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Marine resource abundance drove pre-agricultural population increase in Stone Age Scandinavia.

ABSTRACT: How climate and ecology affect key cultural transformations remains debated in the context of long-term socio-cultural development because of spatially and temporally disjunct climate and archaeological records. The introduction of agriculture triggered a major population increase across Europe. However, in Southern Scandinavia it was preceded by ~500 years of sustained population growth. Here we show that this growth was driven by long-term enhanced marine production conditioned by the Holocene Thermal Maximum, a time of elevated temperature, sea level and salinity across coastal waters. We identify two periods of increased marine production across trophic levels (P1 7600-7100 and P2 6400-5900?cal. yr BP) that coincide with markedly increased mollusc collection and accumulation of shell middens, indicating greater marine resource availability. Between ~7600-5900?BP, intense exploitation of a warmer, more productive marine environment by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers drove cultural development, including maritime technological innovation, and from ca. 6400-5900?BP, underpinned a ~four-fold human population growth.

SUBMITTER: Lewis JP

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7181652 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Marine resource abundance drove pre-agricultural population increase in Stone Age Scandinavia.

Lewis J P JP Ryves D B DB Rasmussen P P Olsen J J van der Sluis L G LG Reimer P J PJ Knudsen K-L KL McGowan S S Anderson N J NJ Juggins S S

Nature communications 20200424 1

How climate and ecology affect key cultural transformations remains debated in the context of long-term socio-cultural development because of spatially and temporally disjunct climate and archaeological records. The introduction of agriculture triggered a major population increase across Europe. However, in Southern Scandinavia it was preceded by ~500 years of sustained population growth. Here we show that this growth was driven by long-term enhanced marine production conditioned by the Holocene ...[more]

PMID: 32332739

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Project description:Pollination is a key ecosystem service, and appropriate management, particularly in agricultural systems, is essential to maintain a diversity of pollinator guilds. However, management recommendations frequently focus on maintaining plant communities, with the assumption that associated invertebrate populations will be sustained. We tested whether plant community, flower resources, and soil moisture would influence hoverfly (Syrphidae) abundance and species richness in floristically-rich seminatural and floristically impoverished agricultural grassland communities in Wales (U.K.) and compared these to two Hymenoptera genera, Bombus, and Lasioglossum. Interactions between environmental variables were tested using generalized linear modeling, and hoverfly community composition examined using canonical correspondence analysis. There was no difference in hoverfly abundance, species richness, or bee abundance, between grassland types. There was a positive association between hoverfly abundance, species richness, and flower abundance in unimproved grasslands. However, this was not evident in agriculturally improved grassland, possibly reflecting intrinsically low flower resource in these habitats, or the presence of plant species with low or relatively inaccessible nectar resources. There was no association between soil moisture content and hoverfly abundance or species richness. Hoverfly community composition was influenced by agricultural improvement and the amount of flower resource. Hoverfly species with semiaquatic larvae were associated with both seminatural and agricultural wet grasslands, possibly because of localized larval habitat. Despite the absence of differences in hoverfly abundance and species richness, distinct hoverfly communities are associated with marshy grasslands, agriculturally improved marshy grasslands, and unimproved dry grasslands, but not with improved dry grasslands. Grassland plant community cannot be used as a proxy for pollinator community. Management of grasslands should aim to maximize the pollinator feeding resource, as well as maintain plant communities. Retaining waterlogged ground may enhance the number of hoverflies with semiaquatic larvae.

Dataset Information

Marine resource abundance drove pre-agricultural population increase in Stone Age Scandinavia.

Publications

Marine resource abundance drove pre-agricultural population increase in Stone Age Scandinavia.

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