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Long-term trajectories of mountain agro-ecosystems in the North-Western Alps

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Abstract

Past trajectories of alpine agroecosystems are legacies that we should consider to improve our understanding of current responses to global environmental changes. By integrating archaeology, history and lake sediment–derived ancient DNA records, we reconstructed the nature and intensity of agropastoral activities in the Northwestern French Alps. We investigated their spatiotemporal trajectories and interactions with the erosion dynamic and vegetation cover, between 880 and 2440 m a.s.l. Climatic conditions in the upper altitude case study site predominantly controlled plant community composition and erosion. In contrast, the other sites were influenced mainly by (agro-)pastoral activities. There, the first significant human-driven changes in plant community composition occurred earlier (Mid-Late Bronze Age or Iron Age) above ca. 2000 m a.s.l. than below (Early to High Middle Ages). This pattern mirrors the altitudinal temporal trajectory of (agro-)pastoral activities development. Regarding erosion trajectories, all sites show stable non-degraded and degraded states separated by a transition phase caused by (agro-)pastoral activities. However, this does not necessarily occur when the first significant or the most intense activities develop due to the different sensitivities of the systems. From the High Middle Ages or Late Middle Age/Modern Period, resistance or resilience phases relative to erosion are evidenced for all agroecosystems (other than the upper site). These patterns highlight adaptations of agrarian socio-ecosystems, possibly thanks to soil management strategies with soil protection and/or just being the consequence of changes in practice for other purposes. Whether in terms of plant community composition or erosion, our trajectories evidence the vulnerability of systems above ca. 2000 m a.s.l. to changes in human activities and variations in climate.

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Data availability

The datasets presented in this study can be found on PANGAEA database.

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Acknowledgements

We benefited from discussions with Alain Mélo about historical data from the Vallon de Sales. We thank the Réserve Naturelles de Haute-Savoie managed by ASTER who made significant contributions to the archaeological and coring fieldwork campaigns in the Anterne and the Vallon de Sales study areas.

Funding

This paper is the outcome of more than 10 years of collaborative and interdisciplinary works led in several research programs, which were initiated under the leadership of Fabien Arnaud (PYGMALION program supported by the French National Research Agency ANRblan07-2_204489) and Pierre Taberlet (in the framework of the DiPEE between the LECA and EDYTEM which funded the Retromont program), that we warmly thank here. The work was then continued within the framework of a Marie Slodowska Curie fellowship (PALEO-AGRI project, EC grant number 655331) and via the PhD projects of Manon Bajard, Wentao Chen and Claire Blanchet funded by the Fondation Montagne Vivante, the Universities of Savoie Mont-Blanc and Grenoble-Alpes and the French Agence Nationale pour la Recherche project Investissements d’avenir CDP TRAJECTORIES (ANR-15-IDEX-02).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. EDYTEM, UMR 5204 CNRS, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, Pôle Montagne, 73376, Le Bourget du Lac, France

    Charline Giguet-Covex, Pierre-Jérôme Rey, Erwan Messager, Pierre Sabatier, Claire Blanchet, Fabien Arnaud & Jérôme Poulenard

  2. Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics, University of Oslo, Blindern, PO Box 1028, 0315, Oslo, Norway

    Manon Bajard

  3. Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Manon Bajard

  4. Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LECA, 38000, Grenoble, France

    Wentao Chen, Francesco Gentile Ficetola & Ludovic Gielly

  5. BioArch-Department of Archaeology, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, UK

    Kevin James Walsh

  6. UMR INRA 42 CARRTEL, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, 73376, Le Bourget du Lac, France

    David Etienne

  7. Department of Environmental Science and Policy, Università Degli Studi Di Milano, Via Celoria 26, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Francesco Gentile Ficetola

  8. Unité Archéologie Et Patrimoine Bâti du Département de Haute-Savoie, 74000, Annecy, France

    Christophe Guffond

  9. Muséum d’histoire Naturelle, Secteur Vertébrés, Route de Malagnou 1, 1208, Geneva, Switzerland

    Patricia Chiquet

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  1. Charline Giguet-Covex
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  2. Manon Bajard
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  3. Wentao Chen
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  4. Kevin James Walsh
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  5. Pierre-Jérôme Rey
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  7. David Etienne
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  8. Pierre Sabatier
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  9. Francesco Gentile Ficetola
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  10. Ludovic Gielly
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  11. Claire Blanchet
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  12. Christophe Guffond
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  13. Patricia Chiquet
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  14. Fabien Arnaud
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  15. Jérôme Poulenard
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Contributions

CGC, MB, WC, DE, FGF, LG, PS, PC, CG, FA, EM, PJR and CB contributed to the sampling and/or data production. CGC, JP and KJW contributed to the design of the study. All authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Charline Giguet-Covex.

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Giguet-Covex, C., Bajard, M., Chen, W. et al. Long-term trajectories of mountain agro-ecosystems in the North-Western Alps. Reg Environ Change 23, 58 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-023-02030-5

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