Early human impact in the forest ecotone of southern High Asia (Hindu Kush, Himalaya)

The vegetation of the treeline ecotone of the southern declivity of arid High Asia (Hindu Kush, northern areas of Pakistan; Himalaya, northern central Nepal) is dominated by hedgehog-like open dwarf shrublands of thorny cushions. Since climatically sensitive ecotones are always also sensitive to human impact, the question arises whether the current lack of forests is a result of the Subboreal climate decline or of human impact. Due to inadequate knowledge of the pollen flora and of ecological indicator values of the plants, pollen analyses in High Asia have mainly been limited to the regional verification of globally known climatic impulses. However, the role of human impact on regional vegetation patterns has been widely neglected. We postulate that today's open dwarf shrublands replace woodlands and forests. Isolated vigorous juniper trees and successful reforestation appear to confirm our hypothesis. An abrupt decline of Pinus forests before 5700 and 5400 ka cal yr BP can be demonstrated. As the first indicator pollen of human impact appeared at both sites synchronous with the forest pollen decline, we infer human impact to be a more decisive cause for this environment change superimposing the effects of a climatic deterioration. The forests were displaced by open dwarf shrublands.