H2020Индивидуална стипендия2021–2023

WoodTiMe · The Wood as Time Machine: interdisciplinary approach to study post-medieval human-environment interactions where Atlantic meets the Mediterranean

„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2021-09-01 → 2023-08-31
Финансиране от ЕС: 172 932 €
Участници: 1
Схема: MSCA-IF

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Дървесни проби от древни гори и сгради в Испания и Мароко разкриват миналите търговски връзки и климатични промени. Анализът помага да се разбере как човешката дейност е повлияла на природата, за да се планира устойчиво управление на горите в бъдеще.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

The Wood as Time Machine: interdisciplinary approach to study post-medieval human-environment interactions where Atlantic meets the Mediterranean

Conifer forests are widespread throughout the Mediterranean region, and in the past, these forests faced intensive utilization as sources of timber, leading to the overexploitation of woodlands and resulting in various environmental issues such as deforestation, severe flooding, and soil erosion. This environmental degradation was particularly evident in Andalusia, located in Southern Spain, and Morocco. To establish the foundation for future sustainable forest management plans, researchers delved into the historical relationship between human activities and their impact on the environment. Under the "WoodTime" project, we examined the consequences of this interaction by analysing wood samples sourced from ancient forests that still exist today, as well as archaeological sites, including historic structures constructed using wood. Wood was chosen as the primary subject of study because it holds valuable insights into a range of topics, such as historical forest management practices, shifts in forest dynamics influenced by human activity, climate variations, and logging practices, among others. Furthermore, wood contains information about the ecological conditions of the areas from which the timber originates. Additionally, the historical connections between North Africa and Southern Europe, both socially and administratively, are reflected in the timber used for construction. For instance, the use of Atlantic cedar timber in Andalusia suggests a historical wood trade and transportation network across the Gibraltar Strait. The "WoodTime" project aimed to unlock the wealth of information concealed within timber using non-destructive methods. This endeavour provided an exceptional opportunity to study past relationship between human activities and forest ecosystems, offering high-resolution insights through detailed analyses of timber structure, as well as its chemical and molecular composition. The main objectives of the research project were: 1. To understand the forest historical exploitation in Southern Spain and Morocco and its relationship with the past and current forest dynamics through tree-ring width analyses in cooperation with human, historical and geographical studies. 2. To explore the potential of deriving post-medieval ecological and societal information from the ample wood evidence preserved in historical timber, with a focus on forest history and environmental changes. 3. Use emerging techniques of wood anatomy, blue intensity, DNA, elemental composition, and stable isotopes to develop novel dendroscapes tools for timber provenancing.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

Centuries-long societal relations uniting Euro-African territories have modulated the forest history. Grazing and use of wood as an essential material have led to overexploitation of woodlands with lagged environmental problems like deforestation, severe flooding, encroaching deserts and declining ecosystems productivity. These human-environment interactions are well presented in the centre of these linkages, the Strait of Gibraltar, where the legacy of such history has survived in millennial forests and timber in archaeological sites or historical buildings. The project's objectives are: 1) to characterize historical exploitation of forests and its relation with the past forest dynamics using dendrochronology in ancient Andalusian and Moroccan forests 2) to explore the potential of deriving post-medieval ecological and societal changes from archaeological and historical timber 3) to apply emerging proxies (wood traits, DNA, chemical composition) to develop novel tools for identification of timber origin that may explain past human-environment interactions. To achieve these objectives, the project will be implemented in three stages: 1) Collection of ancient trees samples in Baetic mountains and Moroccan Rif and Atlas to analyse the forest history and unlock the wooden archive containing the key for understanding the historical exploitation of resources. Tree-growth chronologies and wood traits will be estimated by wood scanning and measurement of tree-ring widths. 2) The legacy of forest history and wood trade between trans-Mediterranean continents will be analysed through multi-century ring series preserved in archaeological and post-medieval historical wood material. Old buildings will be explored to analyse wood origin in relation to the magnitude of historical use of forests. 3) Application of a battery of novel techniques (blue intensity, wood anatomy, elemental composition and stable isotopes) for developing a new timber provenancing tool – dendroscapes.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

UNIVERSIDAD PABLO DE OLAVIDE · SevillaКоординаторИспания