Dr William Rapuc william.l.rapuc@durham.ac.uk
Academic Visitor
Human-triggered magnification of erosion rates in European Alps since the Bronze Age
Rapuc, William; Giguet-Covex, Charline; Bouchez, Julien; Sabatier, Pierre; Gaillardet, Jérôme; Jacq, Kévin; Genuite, Kim; Poulenard, Jérôme; Messager, Erwan; Arnaud, Fabien
Authors
Charline Giguet-Covex
Julien Bouchez
Pierre Sabatier
Jérôme Gaillardet
Kévin Jacq
Kim Genuite
Jérôme Poulenard
Erwan Messager
Fabien Arnaud
Abstract
A major feature of the Anthropocene is the drastic increase in global soil erosion. Soil erosion is threatening Earth habitability not only as soils are an essential component of the Earth system but also because societies depend on soils. However, proper quantification of the impact of human activities on erosion over thousands of years is still lacking. This is particularly crucial in mountainous areas, where the highest erosion rates are recorded. Here we use the Lake Bourget catchment, one of the largest in the European Alps, to estimate quantitatively the impact of human activities on erosion. Based on a multi-proxy, source-to-sink approach relying on isotopic geochemistry, we discriminate the effects of climate fluctuations from those of human activities on erosion over the last 10,000 years. We demonstrate that until 3800 years ago, climate is the only driver of erosion. From that time on, climate alone cannot explain the measured rates of erosion. Thanks to an unprecedented regional paleoenvironmental reconstruction, we highlight that the development of pastoralism at high altitudes from the Bronze Age onwards and the extension of agriculture starting in the Middle Ages were key factors in the drastic increase in erosion observed in the Alps.
Citation
Rapuc, W., Giguet-Covex, C., Bouchez, J., Sabatier, P., Gaillardet, J., Jacq, K., …Arnaud, F. (2024). Human-triggered magnification of erosion rates in European Alps since the Bronze Age. Nature Communications, 15(1), Article 1246. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-45123-3
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Jan 12, 2024 |
Online Publication Date | Feb 10, 2024 |
Publication Date | 2024-02 |
Deposit Date | Mar 19, 2024 |
Publicly Available Date | Mar 19, 2024 |
Journal | Nature Communications |
Publisher | Nature Research |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 15 |
Issue | 1 |
Article Number | 1246 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-45123-3 |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2257976 |
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This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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