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A late Holocene record of land-use history, soil erosion, lake trophy and lake-level fluctuations at Bjäresjösjön (south Sweden)

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Abstract

Land-use history, soil erosion, lake trophy and lake-level fluctuations during the last 3000 years were reconstructed through a multidisciplinary palaeolimnological study (pollen, plant macrofossils, diatoms, physical and chemical analysis, magnetic measurements and radiometric methods) of a small eutrophic lake in southern Sweden (Bjäresjösjön, Scania). There are striking responses in diatom, chemical, sediment yield and magnetic records to land-use changes documented by pollen analysis or historical sources, and to lake-level changes identified from sedimentary changes. Our multidisciplinary approach assists interpretation of the processes controlling long-term changes and separation of the effects of different factors (land-use changes, lake-level fluctuations) on individual biostratigraphical records. Climate has controlled processes in the lake indirectly, through lake-level fluctuations, from the Late Bronze Age to the Viking Age (700 BC-AD 800). Since the Viking Age, land-use controlled most of the changes observed in the lake's development and soil erosion processes. Major changes in lake development occurred during the last 200 years, due to a drastic increase in soil erosion and water eutrophication during a period of agricultural modernization.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Quaternary Geology, University of Lund, Tornavägen 13, S-22363, Lund, Sweden

    M.-J. Gaillard & H. Håkansson

  2. Dept. of Geography, Coventry Polytechnic, Priority Street, CV15FB, Coventry, UK

    J. A. Dearing

  3. Dept. of Physics, University of Uppsala, Box 530, S-75121, Uppsala, Sweden

    F. El-Daoushy

  4. Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Box 21060, S-10031, Stockholm, Sweden

    M. Enell

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  1. M.-J. Gaillard
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Gaillard, MJ., Dearing, J.A., El-Daoushy, F. et al. A late Holocene record of land-use history, soil erosion, lake trophy and lake-level fluctuations at Bjäresjösjön (south Sweden). J Paleolimnol 6, 51–81 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00201299

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