Tracing the Natural and Human History of the Hetméň Nature Reserve, Slovakia: From Dune Relict to Forest Ecosystem

In this paper we summarise a hitherto unknown aspect of the natural history of the Hetméň nature reserve (south-western Slovakia, Danube Plain). Today’s closed hardwood floodplain forest was fundamentally shaped by humans in the past. The original isolated sand dune of fluvial-aeolian origin (possibly of nebkha type), located in open farmland, was colonised between 1782 and 1820, when a secondary forest for timber production was established here and a landowner forester settled on the site to supervise planting, silviculture and forest protection. Using cartographic sources, vegetation and geodetic surveys with palaeoecological analyses and radiocarbon dating of artefacts, we were able to reconstruct an original steppe habitat, a secondary succession and a gradual synanthropisation of the site. In addition, there is an arable system preserved by afforestation, which dates back to before 1780 and it is rare in the Danube Plain in Slovakia. The investigated area is a prime example of a modern anthropic transformation of an isolated inland dune, which is typical of the alluvial plain. Although the local forester’s house has left no archaeological traces, our findings are also important for the history of forest management in the lowland areas of Slovakia. Despite previous degradation and destruction of the original dune, our findings emphasise the special natural values of the reserve, for example, the remarkable species composition and unique malacocoenoses, which are still more typical of an open cultural steppe than of secondary woodland more than 200-years old.