B. Papp szerk.: Studia Botanica Hungarica 36. 2005 (Budapest, 2005)

Medzihradszky, Zsófia: Holocene vegetation history and human activity in the Kis-Balaton area, Western Hungary

surroundings of Lake Balaton and in some cases he identified traces of human influence. Mankind's influence on the plant cover appears in three important areas: 1) crop cultivation, 2) animal husbandry, and 3) the technical use of natural resources. 1) By cultivating land and disturbing the natural plant cover new doors are opened for the spreading of weeds. 2) Animal husbandry opens way for spreading nitrophilous taxa, and by cutting young branches and leaves for stock-breading the pollen production of some trees could decline. 3) Perhaps the most irreversible changes in vegetation are caused by the technical use of natural resources. Cutting of huge amounts of mature trees for building fortresses and towns in the late prehistoric and in historic times, and the excessive use of wood resources for mining and for metallurgy since the Iron Age during the entire Middle Ages, of course together with the wide availability of arable land, the agriculture has made a very significant impact on the vegetation. At the end of the last century, assisted by extensive archaeological excavations, and with the development of absolute dating and palynological methods several complex investigations were carried out to detect this process (BERGLUND 1991). To investigate this development in Hungary we intended to find an adequate region and it was the area of the ancient bay of Lake Balaton, the so-called KisBalaton marsh area (Fig. 1). Our hopes were nourished, because the history of this Fig. 1. Map of the investigated area.