Quantification of human–environment interactions in the past

A special issue comprising 8 articles and an introduction. This special issue is a contribution to PAGES' Focus 4 (human–climate–ecosystem interactions) theme and specifically the Land Use and Cover, Soil and Sediment, and Water Themes which ran up until 2014. The volume emerged from the PAGES-supported meeting: ‘Towards a more accurate quantification of human–environment interactions in the past’ held in Leuven, Belgium from 3–7 February 2014.

> Quantification of human–environment interactions in the past [p.1]
Verstraeten G

> Natural and human-induced prehistoric and historical soil erosion and landscape development in Southwestern Tennessee, USA [p.6]
Dotterweich M, Ivester AH, Hanson PR, Larsen D & Dye DH

> Estimating fluxes in anthropogenic lead using alluvial soil mass-balance geochemistry, geochronology and archaeology in eastern USA [p.25]
Stinchcomb GE, Messner TC, Stewart RM & Driese SG

> Assessing change in floodplain wetland condition in the Murray Darling Basin, Australia [p.39]
Gell P & Reid M

> From natural to human-dominated floodplain geoecology – A Holocene perspective for the Dijle catchment, Belgium [p.46]
Broothaerts N, Verstraeten G, Kasse C, Bohncke S, Notebaert B & Vandenberghe J

> Quantifying the anthropogenic forcing on soil erosion during the Iron Age and Roman Period in southeastern France [p.59]
Notebaert B & Berger J-F

> Using palaeo-environmental proxies to reconstruct natural and anthropogenic controls on sedimentation rates, Tell es-Safi/Gath, eastern Mediterranean [p.70]
Ackermann O, Greenbaum N, Ayalon A, Bar-Matthews M, Boaretto E, Bruins HJ, Cabanes D, Horwitz LK, Neumann FH, Porat N, Weiss E & Maeir AM

> Human impact on low-land Vellayani Lake, south India: A record since 3000 yrs BP [p.83]
Veena MP, Achyuthan H, Eastoe C & Farooqui A

> The glade effect: Vegetation openness and structure and their influences on arboreal pollen production and the reconstruction of anthropogenic forest opening [p.92]
Feeser I & Dörfler W