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BTU
Seit 2010 untersucht eine interdisziplinäre Forschergruppe der BTU, des BLDAM und des LBGR die Landnutzungsgeschichte sowie die natürliche und anthropogen induzierte Landschaftsentwicklung in der Niederlausitz, Brandenburg. Systematische archäologische Grabungen des BLDAM im Vorfeld der laufenden Tagebaue sind eine wichtige Grundlage für geopedologische Untersuchungen. Die Arbeiten hatten zunächst ihren räumlichen Schwerpunkt in den Braunkohletagebauen nordöstlich von Cottbus (Tgb. Cottbus Nord, Tgb. Jänschwalde) und wurden dann ausgedehnt auf weitere Forstflächen nördlich von Peitz. Wir geben einen Überblick über die wichtigsten Erkenntnisse der letzten Jahre, präsentieren aktuelle Ergebnisse und zeigen zukünftige Forschungsfelder auf.
Im Tagebau Jänschwalde sind zwischenzeitlich mehr als 1000 Relikte von Holzkohlmeilern (HKM) als Zeugen einer intensiven historischen Holznutzung archäologisch dokumentiert. Mit Stand Januar 2016 liegen Dendroalter von 64 HKM vor. Die Alter schwanken zwischen dem ausgehenden 16. Jahrhundert und der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts, was in etwa dem Betriebszeitraum des Hüttenwerks in Peitz entspricht. Die Mehrzahl der Meiler datiert auf den Beginn des 18. Jahrhunderts. Weitere Hinterlassenschaften der historischen Landnutzung sind u.a. Wölbäcker und begrabene Ackerböden. Fossile Böden und ehemalige Landoberflächen sind stellenweise mit äolischen Sedimenten überdeckt. 14C- und OSL-Datierungen an diesen Böden und Sedimenten lassen auf eine Intensivierung der äolischen Aktivität zur slawischen Zeit und im Deutschen Mittelalter schließen. Einige Relikte von HKM sind mit Sand überweht worden, und an einer Stelle konnte das Alter dieser äolischen Sedimentation mittels Dendrodatierung des begrabenen Meilers auf1850 oder jünger bestimmt werden. Allerdings stellt dies die Ausnahme dar. Der weitaus größere Teil der HKM-Relikte liegt direkt an der Oberfläche und ist nicht begraben, was auf eine sehr geringe Winderosion in der Neuzeit schließen lässt. Seit 2015 konnte im Rahmen des DFG-Projekts „Räumliche und zeitliche Dimension der historischen Köhlerei im Tauerschen Forst (Niederlausitz, Brandenburg). Ein Beitrag zur Kulturlandschaftsentwicklung des Norddeutschen Tieflands“ (Az RA 1129/3-1; RA 931/6-1) ein weiteres Gebiet mit hoher HKM-Dichte untersucht werden. Erste Auswertungen der LiDAR-Daten ergeben eine Anzahl von 4449 ehemaligen Meilerstandorten im Tauerschen Forst. 26 Meilerstellen sind beprobt, die Dendroalter hierzu sind in Bearbeitung. Ebenfalls in jüngerer Zeit fanden Untersuchungen zur Verbreitung von HKM-Relikten für das gesamte Land Brandenburg statt. Mit Hilfe eines binären Modells wurden Gebiete mit hoher Wahrscheinlichkeit von HKM-Standorten detektiert. Im Rahmen des im November 2016 beginnenden DFG-Projekts „Die historische Köhlerei in Brandenburg - Analyse der räumlichen Dimension und der Effekte auf bodenhydraulische Eigenschaften“ (SCHN 1349/1-1) sollen nun neben der Verbreitung der historischen Köhlerei auch bodenrelevante Auswirkungen beschrieben und bewertet werden.
Various sources provide information about land use history and landscape transformation. For a variety of reasons, the quality of information differs and is often discontinuous or incomplete. In this interdisciplinary study we take advantage of comprehensive archaeological data gathered by large-scale excavations that were necessary because of opencast lignite mining in Lusatia, Brandenburg, Germany. By using a GIS we integrate these archaeological findings with results from archival and literature studies, from historical maps, from landforms and soils as well as from analyses of shaded-relief maps derived from up-to-date LiDAR data. The long-term aim is to develop a palaeoenvironmental model and thus to reconstruct landscape changes caused by human activities. The focus of the study is the Peitz ironwork in SE Brandenburg, which was a large consumer of commodities for about 300 years. During the time it operated, extensive transformations are supposed to have affected the landscape in the vicinity because of wood consumption and especially charcoal production. Digital datasets about forested areas for different timespans reconstructed from historical maps were made available. In combination with dendrochronological dating of charred trees, the spatiotemporal dimension of charcoal kilns was determined. Also, sites of former bog iron ore mining could be identified. Moreover, the different sources contain further information about other forms of land uses such as agriculture, pastoralism and even viticulture. In conclusion we can highlight that the mosaic of past land use systems is different from the modern structure but that major changes in the forests have been retained.
Charcoal produced in kilns or hearths was an important source of energy in many regions of Europe and Northern America until the 19th century, and charcoal production in hearths is still common in many other regions of the world. The remains of charcoal hearths are therefore a widespread legacy of historic land use in forest areas. Soils on charcoal hearth sites are characterized by a technogenic layer rich in charcoal and ash on top of the soil profile, and by a pyrogenic modification of substrates below the former hearth.
The aims of our study are to examine how these alterations to the natural soil profiles affect the soil water regime
and other soil physical properties, and to assess the relevance of these effects on the landscape scale. We present
first results of a mapping of hearth site occurrence in forest areas in the state of Brandenburg, Germany, and of a
characterization of the infiltration behaviour on hearth sites as compared with undisturbed forest soils. Results of mapping small-scale relief features from LIDAR-based digital elevation models show that charcoal hearths occur in a high density in many large forest areas throughout Brandenburg. In the areas studied so far, up to almost 3% of the soil surface were found to be affected by the remains of historic hearths. First analyses of soil physical properties indicate differences in the infiltration characteristics of hearth site soils and undisturbed forest soils: Hood infiltrometer measurements show a very high spatial variability of hydraulic conductivity for hearth site soils, and water-drop-penetration-time tests reflect extremely high hydrophobicity of the technogenic layer on the sites. Results of dye tracer experiment show considerably strong preferential flow and therefore a higher spatial variability of soil wetness below the hearth remains. Overall, our first results therefore indicate that the legacy effects of historic charcoal production might significantly affect overall site conditions in forest areas with a high density of charcoal hearth remains.
Rubefizierte Böden wie die für Nordostdeutschland beschriebenen ‚Fuchserden‘ (WRB: Rhodic Brunic Arenosols oder Chromic Brunic Arenosols) sind nicht nur ein lokales Phänomen. Auch wenn die Genese der ‚Fuchserden‘ bisher nicht abschließend geklärt ist, so widerlegt deren Vorkommen auf post-LGM zeitlichen Sedimenten eine prä-pleistozäne Bodenbildung. Des Weiteren zeigen die bisherigen Untersuchungen in Nordostdeutschland und Polen, dass Fuchserden nicht durch in-situ Verwitterung entstanden sind, sondern dassdie rubefizierten Horizonte durch eine allochthone Anreicherung von Eisen entstanden sind und somit das Relief ein wesentlicher bodenbildender Faktor ist. Darüber hinaus scheint die Textur für die laterale Verlagerung bzw. Anreicherung immanent für die Genese der Fuchserden zu sein, da rubefizierte Horizonte zumindest auf den untersuchten Standorten in Nordostdeutschland bisher ausschließlich auf sandigem Substrat anzutreffen sind. Um die für die Genese der Fuchserden relevanten physiogeographischen und pedochemischen Parameter zu identifizieren, soll mittels einer Kombination aus feldbodenkundlicher Kartierung und nachgestellten Säulenversuchen im Labor die Bildung von Fuchserden unter kontrollierten Bedingungen untersucht werden. Hierfür werden neben bekannten Profilen bisher nicht weiter beschriebene Standorte mit Fuchserden feldbodenkundlich aufgenommen, um eine größere Breite naturräumlicher Daten bzw. verschiedener Entstehungsbedingungen zu erhalten. Varianten mit unterschiedlichen physikalischen und chemischen Eigenschaften von Ausgangssubstraten sowie Reliefpositionen bilden die Basis für einen mehrfaktoriellen Säulenversuch, der unter naturnahen Bedingungen in der Klimakammer stattfindet. Derzeit laufende Vorversuche zeigen, dass eine Ausfällung rötlicher Eisenoxiden aus eisenhaltigen Lösungen im Kapillarbereich sandiger Substrate bereits innerhalb weniger Wochen stattfindet und die Entstehung von rubefizierten Horizonten in Fuchserden möglicherweise durch die Anlieferung eisenhaltiger Lösungen limitiert ist.
Pre- and early industrial charcoal production has left a striking legacy effect on today’s soil landscapes in many forests of Central Europe and the North Eastern USA. Charcoaling in upright standing hearths (also called kilns) resulted in distinct circular micro relief structures, easily identifiable today in the field and on high resolution LiDAR-based digital elevation maps. Soils on these sites are characterized by one or multiple layers of decimetre thick charcoal rich substrate, which makes them Spolic Technosols according to the WRB soil classification. The focus of research on these sites increasingly deals with the difference of their soil physical and chemical properties in relation to unaffected forest soils and the potential implications for changes in vegetation and faunal growth. The controlling factor thereby is the soils large content of charcoal in various particle sizes, ranging from fine dust to large chunks. Studies have repeatedly shown the soils significant increase in total organic- and pyrogenic carbon content. The increase in total carbon stocks is thereby not only caused by pyrogenic carbon, but also by an apparently increased accumulation of non-pyrogenic organic matter. Here we present the latest findings regarding the carbon contents of centennially old charcoal rich technogenic substrates, sampled as part of multiple research projects in Brandenburg, Germany and the Litchfield hills in North-western Connecticut, USA. A focus will be the determination of highly aromatic carbon by the molecular marker Benzene-polycarboxylic acid (BPCA) and its prediction by FTIR-MIR chemometric methods. We discuss the results on forest soil carbon stocks on a site specific to a landscape and regional scale. Furthermore, the potential to use these sites to study the long term effects of charcoal admixture to soils by wildfires or biochar application will be discussed.
Throughout the northeastern United States (U.S.) and Europe, relict charcoal hearths (RCHs) are regularly being discovered in proximity to furnaces once used for the extraction of metal from ore or quick-lime production; charcoal produced in hearths was used as a furnace fuel. Given previous research has shown that topographic and subsurface disturbance can be great when a hearth is constructed, we hypothesize that hearth construction alters surface hydrology and soil chemistry in environments in and near hearths. We used a landscape classification process to identify 6758 hearths near furnaces at Greenwood and Pine Grove Furnace State Park, central and southcentral Pennsylvania, U.S. Two types of digital elevation model wetness indexes were used to quantify surface hydrology effects in and around hearths. Modeled wetness conditions were compared to field soil volumetric water content in RCHs near Greenwood Furnace State Park. Modeled wetness indexes indicate that RCH interiors are significantly wetter than RCH rim areas; RCHs are acting as a landscape moisture sink. Results also indicate that RCHs on slopes result in downslope drier conditions below RCHs. Field measured volumetric water content indicates that as distance from the center of the hearth increases, soil moisture significantly decreases. Geomorphic position was found to not be related to RCH wetness. Soil from RCHs, compared to nearby native soils, has significantly higher total C, a lower Mehlich 3 extractable acidity, higher Ca and P. No trend was evident with RCH soil chemistry and geomorphic position. The high frequency of RCH occurrence, in proximity to the furnace's RCHs supported, suggests that RCHs today could locally be an important niche for understory flora and fauna. Further research could explore how RCHs might be affecting surrounding plant populations and how within RCH patterns, especially on hillslopes, might represent a distinctly different scale of physical and chemical variability.
Relict charcoal hearths (RCHs) are sites of former charcoal production that are an increasingly well documented anthropogenic feature in forests of the temperate climate zone. However, the type and extent of a possible legacy effect from RCHs on soil physical and chemical properties is still largely unknown. In the Litchfield Hills in west Connecticut, RCH sites are located mainly on slopes and therefore differ in their architecture from lowland sites found in Europe. One of the striking characteristics of a RCH site regardless of its architecture is the enrichment of the soil with charcoal in varying particle sizes. In this study, we use chemical digestion coupled with a PLSR-model to quantify organic carbon and pyrogenic carbon in RCH substrate by MIR-DRIFT measurements. Furthermore, we analyse the quality of carbon compounds by MIR-DRIFT measurements on multiple grain size fractions to assess the post-burn enrichment of soil organic matter. Preliminary results show a markedly increase in organic and pyrogenic carbon in RCH substrates in relation to the natural forest soil. Also, our first results suggest that the enrichment of organic carbon is favoured on RCHsites. However, the causality between the enrichment of soil organic matter and site features remains open. Experiments using chemical extraction techniques on our samples hint at an increase of labile organic compounds and/or microbial biomass. This legacy effect of RCHs is however evident and further studies need to focus on how to address them.
Do small landforms have large effects? A review on the legacies of pre-industrial charcoal burning
(2022)
Relict charcoal hearths (RCHs) are small, anthropogenic landforms resulting from past charcoal burning and reaching significant land coverage in pre-industrial mining areas. We review three coupled legacies linked by RCH development: (i) a landscape-scale geomorphic effect, (ii) a unique soil fingerprint, and (iii) an evolving novel ecosystem. The history and technique of charcoal production are described to clarify legacy effects. Applying a recently presented morpho-genetic catalogue is useful for classified mapping of RCH findings. The RCH numbers and calculated RCH densities per study region vary greatly and impose uncertainties due to insufficient methods causing over- or underestimations. Areas with high RCH densities between 50 and 500 RCH/km2 seem reasonable. Machine learning-based remote sensing techniques are promising approaches with which to better assess the full scale of charcoal burning legacies. RCH soil properties feature dark charcoal-rich technogenic substrate layers classified as Auh horizons according to the World Reference Base with significantly increased C contents. These Auh horizons can also exhibit specific physical and chemical properties, such as relatively low bulk density, high porosity, high plant available water content, low thermal conductivity and differences in cation exchange capacity or nutrient status. However, relevant studies are rare, and thus, the effects may differ by study region. Regarding vegetation, there seem to be four main effects: changes in forest structure, species composition, recruitment pattern and productivity. The number of studies on this issue is, however, also very limited. Even fewer studies have examined the soil fauna in RCHs; thus, the reported effects cannot be used to draw general conclusions. Notably, RCH research has made considerable progress in the last five years, especially in the Light Detection and Ranging-based mapping of these small landforms and identification of RCH-specific soil properties, but ecological legacies are not well understood; thus, more interdisciplinary and integrative studies are needed.