Lowland pine forests in the northwestern Pannonian Basin: between natural vegetation and modern plantations

Lowland Scots pine ( Pinus sylvestris L.) forests cover extensive areas in Central Europe. Most of them are considered to be the results of relatively recent plantation-oriented forest management. We investigated the long-term history of lowland pine forests in the Záhorská Lowland region of aeolian sands in the northern margin of the Pannonian Basin. Pine monocultures were planted there already in the mid-seventeenth century and currently prevail in the land cover of the region. Our aim was to challenge the commonly accepted idea that the present pine-dominated forests lack connections to pre-plantation pine forests of the Early Holocene. Using multi-proxy data, we compared palaeoeocological data with archaeobotanical data, anthracological finds and evidence on past human settlement. Palaeoecological results suggested a distinct compositional linkage of recent pine-dominated forests with their Early Holocene predecessors. Moreover, no significant change was detected in tree dominants in at least the past two millennia. Contrary to palaeoecology, archeaeobotany suggested that broadleaved trees (mostly oak) dominated during the past 4000 years. However, this result is probably strongly biased by human preferences for wood for specific purposes. On the other hand, pine in palaeoecological data is doubtless overrepresented because of its abundant pollen production. We conclude that pine forests with a significant admixture of oak continuously covered the sandy substrates of the Záhorská Lowland throughout the Holocene. The present pine forests can therefore be considered fairly close to the original vegetation of the study region.