Stora Alvaret

The Great Alvar ( German Meaning: large Alvar ) is an Alvar on a limestone plateau in the south of the island of Öland (Sweden).

Importance

Alvar is the largest Alvargebiet the earth and represents a quarter of the world's existing Alvarfläche Represents the Alvar is on a Ordovician limestone bedrock. It is one of the last unspoilt karst landscapes in Europe. The Alvar was declared on 30 November 2000 with the surrounding agricultural landscape Südölands as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and may not therefore be changed. In summer the animals of Öland farmers are driven to the Alvar and picked up again until autumn, similar to the mountain pastures in the mountains. The area is designated as a Natura 2000 site.

Location

The zone lies about south of the town Borgholm. It is about 40 km long and 10 km wide and takes up an area of ​​about 26,000 acres (260 km ² ), the entire inner southern part of Öland, which is about a quarter of the island one. By Alvar lead three West - east streets running. Between Kastlösa and Skärlöv temporarily crossed a railway line, the Alvar. The railway embankment in 1961 disused track is now used as hiking and biking trail. The Alvar itself is largely uninhabited, but peppered with prehistoric monuments ( Roese of Gösslunda ). Gösslunda is a small village, which is surrounded entirely by Alvar. There are several small villages such as Albrunna, Frösslunda, Hulterstad, Kastlösa, Mysinge, Triberga and Vickleby At the edges of Alvar.

Located in the Great Alvar lies the Moeckel Mossen, a very flat Alvarsee, caused by rain and snow melt water in summer and usually disappears completely. Its expansion changes after each rainfall and the riparian zones are usually damp marshland. Other wetlands are located on the western edge of the Alvars Bårbykärret and Kvarnkärret that utmossen located in the northern part Dröstorpmossen and Södra, which located on the eastern side Triberga - Alby- Mosse and Frösslundamossen and in the south Stormaren. The Alvar is traversed by several smaller rivers such as the Frösslundabäcken, Penåsabäcken and the Torpbrobäcken.

Characteristic of the Great Alvar are the territory by withdrawing stone walls that delimit the different pastures each other. Through a variety of wooden stairs pedestrians is possible to overcome the walls. The middle wall runs through the Alvar from north to south. In the extreme south of the Alvars is the historic royal hunting Karl X Gustaf wall mur.

Appearance

The Alvar is due to its diverse geological and botanical differentiation by no means the monotonous landscape, as they initially presents to the untrained eye. Since the end of the 19th century, this landscape that the artist's eye constantly offers new picture stimuli in the changing of the seasons and the weather moods, attracted many painters, and served them as a model.

It safeguarded from horizon to horizon, a vast plain without human dwellings, sprinkled with individual bushes - especially the in constant propagation conceived juniper (Juniperus communis), the dog rose (Rosa canina ), the two handles Lige hawthorn (Crataegus laevigata ) and the sloe (Prunus spinosa) - as well as solitary low and windswept trees - Swedish Whitebeam (Sorbus intermedia), Ash ( Fraxinus excelsior), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and birch (Betula sps. ). Here and there, from the glaciers of the Ice Age left behind boulder blocks. Miles of waist-high walls by pulling straight the site, set up from head-sized, rounded, foliage weave occupied granite blocks and flat slabs of limestone, the former nigrum with very different lichen growth than the latter, and this always spotted with two different lichens, the glaring white Aspicilia calcarea and the coal-black Placynthium. With these walls in the 19th century marked the border communities of the Alvars the sectors within which they fall to drove their cattle and sheep and occasionally horses, from the spring to the barren pasture of Alvar.

History

Approximately from the period around 6000-4000 years before the beginning of our era comes the earliest evidence of human settlements in the area of ​​southern Öland, which are still visible today. Only two or three thousand years before the ice of the last ice age, the area had Ölands released. The island rose, free from the heavy masses of ice from the sea. While on the levees and in areas of deeper soils grew bushes and trees, the Alvar was probably largely free of forest already at the first settlement of the region. Only in some places to pine and birch groves may have found.

For the younger Stone Age in the period 4000-1800 years before the beginning of recorded time to efforts can prove to make use of some soils of the Alvars agriculture. Deforestation and fire clearances should allow in areas where soils were present in appreciable depth, the cultivation of cereals. In the Bronze Age, the stress on the barren Alvarböden increased significantly. Especially the livestock and demand for wood sapped the soil. In the Iron Age, this situation reached its climax. The remains of a very large settlement can still be found east of the village Gårdstorp. Over several kilometers here extend stone rows that represent the remains of enclosures. It can be found here also the foundations of more than thirty houses and grave mound. It is believed that an overuse of the soil meant that the people abandoned their settlements around the year 500 after the beginning of recorded time.

It was not until about 500 years later, again a greater use of the Alvars. The number of grazing animals and the population increased again, but fell again after some time back. 1741 visited Carl Linnaeus during his Ölandreise also the Alvar and described the unusual flora and fauna of the Alvars. In the 18th and 19th centuries it came on Öland to a significant increase of the population. It lived almost twice as many people on the island as at the beginning of the 21st century. Again, was also a greater use of the Alvars through increased grazing and clearing of the forest groves. The Alvar was in the 19th century, thereby almost completely tree and buschlos. In addition to the strong grazing, the need for firewood and kindling just the poorer sections of the population for this was the cause.

Exemplary for the temporary uses even the most difficult soils is the end of the 19th century had become desolate village Dröstorp in the northern part of the Alvar. More desertions are Penasa, east and south of Parteby Kastlösa. Until the beginning of the 19th century the entire Alvar served as a common grazing area for the surrounding villages. But then was led by a division of the soil. Each Alvargebiet has been allocated under land surveys a village. Along these boundaries originated the stone walls that still shape the face of the Great Alvar. The construction of the walls continued until the forties of the 20th century. Especially long is the so-called middle wall that runs through the Great Alvar in north-south direction.

The technical changes in agriculture in the 20th century, the use of the Alvars fell sharply. Trying to make with new agricultural methods Alvarflächen reclaimed, took place only in border areas. Originally held in the agriculture and grazing in the Great Alvar horses were replaced by tractors. Oil and gas replaced the wood previously gained on the ground as an energy source for heating. In several waves of emigration also a large part of the population left the island Öland, to find work in the industry on the mainland or abroad. The areas of the Great Alvar, who have sufficient soil layer began with increasingly dense bushes, especially juniper and partly ultimately become overgrown with trees. The existing Alvar wetlands began to silt up faster. The Alvar in his appearance as used for millennia pasture landscape began to disappear. To obtain this cultural landscape and the specially adapted to local conditions of animal and plant species, began to intensify use again. For reasons of conservation grazing of Alvar was reinforced again. Farmers receive bonuses if they keep their cattle on the Alvar. In 1994, 60 % in 1999 again already grazed 90% of the Alvars. Also took place clearings. In 2000 was the declaration on the UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the agricultural landscape Südölands.

Flora

The Alvar has, due to the prevailing here unusual environmental conditions, an exceptional flora and fauna. On the base of rocky limestone are tough winter with a long frost and strong winds, as well as a hot and dry summer. Where the soil layers are thin, they will dried up in the summer and moved in the winter frost. There appear wavy deformations of the soil. For rainfall, especially in the fall, but a lot of moisture occurs subareas are flooded in and around the Vätar Alvarseen where.

This harsh living conditions, some special plant species have adapted. With an increased photosynthesis of the short period of favorable conditions is used optimally. This results in the spring for a few weeks a sumptuous sea of ​​flowers of many species such as chives, Small meadowsweet, Biting Stonecrop and White Stonecrop on wide surfaces of the Alvars. With the onset of summer drought period, the seeds are already mature. In May blossom on the limestones, which almost cover the whole area, even orchids ( Heath Spotted Orchid ).

Due to the difficult climatic and soil conditions are located in the Great Alvar diverse habitats in close proximity. In the horizontal the rocky ground by pulling, almost free of vegetation acting columns, the almost non-visible blue-green algae species and dozens of lichens occur. In the areas in which the columns gape and may accumulate humus and Verwitterungsgrus, up to 51 species of plants were found on a square meter.

The degree of weathering of the Kalkflächen itself is different on adjacent surfaces. The land cover ranges from gravel on granular or fine up to Grus, typical of the weathering of limestone coal-black humus. The thickness of the bottom layer varies from millimeters to several decimeters. The water permeability of the soil varies from site to site. In some parts the water seeps quickly into the karst underground. The result here is a quick drying out of the soil. In other places, the water can not drain away. This is where Vätar and Alvarseen. Especially the different soil moisture contents and depths give different groups of plants survival possibilities.

The unusual living conditions cause the Alvar strengthened the species occur only here, so endemic. Also relict species are often encountered. This in other ages ( glacial warm periods ) widespread species, come today but only in other regions and isolated from their present area of ​​distribution, even in Alvar ago.

Endemic species

The following ( sub) species are endemic and thus before exclusively on Öland and in part also on the neighboring Gotland.

• Chives ( Allium schoenoprasum var alvarense )
• Artemisia oelandica
• Crepis tectorum ssp. pumila
• One Furry bulrush ( Eleocharis uniglumis ssp. Sterneri )
• Ordinary red fescue ( Festuca rubra ssp. Oelandica )
• Galium oelandicum
• Öland Rock-rose ( Helianthemum oelandicum var oelandicum )
• Helianthemum oelandicum var canescens
• Alpine campion ( Lychnis alpina var oelandica )
• Ragwort ( Senecio jacobaea ssp. Gotlandicus )
• Silene uniflora ssp. petraea

Relict species

The following relict species are located on Öland.

Arctic- alpine:

• Grünstieliger Spleenwort ( Asplenium viride )
• Draba incana
• Alpine campion ( Lychnis alpina)
• Alpine bluegrass ( Poa alpina)
• Potentilla crantzii
• Totengebeinsflechte ( Thamnolia vermicularis )

West European:

• Baldellia ranunculoides
• Globularia vulgaris
• Plantago uniflora ( Littorella = uniflora )
• Nacktstängeliger Bauer mustard ( Teesdalia nudicaulis )

Mediterranean:

• Branchy Grass Lily ( Anthericum ramosum )
• Astlose Grass Lily ( Anthericum liliago )
• Apera interrupta
• Ordinary needle florets ( Fumana procumbens )
• Strauchkronwicke ( Hippocrepis emerus )
• Small rock cress ( Hornungia petraea )
• Thyme broomrape ( Orobanche alba)
• Scion end Felsennelkenanger ( Petrorhagia prolifera )
• Sisymbrium supinum
• Previously Speedwell ( Veronica praecox )

Southeast European:

• Allium linear
• Anemone pratensis
• Asperula tinctoria
• Aster linosyris
• Tufted gypsophila ( Gypsophila fastigiata )
• Schmalblütiger plantain ( Plantago tenuiflora )
• Schopfige finial ( Polygala comosa )
• Large-flowered (Prunella grandiflora )
• Ranunculus illyricus
• Milkweed ( Vincetoxicum hirundinaria )
• Low Violet (Viola pumila )

Continental / siberian:

• Artemisia rupestris
• Oxytropis campestris ssp. campestris

Circumpolar:

• Carex obtusata
• Dasiphora fruticosa ( Potentilla fruticosa = )

Fauna

With the development of special Öland Alvarflora also adapted to this insect fauna originated. Even in insects relict species and endemic species can be observed. Mentioned are the blue-winged sand cricket ( Sphingonotus caerulans ) and the spotted Schnarr cricket ( Bryodema tuberculata ). Particularly unusual is the Alvar dolls robber ( Calosoma reticulatum ). This predator of lepidopteran larvae living beetle comes in Sweden before only in Alvar. Located only in the Öland and Gotland Alvargebieten the long -legged fly Scellus is dolichocerus surprised their prey on the hunt rennend. The from lichens and algae on the limestone slabs nourishing rock worm ( Chondrina ClientA ) comes in Sweden also available only in Öland and Gotland. The feeding of the worm causes limestone plates are colored light near her tears.

Other insects of the Alvars include the tiger moths Setina roscida and the Knights bug ( Lygacus equestris ). The latter feeds on the poisonous milkweed ( Vincetoxicum hirundinaria ), whose venom makes the Knights bug inedible.

Also noteworthy is the bird life of the Alvar. Particularly striking is the Montagu's Harrier (Circus pygargus ). But wading birds like Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa limosa ), common snipe ( Gallinago gallinago ), Oystercatcher ( Haematopus ostralegus ), redshank (Tringa totanus ), Southern Alps beach runners (Calidris alpina schinzii ) and Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula ) live in Alvar and its wetlands. Also worth mentioning is the golden plover ( Pluvialis apricaria ), Wheatear ( Oenanthe oenathe ), Whinchat ( Saxicola Ruberta ) and the Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus ).