Project partners: LP - University of Turku, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Finnish Environ... more Project partners: LP - University of Turku, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Finnish Environment Institute, Tallinn University, Regional Council of Satakunta.SustainBaltic i.e. ICZM Plans for Sustaining Coastal and Marine Human-ecological Networks in the Baltic Region project is implemented for 27 months during 2016–2018. SustainBaltic (CB354) is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the Central Baltic Programme 2014–2020. SustainBaltic is a cooperation project of the University of Turku, the Estonian University of Life Sciences, the Finnish Environment Institute, the Regional Council of Satakunta, and Tallinn University. The project aims to improve the share of the managed coastal networks in the Central Baltic area by the cross-border preparation of the ICZM plans for a total of four case areas with their public assessment in Estonia and Finland. This was planned to be achieved by 1) integrating multidisciplinary human-ecological data on the whole proj...
The English in the current thesis was revised by Elsevier Language Editing Services and the Eston... more The English in the current thesis was revised by Elsevier Language Editing Services and the Estonian by dr. Ene Vainik. Publication of this dissertation is supported by the Estonian University of Life Sciences and by the Doctoral School of Earth Sciences and Ecology created under the auspices of European Social Fund.
An experimental slash-and-burn (SABC) site and a site included in the cycle of SABC in 19-th cent... more An experimental slash-and-burn (SABC) site and a site included in the cycle of SABC in 19-th century were used as a reference to reveal a signature of this cultivation method in sandy soils. Documented slash-and-burn layers were compared to pyrogenic layers from other sites and time periods in attempt to differentiate between results of slash-and-burn cultivation and wild fires. The swidden layers in sandy soils appeared as 5 to 10cm thick, dark-coloured "humus" layers with a characteristic scalloped lower boundary, formed by numerous constructions of fossorial insects, predominantly sweat bees. The dark coloration originates from high concentrations of charcoal fragments uniformly distributed within the layers. The median length of 4 to 5mm, pebbly shape and silt coating were characteristic to the charcoal fragments large than 1 mm,. The low proportion of bark and presence of foliage (buds and needles) in charcoal assemblages are characteristic. Phytolith content of SABC layers varied from tens to hundreds of thousands per gram of soil, with up to 50% of phytoliths being charred. SABC layers contained dendritic and/or panicoid phytoliths and cereal glumes and paleas indicative of in situ cultivation of crops. The palynological signature of swiddens is a pollen spectrum of forest ecosystem with a proportion of fire-dependant taxa, such as Onagraceae pollen and Marshantia spores. Historical descriptions outline the following technological components of the SABC (Petrov 1964): the conversion, cropping, and fallow. At the conversion stage, trees were either girdled (in old forests), or cut (in young forests); left for drying and then burned, the wood ash serving as a fertilizer. The burning took place in the spring for spring-sown crops and in the fall for autumn-sown crops. The cropping stage lasted from 1 to 5 years depending on the soil quality. After some years the field have lost its fertility and the swidden was abandoned for the forest fallow. The duration of the forest fallow, and of the entire slash-and-burn cultivation In the 17 th-19 th century, the areas recurrently used for swidden cultivation in Estonia were termed buschlands in local Baltic German dialect (Ligi, 1963). The term buschland refers only to the land use, not the tree cover life form. The buschlands were covered by young trees, predominantly silver birch (Betula pendula), grey alder (Alnus incana) and Norway spruce (Picea abies) (Ligi, 1963), located either (mainly) on hills, or in flat areas remote from homesteads. (Tomson et al, 2015). Every year, the trees were cut and burned in a 0.5 to 1 ha patch of the buschland. After burning the seeds were put into the soil using a harrow or ard. Rye, barley and turnip were the most common crops in slash-and-burn fields. A site was used for crop cultivation for 2 to 5 years, depending on the site's fertility; once the soil was depleted, the land was left fallow for 15 to 20 years (Ligi, 1963). In 19th century, cycles of slashand-burn management were regulated by the agrarian law (Lihwlandi-ma tallorahva Seädus 1820) implying at least 20 years of the fallow stage. The buschlands were used for grazing in the first 2-3 years of the forest fallow. Once trees had begun to colonize the abandoned swidden, they were partially collected for firewood. The buschlands were often located on hills, as ploughing and manuring of such positions were impractical, coexisting with the permanent cultivation of the toe slopes
Context Anthropogenic and environmental changes are reshaping landscapes across the globe. In thi... more Context Anthropogenic and environmental changes are reshaping landscapes across the globe. In this context, understanding the patterns, drivers, and consequences of these changes is one of the central challenges of humankind. Purpose We aim to test the possibilities of combining modern multidisciplinary approaches to reconstruct the land-cover and linking the changes in landcover to socioeconomic shifts in southern Estonia over the last 200 years. Keywords Past cultural landscape Á Land-use change Á Historical data Á Pollen-based reconstructions Á Socioeconomic factors Á Estonia Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (
People have used fire to shape landscapes according to their needs for thousands of years. Fire c... more People have used fire to shape landscapes according to their needs for thousands of years. Fire cultivation, with all the effects characteristic to it, was one of the means by which human-induced fire was present in Estonian landscapes. Fire clears and opens up land, harms some species and gives advantages to others. Plants and animals adapt to particular patterns of fire according to frequency and intensity (Pyne 2001). Thus fire cultivation has had an impact on the environment and the landscape. Knowledge and experience of handling fire in the environment was one of the components of culture. The long tradition of fire cultivation has left its traces in language and in numerous toponyms. The general term 'fire cultivation' includes different land-use techniques. For swidden cultivation (ale, sõõrd) an area was cleared of trees and burned, the ash serving as fertiliser. After some years of cultivation the plot was abandoned and vegetation left to regenerate. Slightly different swidden techniques were used in old-growth forest and in young, secondary , forest. There were also differences in preparing the area for winter and summer cereals. For burn-beating (kütis) — another fire cultivation method — young trees were cut and tied into bundles. The bundles were placed in rows and covered with sods. The heaps of wood and turfs were burned and the mixture of ash and burnt soil spread over the surrounding area. It is difficult to determine from the historical sources which fire cultivation technique was used in any particular case because the terms swidden and burn-beating were sometimes used synonymously.
Tracing fire cultivation in Estonia Fire cultivation is possibly the agricultural land-use method... more Tracing fire cultivation in Estonia Fire cultivation is possibly the agricultural land-use method of the longest duration in Estonia; yet still it has attracted little attention from researchers. The aim of this paper is two-fold: firstly, to discuss the latest stage of historical bushland management via fire cultivation as it appears in historical sources, and secondly to look for ways in which the natural historical research methods can be combined with those of the humanities in search of more complex understanding of land-use dynamics. The material analysed are the 19th century agrarian laws and ethnographic data. These sources show that researchers have so far rather under- than overestimated the persistence and spread of fire use - a number of fire cultivation cases are reported even from the early 20th century from different parts of Estonia. Thus we suggest that bushland management with fire cultivation methods has continued longer than previously assumed. Analysis of the 19...
h i g h l i g h t s • Fire cultivation played an important role in the formation of the patterns ... more h i g h l i g h t s • Fire cultivation played an important role in the formation of the patterns in rural landscapes in Southern Estonia. • The former slash and burn areas have been the most changeable areas as shown in the study of Nineteenth Century maps. • The former slash and burn areas are identifiable in the present landscape and are mainly transformed into forest. • Knowledge of the historical significance of slash and burn is essential for the development of policies for nature conservation. • The impacts of fire cultivation on the forest habitats need future study.
Charcoal deposits in forest soils have been considered mainly in the context of wildfires. Howeve... more Charcoal deposits in forest soils have been considered mainly in the context of wildfires. However, slash-and-burn cultivation has been widespread in Northern Europe until the beginning of the 20th century and extensive areas of former swiddens are now covered by forests. The study sites were in Karula National Park in Southern Estonia. 19th-century cadastral maps were used to identify the historical land use. Macroscopic (visible) charcoal was studied in 57 soil pits, located in historical slash-and-burn sites, forests, former arable fields, recent forest fire sites, and experimental slash-and-burn fields. The locations of charcoal in the soil profile were recorded. In four sites, the charcoal samples were dated. Charcoal is widespread in boreal forest soils. A considerable proportion of this could originate from historical slash-and-burn cultivation. The charcoal depth was related to agricultural land use duration and methods at different intensities. The location of the charcoal-...
Slash and burn is one of the oldest methods of clearing and fertilizing land for growing crops. T... more Slash and burn is one of the oldest methods of clearing and fertilizing land for growing crops. The practice continued in Estonia until the beginning of the twentieth century. The historical background to the use of fire in Estonia is first described, including the legal controls that were set up. After cultivation the slash and burn fields left as fallow, before trees were allowed to regenerate for up to 20 years, when the cycle started again. The term buschland from the local Baltic German dialect was used on documents to designate the land that had been used for regular burning-a land use category that no longer exists. The literature on the environmental impact of slash and burn is discussed but there is no agreement about the effects of the practice on soil. The effects on biodiversity have also not been widely studied. The study area was the Karula National Park in Southern Estonia. Maps from the end of nineteenth century were compared with contemporary digital map and databases using Mapinfo. In the nineteenth century the buschlands occupied 34 % of farmland but the analyses showed that now 77 % had become forest, with the remainder being grasslands or arable. These changes were because the sites were on hills and the slopes were too steep for modern agriculture. The dominant tree species, forest types and soils are also described and are associated with infertile conditions.
An experimental use of slash-and-burn cultivation in Karula National Park, Estonia Kersti Kihno 1... more An experimental use of slash-and-burn cultivation in Karula National Park, Estonia Kersti Kihno 1, 2; Liisi Jääts 3, 4; Marge Konsa 5; Pille Tomson 6 1 Institute of History, University of Tallinn, Estonia 2 Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Estonia 3 ...
Project partners: LP - University of Turku, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Finnish Environ... more Project partners: LP - University of Turku, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Finnish Environment Institute, Tallinn University, Regional Council of Satakunta.SustainBaltic i.e. ICZM Plans for Sustaining Coastal and Marine Human-ecological Networks in the Baltic Region project is implemented for 27 months during 2016–2018. SustainBaltic (CB354) is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the Central Baltic Programme 2014–2020. SustainBaltic is a cooperation project of the University of Turku, the Estonian University of Life Sciences, the Finnish Environment Institute, the Regional Council of Satakunta, and Tallinn University. The project aims to improve the share of the managed coastal networks in the Central Baltic area by the cross-border preparation of the ICZM plans for a total of four case areas with their public assessment in Estonia and Finland. This was planned to be achieved by 1) integrating multidisciplinary human-ecological data on the whole proj...
The English in the current thesis was revised by Elsevier Language Editing Services and the Eston... more The English in the current thesis was revised by Elsevier Language Editing Services and the Estonian by dr. Ene Vainik. Publication of this dissertation is supported by the Estonian University of Life Sciences and by the Doctoral School of Earth Sciences and Ecology created under the auspices of European Social Fund.
An experimental slash-and-burn (SABC) site and a site included in the cycle of SABC in 19-th cent... more An experimental slash-and-burn (SABC) site and a site included in the cycle of SABC in 19-th century were used as a reference to reveal a signature of this cultivation method in sandy soils. Documented slash-and-burn layers were compared to pyrogenic layers from other sites and time periods in attempt to differentiate between results of slash-and-burn cultivation and wild fires. The swidden layers in sandy soils appeared as 5 to 10cm thick, dark-coloured "humus" layers with a characteristic scalloped lower boundary, formed by numerous constructions of fossorial insects, predominantly sweat bees. The dark coloration originates from high concentrations of charcoal fragments uniformly distributed within the layers. The median length of 4 to 5mm, pebbly shape and silt coating were characteristic to the charcoal fragments large than 1 mm,. The low proportion of bark and presence of foliage (buds and needles) in charcoal assemblages are characteristic. Phytolith content of SABC layers varied from tens to hundreds of thousands per gram of soil, with up to 50% of phytoliths being charred. SABC layers contained dendritic and/or panicoid phytoliths and cereal glumes and paleas indicative of in situ cultivation of crops. The palynological signature of swiddens is a pollen spectrum of forest ecosystem with a proportion of fire-dependant taxa, such as Onagraceae pollen and Marshantia spores. Historical descriptions outline the following technological components of the SABC (Petrov 1964): the conversion, cropping, and fallow. At the conversion stage, trees were either girdled (in old forests), or cut (in young forests); left for drying and then burned, the wood ash serving as a fertilizer. The burning took place in the spring for spring-sown crops and in the fall for autumn-sown crops. The cropping stage lasted from 1 to 5 years depending on the soil quality. After some years the field have lost its fertility and the swidden was abandoned for the forest fallow. The duration of the forest fallow, and of the entire slash-and-burn cultivation In the 17 th-19 th century, the areas recurrently used for swidden cultivation in Estonia were termed buschlands in local Baltic German dialect (Ligi, 1963). The term buschland refers only to the land use, not the tree cover life form. The buschlands were covered by young trees, predominantly silver birch (Betula pendula), grey alder (Alnus incana) and Norway spruce (Picea abies) (Ligi, 1963), located either (mainly) on hills, or in flat areas remote from homesteads. (Tomson et al, 2015). Every year, the trees were cut and burned in a 0.5 to 1 ha patch of the buschland. After burning the seeds were put into the soil using a harrow or ard. Rye, barley and turnip were the most common crops in slash-and-burn fields. A site was used for crop cultivation for 2 to 5 years, depending on the site's fertility; once the soil was depleted, the land was left fallow for 15 to 20 years (Ligi, 1963). In 19th century, cycles of slashand-burn management were regulated by the agrarian law (Lihwlandi-ma tallorahva Seädus 1820) implying at least 20 years of the fallow stage. The buschlands were used for grazing in the first 2-3 years of the forest fallow. Once trees had begun to colonize the abandoned swidden, they were partially collected for firewood. The buschlands were often located on hills, as ploughing and manuring of such positions were impractical, coexisting with the permanent cultivation of the toe slopes
Context Anthropogenic and environmental changes are reshaping landscapes across the globe. In thi... more Context Anthropogenic and environmental changes are reshaping landscapes across the globe. In this context, understanding the patterns, drivers, and consequences of these changes is one of the central challenges of humankind. Purpose We aim to test the possibilities of combining modern multidisciplinary approaches to reconstruct the land-cover and linking the changes in landcover to socioeconomic shifts in southern Estonia over the last 200 years. Keywords Past cultural landscape Á Land-use change Á Historical data Á Pollen-based reconstructions Á Socioeconomic factors Á Estonia Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (
People have used fire to shape landscapes according to their needs for thousands of years. Fire c... more People have used fire to shape landscapes according to their needs for thousands of years. Fire cultivation, with all the effects characteristic to it, was one of the means by which human-induced fire was present in Estonian landscapes. Fire clears and opens up land, harms some species and gives advantages to others. Plants and animals adapt to particular patterns of fire according to frequency and intensity (Pyne 2001). Thus fire cultivation has had an impact on the environment and the landscape. Knowledge and experience of handling fire in the environment was one of the components of culture. The long tradition of fire cultivation has left its traces in language and in numerous toponyms. The general term 'fire cultivation' includes different land-use techniques. For swidden cultivation (ale, sõõrd) an area was cleared of trees and burned, the ash serving as fertiliser. After some years of cultivation the plot was abandoned and vegetation left to regenerate. Slightly different swidden techniques were used in old-growth forest and in young, secondary , forest. There were also differences in preparing the area for winter and summer cereals. For burn-beating (kütis) — another fire cultivation method — young trees were cut and tied into bundles. The bundles were placed in rows and covered with sods. The heaps of wood and turfs were burned and the mixture of ash and burnt soil spread over the surrounding area. It is difficult to determine from the historical sources which fire cultivation technique was used in any particular case because the terms swidden and burn-beating were sometimes used synonymously.
Tracing fire cultivation in Estonia Fire cultivation is possibly the agricultural land-use method... more Tracing fire cultivation in Estonia Fire cultivation is possibly the agricultural land-use method of the longest duration in Estonia; yet still it has attracted little attention from researchers. The aim of this paper is two-fold: firstly, to discuss the latest stage of historical bushland management via fire cultivation as it appears in historical sources, and secondly to look for ways in which the natural historical research methods can be combined with those of the humanities in search of more complex understanding of land-use dynamics. The material analysed are the 19th century agrarian laws and ethnographic data. These sources show that researchers have so far rather under- than overestimated the persistence and spread of fire use - a number of fire cultivation cases are reported even from the early 20th century from different parts of Estonia. Thus we suggest that bushland management with fire cultivation methods has continued longer than previously assumed. Analysis of the 19...
h i g h l i g h t s • Fire cultivation played an important role in the formation of the patterns ... more h i g h l i g h t s • Fire cultivation played an important role in the formation of the patterns in rural landscapes in Southern Estonia. • The former slash and burn areas have been the most changeable areas as shown in the study of Nineteenth Century maps. • The former slash and burn areas are identifiable in the present landscape and are mainly transformed into forest. • Knowledge of the historical significance of slash and burn is essential for the development of policies for nature conservation. • The impacts of fire cultivation on the forest habitats need future study.
Charcoal deposits in forest soils have been considered mainly in the context of wildfires. Howeve... more Charcoal deposits in forest soils have been considered mainly in the context of wildfires. However, slash-and-burn cultivation has been widespread in Northern Europe until the beginning of the 20th century and extensive areas of former swiddens are now covered by forests. The study sites were in Karula National Park in Southern Estonia. 19th-century cadastral maps were used to identify the historical land use. Macroscopic (visible) charcoal was studied in 57 soil pits, located in historical slash-and-burn sites, forests, former arable fields, recent forest fire sites, and experimental slash-and-burn fields. The locations of charcoal in the soil profile were recorded. In four sites, the charcoal samples were dated. Charcoal is widespread in boreal forest soils. A considerable proportion of this could originate from historical slash-and-burn cultivation. The charcoal depth was related to agricultural land use duration and methods at different intensities. The location of the charcoal-...
Slash and burn is one of the oldest methods of clearing and fertilizing land for growing crops. T... more Slash and burn is one of the oldest methods of clearing and fertilizing land for growing crops. The practice continued in Estonia until the beginning of the twentieth century. The historical background to the use of fire in Estonia is first described, including the legal controls that were set up. After cultivation the slash and burn fields left as fallow, before trees were allowed to regenerate for up to 20 years, when the cycle started again. The term buschland from the local Baltic German dialect was used on documents to designate the land that had been used for regular burning-a land use category that no longer exists. The literature on the environmental impact of slash and burn is discussed but there is no agreement about the effects of the practice on soil. The effects on biodiversity have also not been widely studied. The study area was the Karula National Park in Southern Estonia. Maps from the end of nineteenth century were compared with contemporary digital map and databases using Mapinfo. In the nineteenth century the buschlands occupied 34 % of farmland but the analyses showed that now 77 % had become forest, with the remainder being grasslands or arable. These changes were because the sites were on hills and the slopes were too steep for modern agriculture. The dominant tree species, forest types and soils are also described and are associated with infertile conditions.
An experimental use of slash-and-burn cultivation in Karula National Park, Estonia Kersti Kihno 1... more An experimental use of slash-and-burn cultivation in Karula National Park, Estonia Kersti Kihno 1, 2; Liisi Jääts 3, 4; Marge Konsa 5; Pille Tomson 6 1 Institute of History, University of Tallinn, Estonia 2 Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Estonia 3 ...
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