Surviving on the edge: the role of medieval and modern age charcoal production in the stand composition of colline beech woodlands in NE Hungary (EC Europe)

Vegetation History and Archaeobotany https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-024-01033-4 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Surviving on the edge: the role of medieval and modern age charcoal production in the stand composition of colline beech woodlands in NE Hungary (EC Europe) Gabriella Darabos1 · János Korponai1,2,3 · Magdalena Moskal-del Hoyo4 · Přemysl Bobek5 · Ákos Bede-Fazekas1,6 · Tamás Rédei6 · Ferenc Szmorad7 · Tibor Standovár7 · Enikő K. Magyari1,8 Received: 1 July 2024 / Accepted: 15 November 2024 © The Author(s) 2024 Abstract This study examines historical forest compositional changes in the Aggtelek Karst region, Hungary, focusing on the relationship between medieval and modern age charcoal burning sites (32 kilns) and the current vegetation. Our aim was to determine woodland composition during the intensive charcoal burning period using wood charcoal analysis and compare it with the present canopy composition to understand Fagus sylvatica (European beech) population dynamics at the margin of its range. Heat map visualization, cluster analysis and Procrustes analyses were used for comparison. The results show European beech as dominant taxon in charcoal spectra in some places, while Quercus, possibly Quercus petraea (sessile oak), and Carpinus betulus (European hornbeam) dominated in others. The findings suggest that beech had varying abundance in the potential beech habitats during the medieval and modern age coppice phases. We found multidirectional changes in canopy composition. Carpinus betulus and Q. petraea dominated the current stands in most cases with F. sylvatica being subordinate. These results suggest that historical forest use and management practices took place in already mixed canopy forests, where Fagus dominance was confined to a few stands only. We demonstrate that the forest stands plausibly represent different stages of secondary succession after last coppice management, leading to varying Carpinus abundance. We discuss the possible role of climate change (summer heat waves, increasing mean annual temperature) and conclude that F. sylvatica and Q. petraea compete with each other in the study region, confirming a transitional zone between the classical Fagus and Quercus climate. Keywords Fagus sylvatica · Wood charcoal analysis · Potential natural vegetation · Middle Ages land use · Anthracology · Karst region Communicated by W. Tinner. Gabriella Darabos 4 W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, Lubicz St. 46, Kraków 31-512, Poland Enikő K. Magyari 5 Department of Paleoecology, Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Zámek 1, Průhonice 252 43, Czech Republic 6 HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, Institute of Ecology and Botany, Alkotmány u. 2–4, Vácrátót H-2163, Hungary 7 Department of Plant Systematics, Ecology and Theoretical Biology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C, Budapest H-1117, Hungary 8 HUN-REN-MTM-ELTE Research Group for Palaeontology, Ludovika tér 2, Budapest 1083, Hungary 1 Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Department of Environmental and Landscape Geography, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/C, Budapest H-1117, Hungary 2 Faculty of Water Sciences, Department of Aquatic Environmental Sciences, University of Public Service, Bajcsy-Zsilinszky utca 12–14, Baja H-6500, Hungary 3 Department of Environmental Science, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Calea Turzii 4, Cluj-Napoca 400193, Romania 13 Vegetation History and Archaeobotany Introduction Forest utilization is one of the most ancient forms of land use dating back to the Palaeolithic but with remarkable intensity increase during the Neolithic, the Iron and Roman Ages (Sprengel 1822; Blondel 2006; Krebs et al. 2017). From the 10th century, forests in Europe were increasingly felled (coppiced) for charcoal production (Peterken 1993; Unrau et al. 2018) in connection with the emergence of industrial activities that required an energy source with higher thermal efficiency (Deforce et al. 2021a). Charcoal became a key energy source in many European countries in the Middle Ages until the introduction of fossil fuels at the end of the 18th century (Oliveira et al. 2022). It was essential for iron production, as proved by the remains of numerous charcoal production sites (charcoal kilns or boksa) in Western, South and Central Europe (Nelle 2003; Ludemann 2010; Deforce et al. 2013; Carrari et al. 2016; Rutkiewicz et al. 2017; Benattia et al. 2018; Máliš et al. 2021; Garbarino et al. 2022; Rybníček et al. 2023), as well as in Historical Hungary (Gömöri 2000). In the Carpathian Basin, charcoal production has been an important activity since the Early Iron Age. It was Fig. 1 The location of the study area within Europe (A), Hungary (in red on map B) and the study area showing the location of the 32 sampled kilns (C) 13 introduced by the Celts in Transdanubia (Fig. 1; Hegedüs 1961; Szabó 1988). They exploited woodlands for building materials, fortification, metalworking, pottery and transport vehicle building. All these activities resulted in significant woodland clearance (Chapman et al. 2009; Magyari et al. 2010; Ďurkovič et al. 2018). Forest exploitation continued to increase in Pannonia between the 1st and 4th centuries, as the Italian influence in the province’s economy increased the demand for energy from industrial activities (metal, ceramics, glass) and a large part of the growing population used charcoal for heating during much of the winter despite the mild climate (Mócsy and Fitz 1990; Visy 2003). In the 10th and 11th centuries, a significant iron industry developed in Western Transdanubia with the centre at Vasvár (Fig. 1) and in the North Hungarian Range, north and south of the river Sajó with the centre at Ózd (present day part of Ózd city) and Imola-Felsőkelecsény, near Aggtelek (Fig. 1) (Heckenast 1981). The first written record of charcoal production dates from the reign of King Andrew II (13th century) in the Hungarian Kingdom, but its development can likely be dated even earlier (Csőre 1980; Veres 2022). Remains of medieval charcoal production sites can be found in several areas of the country, including the Bakony Region and the Vegetation History and Archaeobotany North Hungarian Range (Fig. 1), with the most significant occurrences in our study region, the Aggtelek Karst (part of the Gömör-Torna Karst) (Petercsák 1991, 2010; PaládiKovács 1992; Novák 2012). Here, wood was burnt in ‘coalburning bonfires’ (‘Structores Carbonum’) as early as the 13th century. The most intensive charcoal-producing period in the karst region were the 17th–19th centuries (Veres 2022). These ancient kiln sites preserve charcoal that can be identified to genus, and in some cases, species level using wood anatomy. Anthracology is often used to reconstruct the former composition of woodlands (Heinz et al. 2004; Asouti and Austin 2005; Robin et al. 2013; Moskal-del Hoyo et al. 2018). St (...truncated)