a diachronic reconstruction of changing land use and varying intensities of human impact with a special focus on the fourteenth to the twentieth century. While human presence during the thirteenth century can only be assumed from archeological material, the establishment of glass kilns together with quartz mining shafts during the fourteenth century has left behind more prominent traces in the landscape. However, although glass production is generally assumed to have caused intensive deforestation, the impact on this site appears rather weak compared to the sixteenth century onwards, when charcoal production, probably associated with emerging mining activities in the region, became important. Local deforestation and soil erosion has been associated mainly with this later phase of charcoal production and may indicate that the human impact of glass production is sometimes overestimated.

Tin is an essential raw material both for the copper-tin alloys developed during the Early Bronze Age and for the casting of tableware in the Medieval period. Secondary geological deposits in the form of placers (cassiterite) provide easily accessible sources but have often been reworked several times during land-use history. In fact, evidence for the earliest phase of tin mining during the Bronze Age has not yet been confirmed for any area in Europe, stimulating an ongoing debate on this issue. For this study, a broad range of methods (sedimentology, pedology, palynology, anthracology, OSL/14C-dating, and micromorphology) was applied both within the extraction zone of placer mining and the downstream alluvial sediments at Schellerhau site in the upper eastern Erzgebirge (Germany). The results indicate that the earliest local removal of topsoil and processing of cassiterite-bearing weathered granite occurred already in the early second millennium BC, thus coinciding with the early and middle Bronze Age period. Placer mining resumed in this area during the Medieval period, probably as early as the 13th century AD. A peak of alluvial sedimentation during the mid-15th century AD is probably related to the acquisition of this region by the Elector of Saxony and the subsequent promotion of mining.

Im Text werden Maskulinum und Femininum verwendet, wenn es um Personen geht. Gemeint sind grundsätz- lich alle Menschen, gleich welcher Geschlechtsidentität sie sich zugehörig fühlen. Abstract Zur Struktur, Vielfalt und Entwicklung der Gehölzflora in historischen Gärten und Kulturlandschaften liegen in der Regel zahlreiche historische und aktuelle Dokumentationen vor. Im Gegensatz dazu fehlen entsprechende Informationen zur räumlichen und zeitlichen Variabilität von Böden und ihres Wasserhaushalts. Ein Vergleich der für den Schlosspark Branitz und das Dessau-Wörlitzer Gartenreich vorliegenden aktuellen Kartierungsergeb-nisse liefert hier wichtige Hinweise auf die große Heterogenität der Substrateigenschaften und die bodenhydrologischen Bedingungen. Hierbei zeigt sich, dass die aus natürlichen Prozessen der Landschafts- und Bodengenese hervorgegangenen Böden sowohl durch Vornutzung als auch durch gestalterische Eingriffe zum Teil stark überprägt sind. Für den Park Babelsberg fehlt eine solche hochaufgelöste Information. Diese Befunde verdeutli-chen, dass eine gezielte und ressourceneffiziente Bewirtschaftung und Bestandsplanung nur möglich ist, wenn die Standortheterogenität und andere Aspekte räumlich hochaufge-löst erfasst major heterogeneity of the substrate properties and the soil hydrology conditions. They reveal that the soils produced by natural processes of landscape and soil genesis are, in some cases, very much shaped by prior use on the one hand and design intervention on the other. In-depth information of this kind is not available for the Schlosspark Babelsberg. These results illustrate that targeted and resource-efficient management and vegetation planning is only possible if heterogeneity and other aspects are recorded in an in-depth manner and are depicted and analysed in a next step using modern geodata processing methods (GIS). With a view to preventive climate change adaptation measures and the warding off of damage in acute climate extreme situations, the comprehensive recording of pedological and hydrological site conditions is an essential precondition for future-ori-ented garden care planning.

This study is based on 616 geochronological ages from aeolian and colluvial sediments as well as paleosols, representing the largest database of geochronological data from northeastern Germany available to date. Cumulative probability density functions for radiocarbon data and kernel density estimates for luminescence data were created covering the last 15 ka. The data analysis aimed at the identification of changes and their drivers in geomorphodynamics and soil formation. The ages representing aeolian activity cluster in the Late Glacial, the Early Holocene, and the Late Holocene, where the first two clusters are assumed to result mostly from climatic impact with only a minor share of human impact triggering the mobilization of aeolian sediments. The third cluster is considered to result mainly from human impact. The Late Glacial to Early Holocene activity phase is interrupted by a phase of surface stability around 11.5–12.7 ka, which is indicated by the occurrence of initial soil formations of Finow and Usselo types. Colluvial sedimentation predominantly occurred during the last 7 ka and clearly accelerated since the last 1000 a. According to the ages of specific paleosol types, related soil-forming processes started already in the Late Glacial and were completed in the Holocene.