Die Beulenpest, die Europa zwischen 1347 und 1353 heimsuchte, hat schätzungsweise bis zur Hälfte der Bevölkerung des Kontinents getötet. Der plötzliche Verlust an Menschenleben führte zur Aufgabe von Bauernhöfen, Dörfern und Feldern und führte zu dem, was Forscher als ein gewaltiges historisches „Wiederverwilderungs“-Ereignis bezeichnen.

The bubonic plague, which swept across Europe between 1347 and 1353, is estimated to have killed up to one half of the continent’s population. The sudden loss of life led to the abandonment of farms, villages and fields, creating what researchers describe as a massive historical ‘rewilding’ event.

Many modern environmental theories suggest that human activity is inherently damaging to biodiversity, raising the expectation that nature would have flourished in the wake of the plague.

However, an analysis of fossil pollen records from across Europe appears to tell a different story, at least for plant communities.

Untouched landscapes

Jonathan Gordon, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of York’s Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity, said: “We examined plant diversity in the centuries before and after the Black Death and found that biodiversity declined significantly in the 150 years following the pandemic. 

“As farmland was abandoned, traditional land management practices ceased and forests spread. Rather than driving an increase in plant biodiversity, biodiversity plummeted. We only started to see a recovery once human populations rebounded and agricultural activity resumed – a process that took roughly 300 years to return to pre-plague levels.”

The findings, published in the journal Ecology Letters, challenge the idea that the richest ecosystems are found in landscapes untouched by humans. Instead, the researchers argue that many of the plant species valued today depend on long-term human disturbance, such as farming, grazing and land clearance.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ele.70325