Forest history from a single tree species perspective: natural occurrence, near extinction and reintroduction of European yew (Taxus baccata L.) on the Darss-Zingst peninsula, southern Baltic Sea coast
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Authors
The forests along the southern Baltic Sea coast harbour some stands of the rare and endangered European yew (Taxus baccata L.), which are hypothesised to be autochthonous. Using the example of an occurrence on the Darss-Zingst peninsula, the population dynamics of the yew since the late Holocene are interdisciplinarily investigated and linked to the forest history of this area. Pollen analysis shows that yew has been present in the study area for at least 2600 years and thus indeed represents an autochthonous tree species in the area. The yew was probably originally part of a second tree storey and of forest margins within a mixed forest mainly consisting of several deciduous tree species and Scots pine. Historical evidence reveals that yew was still occurring in the forest in the middle of the eighteenth century, but then had nearly disappeared by the end of the nineteenth century. This was caused by several factors including forest grazing by livestock, high game populations and clear-cutting. First replanting of yew took place in the 1930s/1940s and 1950s/1960s, followed by planting campaigns in the 1990s and 2000s. Planting material from local and regional autochthonous relict populations was used, at least in part. The current yew population mainly comprises young individuals with a total number of ca. 1300 trees. It has thus been possible here to re-establish an autochthonous yew occurrence that was nearly extinct in historical times. This local example of targeted re-enrichment of native tree diversity may also encourage further measures to give this species a new chance again elsewhere in the wider region.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | European Journal of Forest Research |
| Number of pages | 26 |
| ISSN | 1612-4669 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 03.2024 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:
The idea for this yew research was born in the summer 2020, when the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Old certainties and established routines were shaken, even in the sphere of research. More important than ever at that time were signs of hope and comfort, no matter in which field. The local re-establishment of the yew in the twentieth/twenty-first century on the Darss-Zingst peninsula represents such a positive narrative, after this tree species had disappeared from the forest due to human impact in historical times. We would like to thank the Nationalparkamt Vorpommern in Born for the financial and practical support of our investigations. We owe the assessment of yew occurrences on Darss and Zingt in spring 2021 to the local foresters Sebastian Berndt, Michael Marx and Michael Symalla. For photographs and permission to use them, we thank Lebrecht Jeschke (Greifswald), Franz Kokesch (Rostock), Kai Kornow (Pommersches Landesmuseum Greifswald), Jouko Lehmuskallio (NatureGate Helsinki), Tor Myking (Bergen), Jens Voigt (Voigt & Kranz UG Prerow) and Christian Wolf (Neumarkt i.d.OPf.). Further, we owe information about local yew occurrences, their history and other aspects to a really large number of people, whom we thank very much. Arthur Brande (Berlin) particularly inspired this work by providing information on regional yew research and directing our thoughts to the wider implications of the “yew phenomenon”. We owe proofreading of the manuscript to Mary Teresa Lavin-Zimmer (Potsdam). Finally, we thank two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.
Funding Information:
Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Partial financial support was received from the National Park Authority Vorpommern.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.
- Historical ecology, Late Holocene, North-east Germany, Population history, Reintroduction, Yew
- Biology