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Erhard Schulz
Institut für Geographie und Geologie, Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany

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Journal article
Published: 07 February 2017 in Land
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Long-term slash-and-burn experiments, when compared with intensive tillage without manuring, resulted in a huge data set relating to potential crop yields, depending on soil quality, crop type, and agricultural measures. Cultivation without manuring or fallow phases did not produce satisfying yields, and mono-season cropping on freshly cleared and burned plots resulted in rather high yields, comparable to those produced during modern industrial agriculture - at least ten-fold the ones estimated for the medieval period. Continuous cultivation on the same plot, using imported wood from adjacent areas as fuel, causes decreasing yields over several years. The high yield of the first harvest of a slash-and-burn agriculture is caused by nutrient input through the ash produced and mobilization from the organic matter of the topsoil, due to high soil temperatures during the burning process and higher topsoil temperatures due to the soil’s black surface. The harvested crops are pure, without contamination of any weeds. Considering the amount of work required to fight weeds without burning, the slash-and-burn technique yields much better results than any other tested agricultural approach. Therefore, in dense woodland, without optimal soils and climate, slash-and-burn agriculture seems to be the best, if not the only, feasible method to start agriculture, for example, during the Late Neolithic, when agriculture expanded from the loess belt into landscapes less suitable for agriculture. Extensive and cultivation with manuring is more practical in an already-open landscape and with a denser population, but its efficiency in terms of the ratio of the manpower input to food output, is worse. Slash-and-burn agriculture is not only a phenomenon of temperate European agriculture during the Neolithic, but played a major role in land-use in forested regions worldwide, creating anthromes on a huge spatial scale.

ACS Style

Manfred Rösch; Harald Biester; Arno Bogenrieder; Eileen Eckmeier; Otto Ehrmann; Renate Gerlach; Mathias Hall; Christoph Hartkopf-Fröder; Ludger Herrmann; Birgit Kury; Jutta Lechterbeck; Wolfram Schier; Erhard Schulz. Late Neolithic Agriculture in Temperate Europe—A Long-Term Experimental Approach. Land 2017, 6, 11 .

AMA Style

Manfred Rösch, Harald Biester, Arno Bogenrieder, Eileen Eckmeier, Otto Ehrmann, Renate Gerlach, Mathias Hall, Christoph Hartkopf-Fröder, Ludger Herrmann, Birgit Kury, Jutta Lechterbeck, Wolfram Schier, Erhard Schulz. Late Neolithic Agriculture in Temperate Europe—A Long-Term Experimental Approach. Land. 2017; 6 (1):11.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Manfred Rösch; Harald Biester; Arno Bogenrieder; Eileen Eckmeier; Otto Ehrmann; Renate Gerlach; Mathias Hall; Christoph Hartkopf-Fröder; Ludger Herrmann; Birgit Kury; Jutta Lechterbeck; Wolfram Schier; Erhard Schulz. 2017. "Late Neolithic Agriculture in Temperate Europe—A Long-Term Experimental Approach." Land 6, no. 1: 11.

Journal article
Published: 17 April 2014 in Vegetation History and Archaeobotany
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A multidisciplinary experimental research programme has run since 1997 at an experimental test area on the Hohenlohe plain near Forchtenberg, southwest Germany, where a 3.5 ha area of a mixed Carpinus betulus, Fraxinus excelsior, Acer pseudoplatanus and Fagus sylvatica forest is being used to research into questions on the early steps of cultural landscape development in Central Europe. The experiments which are being conducted here include forest clearance, burning and cultivation, as well as the recording of the succession stages of vegetation and soil. With respect to vegetation development, the first stage is that of ordinary regrowth, starting with colonisation by grasses and herbs followed by a shrub cover, its topping by pioneer trees or by their re-growth from stumps, leading to a new tree layer. The first stages of this forest regeneration are already visible in the third year after felling, with respect to vegetation as well as soil surface development. The alternative pathway of regeneration of the vegetation is represented as the “ruderal way”, which is characterised by a monotypic colonisation by high forbs such as Eupatorium, Epilobium or mostly Cirsium, which slows the development of a shrub cover. Topsoil and soil surface recovery goes parallel to that of vegetation. A first stage of pellicular soil surfaces is followed by grass felts and later on by leaf overlays which are often mixed with bare crumbly surfaces as signs of rapid turnover. Charcoal may either be displaced by earthworms or concentrated and weathered in situ by the soil microfauna of enchytraeids, mites and collembols. Charcoal also records the earlier cultivation by forming an Ap horizon. The development of ruderal vegetation within the forest environment should be considered when reconstructing the development of cultural landscapes.

ACS Style

Erhard Schulz; Ulrich Vannina; Mathias Hall. The double mosaic-regeneration of vegetation and soil after clearing, burning, and cultivation: lessons from the Forchtenberg experiment. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 2014, 23, 19 -36.

AMA Style

Erhard Schulz, Ulrich Vannina, Mathias Hall. The double mosaic-regeneration of vegetation and soil after clearing, burning, and cultivation: lessons from the Forchtenberg experiment. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. 2014; 23 (1):19-36.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Erhard Schulz; Ulrich Vannina; Mathias Hall. 2014. "The double mosaic-regeneration of vegetation and soil after clearing, burning, and cultivation: lessons from the Forchtenberg experiment." Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 23, no. 1: 19-36.

Journal article
Published: 01 June 2002 in Vegetation History and Archaeobotany
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Archaeobotanical data from Late Neolithic lake-shore dwellings (4300-3500 cal B.C.) in the northern Pre-alpine lowlands are interpreted in different ways. The presence of permanent arable fields as well as arable fields with short fallow phases and shifting cultivation with slash-and-burn has been discussed. To test these hypotheses experimentally we have been conducting tests in a forest northeast of Stuttgart since 1994. The slightly south-exposed experimental area of approximately 4.5 ha on a loess soil is covered by mixed deciduous forest, is available for at least 20 years and has been divided into 34 plots of 30 × 30 m. Up to 2001, five plots were used for experiments. The normal procedure is clearing, burning the dry small timber (less than 10 cm in diameter) and then growing winter cereals (bread wheat) for one season. The yields were between 2000 and 4000 kg grains per ha. The harvest was more or less free from weeds. First attempts with summer crops gave much lower yields of about 1100 kg grains per ha. Continuous cereal growing on the same place in the following years resulted in minimal to zero yields, mainly due to vigorous weed growth. These weeds are not crop weeds, but forest perennials of clearings and forest fringes. Ploughing to remove the weeds is not possible, because of the presence of roots and tree-stumps, most of them still living. Weed regulation by hoeing, burning or cattle grazing remains to be tested. Protection of the crop from game and birds is by fences and nets, but protection from mice seems difficult. In the spectra from the pollen traps, clearing and burning are strongly indicated, but cereal growing only slightly.

ACS Style

Manfred Rösch; Otto Ehrmann; Ludger Herrmann; Erhard Schulz; Arno Bogenrieder; Johann Peter Goldammer; Matthias Hall; Hans Page; Wolfram Schier. An experimental approach to Neolithic shifting cultivation. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 2002, 11, 143 -154.

AMA Style

Manfred Rösch, Otto Ehrmann, Ludger Herrmann, Erhard Schulz, Arno Bogenrieder, Johann Peter Goldammer, Matthias Hall, Hans Page, Wolfram Schier. An experimental approach to Neolithic shifting cultivation. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. 2002; 11 (1-2):143-154.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Manfred Rösch; Otto Ehrmann; Ludger Herrmann; Erhard Schulz; Arno Bogenrieder; Johann Peter Goldammer; Matthias Hall; Hans Page; Wolfram Schier. 2002. "An experimental approach to Neolithic shifting cultivation." Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 11, no. 1-2: 143-154.

Journal article
Published: 31 May 2002 in Journal of African Earth Sciences
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Sebkhas are temporary lacustrine systems depending on the number and extension of floodings. They may create laminated sediments which can be exploited as ecological archives. Contrary to those of meromictic lakes they are seasonal but not annual. After each flooding a detritus layer and a plasmo-condensed layer of bacteria and algae are formed in the water body or film and during the subsequent dessication a third subaeric layer of evaporites is build up. These laminae show a quasi-textile fabric and they can trap and conserve any dust and fine grained material. A high resolution pollendiagram covering the last two millennia as well as geochemical analysis from a southeastern Tunisian sebkha demonstrate the potentials of these ecological archives.

ACS Style

E Schulz; A Abichou; T Hachicha; S Pomel; Ulrich Salzmann; K Zouari. Sebkhas as ecological archives and the vegetation and landscape history of southeastern Tunisia during the last two millennia. Journal of African Earth Sciences 2002, 34, 223 -229.

AMA Style

E Schulz, A Abichou, T Hachicha, S Pomel, Ulrich Salzmann, K Zouari. Sebkhas as ecological archives and the vegetation and landscape history of southeastern Tunisia during the last two millennia. Journal of African Earth Sciences. 2002; 34 (3-4):223-229.

Chicago/Turabian Style

E Schulz; A Abichou; T Hachicha; S Pomel; Ulrich Salzmann; K Zouari. 2002. "Sebkhas as ecological archives and the vegetation and landscape history of southeastern Tunisia during the last two millennia." Journal of African Earth Sciences 34, no. 3-4: 223-229.