New Nature Communications Publication: Grazing Livestock and not climate shaped the subalpine and alpine plant diversity (>1450 m a.s.l.) since the Bronze Age (2000 BC)
Ancient sedimentary DNA (sedaDNA) extruded from 14 subalpine and alpine lakes in Austria, France, Italy, and Switzerland contained DNA from over 600 plant species and more than 10 mammal (wild and livestock) species, and revealed that livestock grazing and not so much climatic factors were responsible for the development of today’s flora and its diversity since 2000 BC.
Ancient sedimentary DNA (sedaDNA) extruded from 14 subalpine and alpine lakes in Austria, France, Italy, and Switzerland contained DNA from over 600 plant species and more than 10 mammal (wild and livestock) species.
These extraordinary findings were recently published in a Nature Communications paper entitled "Wild and domesticated animal abundance is associated with greater late-Holocene alpine plant diversity".
This international study was performed by a consortium of 30 researchers, including scientists from the Departments of Geology (Michael Strasser), Ecology (Karin Koinig) and Botany (Jean Nicolas Haas) at the University of Innsbruck, which were involved in the palaeoecological and sedimentological study of Lake Sulzkarsee in the Gesäuse National Park (Styrian Alps).
The surprising results showed, that wild herbivores and domesticated sheep were present since the Neolithic period (3800 BC) all over the European Alps, but that their grazing had relatively little direct impact on plant species composition at the upper timberline or above (1450–2529 m a.s.l.).
In contrary, grazing cattle, present since the Bronze Age (2000 BC) in these altitudes, had a major effect on the phyto-diversity, even if climatic factors were up to now believed to be the primary drivers.
In terms of future nature protection efforts these results hint at the outstanding importance of traditional, extensive livestock management in subalpine and alpine areas of the European Alps in order to maintain long-term plant species diversity. (Text Jean Nicolas Haas, 11.2025).
Link to the article:
Garcés-Pastor, S., Heintzman, P.D., Zetter, S. et al. Wild and domesticated animal abundance is associated with greater late-Holocene alpine plant diversity. Nat Commun 16, 3924 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-59028-2
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