Man and vegetation in the Pollen diagrams from Wolin Island (NW Poland)

Pollen, charcoal and ash content data complemented by 26 C dates from three small (4-5 ha) basins on Wolin Island (NW Poland) enabled a detailed chronological reconstruction of human impact on vegetation during the last 8000 years. Locally, woodland was already actively changed in the Mesolithic. Animal husbandry and cereal cultivation were probably initiated by the people representing the Erteb~lle culture. The first Ulmus decline is radiocarbon dated in two profiles at ca. 5800 BP and seems to be caused mainly by human activity. In the Neolithic and Bronze Age coppicing changed the forest structure; animal husbandry was the main form of farming at that time. Cultivation increased in importance in the Lusatian culture and in the Iron Age, but the considerable extension of arable land did not take place until the early Middle Ages. On the poor sandy soils Calluna heath developed in the Neolithic due to intensive burning and grazing in the Pinus-Quercus-Betula forest. Several palaeohydrological events are analysed with respect to anthropogenic forest disturbances, climatic changes and fluctuations in the level of the Baltic Sea.