Did the Bronze Age deforestation of Europe affect its climate? A regional climate model study using pollen-based land cover reconstructions

Strandberg, Gustav; Chen, Jie; Fyfe, Ralph; Kjellström, Erik; Lindström, Johan; Poska, Anneli; Zhang, Qiong; Gaillard, Marie-José

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1507-2023

Articles | Volume 19, issue 7

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1507-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Past vegetation dynamics and their role in past climate...

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1507-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 7

Research article

|

27 Jul 2023

Research article |

| 27 Jul 2023

Did the Bronze Age deforestation of Europe affect its climate? A regional climate model study using pollen-based land cover reconstructions

Gustav Strandberg, Jie Chen, Ralph Fyfe, Erik Kjellström, Johan Lindström, Anneli Poska, Qiong Zhang, and Marie-José Gaillard

Data sets

Bronze Age climate in Europe simulated with two regional climate models using pollen-based and simulated land cover Gustav Strandberg https://doi.org/10.17043/strandberg-2023-bronze-age-1

The KK10 Anthropogenic Land Cover Change Scenario for the Preindustrial Holocene J. O. Kaplan and K. M. Krumhardt https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.871369

A full Holocene record of transient gridded vegetation cover in Europe R. M. Fyfe, E. Githumbi, A.-K. Trondman, F. Mazier, A. B. Nielsen, A. Poska, S. Sugita, J. Woodbridge, LandClim II data contributors, and M.-J. Gaillard https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.937075

NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - Temperature 12k Database D. S. Kaufman, N. P. McKay, and C. Routson https://doi.org/10.25921/4ry2-g808

Short summary

The impact of land use and land cover change (LULCC) on the climate around 2500 years ago is studied using reconstructions and models. The results suggest that LULCC impacted the climate in parts of Europe. Reconstructed LULCC shows up to 1.5 °C higher temperature in parts of Europe in some seasons. This relatively strong response implies that anthropogenic LULCC that had occurred by the late prehistoric period may have already affected the European climate by 2500 years ago.