Long livestock farming history and human landscape shaping revealed by lake sediment DNA

Charline Giguet-Covex; Johan Pansu; Fabien Arnaud; Pierre Jérôme Rey; Christophe Griggo; Ludovic Gielly; Isabelle Domaizon; Eric Coissac; Fernand David; Philippe Choler; Jérôme Poulenard; Pierre Taberlet

doi:10.1038/ncomms4211

Long livestock farming history and human landscape shaping revealed by lake sediment DNA

Charline Giguet-Covex^*, Johan Pansu, Fabien Arnaud, Pierre Jérôme Rey, Christophe Griggo, Ludovic Gielly, Isabelle Domaizon, Eric Coissac, Fernand David, Philippe Choler, Jérôme Poulenard, Pierre Taberlet

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The reconstruction of human-driven, Earth-shaping dynamics is important for understanding past human/environment interactions and for helping human societies that currently face global changes. However, it is often challenging to distinguish the effects of the climate from human activities on environmental changes. Here we evaluate an approach based on DNA metabarcoding used on lake sediments to provide the first high-resolution reconstruction of plant cover and livestock farming history since the Neolithic Period. By comparing these data with a previous reconstruction of erosive event frequency, we show that the most intense erosion period was caused by deforestation and overgrazing by sheep and cowherds during the Late Iron Age and Roman Period. Tracking plants and domestic mammals using lake sediment DNA (lake sedDNA) is a new, promising method for tracing past human practices, and it provides a new outlook of the effects of anthropogenic factors on landscape-scale changes.

Original language	English
Article number	3211
Number of pages	7
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms4211
Publication status	Published - 3 Feb 2014
Externally published	Yes

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abstract = "The reconstruction of human-driven, Earth-shaping dynamics is important for understanding past human/environment interactions and for helping human societies that currently face global changes. However, it is often challenging to distinguish the effects of the climate from human activities on environmental changes. Here we evaluate an approach based on DNA metabarcoding used on lake sediments to provide the first high-resolution reconstruction of plant cover and livestock farming history since the Neolithic Period. By comparing these data with a previous reconstruction of erosive event frequency, we show that the most intense erosion period was caused by deforestation and overgrazing by sheep and cowherds during the Late Iron Age and Roman Period. Tracking plants and domestic mammals using lake sediment DNA (lake sedDNA) is a new, promising method for tracing past human practices, and it provides a new outlook of the effects of anthropogenic factors on landscape-scale changes.",

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AU - Giguet-Covex, Charline

AU - Pansu, Johan

AU - Arnaud, Fabien

AU - Rey, Pierre Jérôme

AU - Griggo, Christophe

AU - Gielly, Ludovic

AU - Domaizon, Isabelle

AU - Coissac, Eric

AU - David, Fernand

AU - Choler, Philippe

AU - Poulenard, Jérôme

AU - Taberlet, Pierre

PY - 2014/2/3

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AB - The reconstruction of human-driven, Earth-shaping dynamics is important for understanding past human/environment interactions and for helping human societies that currently face global changes. However, it is often challenging to distinguish the effects of the climate from human activities on environmental changes. Here we evaluate an approach based on DNA metabarcoding used on lake sediments to provide the first high-resolution reconstruction of plant cover and livestock farming history since the Neolithic Period. By comparing these data with a previous reconstruction of erosive event frequency, we show that the most intense erosion period was caused by deforestation and overgrazing by sheep and cowherds during the Late Iron Age and Roman Period. Tracking plants and domestic mammals using lake sediment DNA (lake sedDNA) is a new, promising method for tracing past human practices, and it provides a new outlook of the effects of anthropogenic factors on landscape-scale changes.

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Long livestock farming history and human landscape shaping revealed by lake sediment DNA

Abstract

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