Vegetation history and human impact in the Parika area, Central Estonia

Abstract

In order to reconstruct the Holocene vegetation history of the northern part of the Vōrtsjärv Lowland, a sediment sequence was collected from the Parika bog and analysed for fossil pollen. Peat started to accumulate at the beginning of the Holocene. Peat increment has been more intensive since 1400 uncalibrated 14C BP (peat increment 1.47-1.60 mm yr-1) and slowest between 6600 and 5000 BP (0.40 mm yr-1). Recorded vegetation development started with open birch-pine woodland. Temperate mixed forest was established before 7600 BP. The proportion of broad-leaved forest was modest throughout the Holocene. Specific to the Parika diagram is the high frequency of spruce since 4800 BP. Palynological and archaeological records indicate that the Vōrtsjärv Lowland was inhabited during the Mesolithic. During the Late Bronze Age the area was rather open. However, compared to North Estonia, agricultural land-use was delayed about 1000 years; it was restricted in area and discontinuous. Cereal cultivation (Hordeum and Triticum) started at the end of the Pre-Roman Iron Age. The Parika bog is considered to be a new biostratigraphic reference site in the northern part of the Vōrtsjärv Lowland.