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Observing natural vegetation dynamics over the entire Holocene is difficult in Central Europe, due to pervasive and increasing human disturbance since the Neolithic. One strategy to minimize this limitation is to select a study site in an area that is marginal for agricultural activity. Here, we present a new sediment record from Lake Svityaz in northwestern Ukraine. We have reconstructed regional and local vegetation and fire dynamics since the Late Glacial using pollen, spores, macrofossils and charcoal. Boreal forest composed of  Pinus sylvestris  and  Betula  with continental  Larix decidua  and  Pinus cembra  established in the region around 13,450 cal  bp , replacing an open, steppic landscape. The first temperate tree to expand was  Ulmus  at 11,800 cal  bp , followed by  Quercus ,  Fraxinus excelsior, Tilia  and  Corylus  ca. 1,000 years later. Fire activity was highest during the Early Holocene, when summer solar insolation reached its maximum.  Carpinus betulus  and  Fagus sylvatica  established at ca. 6,000 cal  bp , coinciding with the first indicators of agricultural activity in the region and a transient climatic shift to cooler and moister conditions. Human impact on the vegetation remained initially very low, only increasing during the Bronze Age, at ca. 3,400 cal  bp . Large-scale forest openings and the establishment of the present-day cultural landscape occurred only during the past 500 years. The persistence of highly diverse mixed forest under absent or low anthropogenic disturbance until the Early Middle Ages corroborates the role of human impact in the impoverishment of temperate forests elsewhere in Central Europe. The preservation or reestablishment of such diverse forests may mitigate future climate change impacts, specifically by lowering fire risk under warmer and drier conditions.

Holocene vegetation, fire and land use dynamics at Lake Svityaz, an agriculturally marginal site in northwestern Ukraine