The Holocene expansion of grassland in northern Europe reconstructed from molluscan assemblages

From the synthesis of the malacological data collected from 12 sites in the large flood‐plain of the Seine basin, three main environmental stages have been reconstructed. During the first half of the Holocene, forest environments are prevalent (Seine 1). As early as c. 6.5 cal. ka BP, the first evidence of woodland clearance is observed (Seine 2) and, from c. 3.4 cal. ka BP, the lowlands were largely cleared of trees and are dominated by grassland (Seine 3). This three‐stage development of environmental conditions is consistent with the environmental developments reconstructed from molluscan successions in England, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Our results highlight anthropogenic disturbance as the key factor in the openness of the Holocene landscape and pinpoint the period between c. 3.6 and c. 2.8 cal. ka BP as a transitional phase of this large‐scale environmental change.