Evidence of long-term woodland persistence despite prolonged anthropogenic stress: The combined use of pollen and place-names in lowland Leicestershire, UK

A multimillennial analysis of woodland ecosystems in the Leicestershire landscape (UK) shows significant anthropogenic stress over the last six millennia. We track these stresses using a combination of palynology and place-name evidence. We show a protracted period of deforestation from the Bronze Age (beginning ~4500 yr BP in Leicestershire), but the continuity of some woodland ecologies through to the present, with the managed re-establishment of some woodlands from the late Medieval period onward. Our overall analysis shows very considerable deforestation since prehistory, with an overall reduction in woodland cover from circa 60% - 70% to just 6%, and no pristine forest remaining. Nevertheless, the temperate mixed deciduous woodland shows considerable resilience to some of the more negative patterns of biosphere loss that characterize the Anthropocene and could be a beacon for restoration and conservation.