History Seminar

Both climate and human activity play a role in ecosystem transformation. However, determining which variable is most important in causing specific environmental changes requires detailed data at a high spatial and temporal resolution. In this presentation, Schoolman will analyze one of the oldest and most complete sets of medieval Italian records of land use and exploitation and compare them with two new paleoecologic reconstructions from Lucca (Italy) as well as independent records of climate change from tree-rings and speleothems. This will allow him to explore the long term causal connections between climate, society and environmental change in this region of Europe during the Middle Ages.