Medieval Communities Boosted Biodiversity around Lake Constance
Findings from the RIHN Feasibility Study (FS) led by Adam Izdebski

Overview

As part of the feasibility study (FS), Social-Ecological Accelerations (SEA) as the key to understand the 20th-century Great Acceleration and its possible futures: learning from case studies in European and Japanese Environmental History (Principal Investigator: Adam IZDEBSKI), the following press release has been published.

Press Release (Summary)

This study analyzed approximately 4,000 years of vegetation change around Lake Constance, located at the borders of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and revealed a significant rise in plant diversity during the early medieval period (ca. 500–1000 CE). This finding was made possible through the integration of fossil pollen from lake sediments, archaeobotanical data, and historical records by an international research team led by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

Advances in agricultural techniques, expanding land use, and the development of trade networks during this time created a diverse agricultural mosaic and semi-natural grasslands, resulting in one of the most biodiverse periods in the past 4,000 years.

These results show that human activity does not necessarily degrade ecosystems; when adaptive, it can create sustainable, nature-coexisting landscapes. In the context of the FS research, this case serves as a symbolic example of how historical social–ecological acceleration contributed to the long-term maintenance of biodiversity. The study offers important insights for envisioning a future in which societies can thrive with nature in the Human Age.

For more details, visit the website of the Max Planck Institute.