Bone biodeterioration-The effect of marine and terrestrial depositional environments on early diagenesis and bone bacterial community.

Bacteria play an important role in the degradation of bone material. However, much remains to be learnt about the structure of their communities in degrading bone, and how the depositional environment influences their diversity throughout the exposure period. We genetically profiled the bacterial community in an experimental series of pig bone fragments (femur and humeri) deposited at different well-defined environments in Denmark.

Fungal attack on archaeological wooden artefacts in the Arctic-implications in a changing climate.

Climate change is expected to accelerate the microbial degradation of the many extraordinary well-preserved organic archaeological deposits found in the Arctic. This could potentially lead to a major loss of wooden artefacts that are still buried within the region. Here, we carry out the first large-scale investigation of wood degradation within archaeological deposits in the Arctic.

Predicting the loss of organic archaeological deposits at a regional scale in Greenland.

Across the Arctic, microbial degradation is actively destroying irreplaceable cultural and environmental records that have been preserved within archaeological deposits for millennia. Because it is not possible to survey the many sites in this remote part of the world, new methods are urgently needed to detect and assess the potential degradation. Here, we investigate organic deposits at seven archaeological sites located along the dominating west-east climatic gradient in West Greenland.

Footprints from the past: The influence of past human activities on vegetation and soil across five archaeological sites in Greenland.

Climate change has irrevocable consequences for the otherwise well-preserved archaeological deposits in the Arctic. Vegetation changes are expected to impact archaeological sites, but currently the effects are poorly understood. In this article we investigate five archaeological sites and the surrounding natural areas along a climate gradient in Southwest Greenland in terms of vegetation types, above- and below-ground biomass, soil geochemistry and spectral properties.