Vegetation responses to late Holocene climate changes in an Andean forest

AbstractA paleoecological record from Lake Palotoa (1370 m elevation) in the Andean foothills of Peru spans the last 3800 years. Lake Palotoa lies near the modern cloud base in a location sensitive to changes in atmospheric moisture. In many areas, these forests have been destroyed, but Lake Palotoa shows no sign of human occupation today or in the past. The modern forest surrounding the lake is dominated by the Andean palm, Dictyocaryum lamarckianum, which is also the most abundant taxon in the fossil pollen record. Fossil pollen data show the vegetation assemblages have not experienced strong compositional changes in the late Holocene. Global-scale climatic events such as the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) and the Little Ice Age (LIA) are identified within the record, though the vegetation responses are subtle. Hedyosmum and Sloanea pollen percentages increase near the onset of the MCA and may reflect decreased seasonality. The LIA coincides with increased Hedyosmum pollen percentages, and increases in Clethra and Begonia, two elements that tend to occupy forests now found at higher elevations. Our findings demonstrate the stability of montane forest systems to natural Holocene climate change.

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Late Holocene climate change and human impact inferred from the pollen record, Haman area, southern Korea

Quaternary International ◽

10.1016/j.quaint.2014.04.012 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 344 ◽

pp. 4-10 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Chull-Hwan Chung ◽

Choon Kil Ryu ◽

Kang-Ho Oh

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Human Impact ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Pollen Record ◽

Holocene Climate ◽

Holocene Climate Change ◽

Southern Korea

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The impact of climate and land-use changes on the most southerly fir forests (Abies pinsapo) in Europe

The Holocene ◽

10.1177/0959683619838043 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 29 (7) ◽

pp. 1176-1188 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Francisca Alba-Sánchez ◽

José Antonio López-Sáez ◽

Daniel Abel-Schaad ◽

Silvia Sabariego Ruiz ◽

Sebastián Pérez-Díaz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Land Use ◽

Forest Management ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Climate Impacts ◽

Ice Age ◽

Fossil Pollen ◽

Pollen Record ◽

Abies Pinsapo ◽

The Impact

Current knowledge of climate change effects on forest ecology and species conservation should be linked to understanding of the past-time. Abies pinsapo forests constitute a model of an endangered ecosystem, highly vulnerable to ongoing warming, whose populations have been declining for centuries, while the drivers of this local depletion trend remain poorly understood. We hypothesized that long-term disturbances, both human- and natural-induced, have shaped A. pinsapo forests, contributing to these decline processes. Until today, studies using fossil pollen record to identify past climate impacts and land-use changes on A. pinsapo populations have not been done. Here, we investigate forests’ dynamics since the late Holocene (1180 cal. AD to present) in Southern Iberian Peninsula from a fossil pollen record by comparing the results obtained with climate fluctuations and land-uses changes. The pollen sequence shows a phase of stability during the Islamic Period (~1180–1400 cal. AD; ‘Medieval Climate Anomaly’), followed by increasing degradation at Christian Period concurrent with ‘Little Ice Age’ (LIA) (ca. 1487–1530 cal. AD). The Modern Period (1530–1800 cal. AD; LIA) is linked to intensive forest management, related to the naval industry. Afterwards, a progressive reduction is recorded during the Contemporary Age period (‘Industrial Period’) until ‘Recent Warming’. In short, historical severe forest management coupled with increasing aridity since LIA appear to influence A. pinsapo forest current species composition and poor structural diversity. These disturbances might be limiting the resilience of A. pinsapo forests under a climate change scenario. A selected forest management could promote a more complex forest structure.

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Sensitivity of Cool-Temperate Forests and their Fossil Pollen Record to Rapid Temperature Change

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1016/0033-5894(85)90039-0 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 23 (3) ◽

pp. 327-340 ◽

Cited By ~ 163

Author(s):

Margaret Bryan Davis ◽

Daniel B. Botkin

Keyword(s):

Sugar Maple ◽

Climatic Changes ◽

Forest Growth ◽

Ice Age ◽

Fossil Pollen ◽

Mean Annual Temperature ◽

Pollen Record ◽

Adult Trees ◽

Cool Temperate ◽

Delayed Responses

Simulations of cool-temperate forest growth in response to climatic change using the JABOWA computer model show that a decrease of 600 growing degree-days (equivalent to a 2°C decrease in mean annual temperature) causes red spruce (Picea rubens) to replace sugar maple (Acer saccharum) as the dominant tree. These changes are delayed 100–200 yr after the climatic cooling, producing gradual forest changes in response to abrupt temperature changes, and reducing the amplitude of response to brief climatic events. Soils and disturbances affect the speed and magnitude of forest response. The delayed responses are caused by the difference in sensitivity of adult trees and younger stages. The length of the delay depends on the life history characteristics of the dominant species. Delayed responses imply that fossil pollen deposits, even if they faithfully record the abundances of trees in forests, may not be able to resolve climatic changes within 100–200 yr, or to record very brief climatic events. This explains why pollen deposits do not as yet show responses to climatic changes during the past 100 yr. Only the Little Ice Age, which lasted several centuries, caused sufficient forest change to be recorded in fossil pollen, and only at certain sites.

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Analysis of Fossil Pollen Record from the Late Holocene in the Turkish Highland (Middle Taurus,Turkey)

Ecological Questions ◽

10.12775/eq.2017.022 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 26 ◽

pp. 91

Author(s):

İpek Özalp ◽

Hülya Caner ◽

Nurgül Karlıoğlu Kılıç ◽

Meral Avcı

Keyword(s):

Late Holocene ◽

Fossil Pollen ◽

Pollen Record

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Holocene plant diversity dynamics shows a distinct biogeographical pattern in temperate Europe

10.1101/2020.08.19.257584 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Jan Roleček ◽

Vojtěch Abraham ◽

Ondřej Vild ◽

Helena Svitavská Svobodová ◽

Eva Jamrichová ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Plant Diversity ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Time Window ◽

Fossil Pollen ◽

Pollen Record ◽

Diversity Patterns ◽

The Holocene ◽

Modern Pollen ◽

Biogeographical Region ◽

Temperate Europe

AbstractAimsReconstruction of the Holocene diversity changes in a biogeographically complex region. Description of major diversity patterns, testing their predictors, and their interpretation in the palaeoecological and biogeographical context. Testing the assumption that pollen record is informative with respect to plant diversity in our study area.MethodsFossil pollen extracted from 18 high-quality profiles was used as a proxy of past plant diversity. Pollen counts of tree taxa were corrected by pollen productivity, and pollen assemblages were resampled to 100 grains per sample and 150 grains per 500-years time window. SiZer analysis was used to test and visualize multi-scale diversity patterns. Linear modelling was used to identify the best predictors. SiZer maps and pollen composition were analysed using non-metric multidimensional scaling. K-means clustering and indicator species analysis were used to interpret ordination results.ResultsMean Holocene plant diversity is significantly predicted by latitude, while its temporal pattern followed the biogeographical region and elevation. Major differences were found between the Mesic and Montane Hercynia (lower diversity, increasing only in the Late Holocene) and Pannonia, the Carpathians and Warm Hercynia (higher diversity, increasing from the Early or Middle Holocene on). Low diversity in the Middle and Late Holocene is associated with the prevalence of woody and acidophilic taxa. High diversity is associated with numerous grassland and minerotrophic wetland taxa, crops and weeds. Fossil-modern pollen diversity and modern pollen-plant diversity show significant positive relationships.ConclusionsPlant diversity and its changes during the Holocene are geographically structured across temperate Europe. Main causes appear to be differences in past dynamics of the landscape openness and vegetation composition, driven mainly by changes in climate and human impact and their different timing. Fossil pollen, if appropriately treated, is a useful proxy of past plant diversity.

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Vegetation dynamics in relation to late Holocene climate variability and disturbance, Outaouais, Québec, Canada

The Holocene ◽

10.1177/0959683614544054 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 24 (11) ◽

pp. 1515-1526 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Karelle Lafontaine-Boyer ◽

Konrad Gajewski

Keyword(s):

Late Holocene ◽

Detailed Comparison ◽

Ice Age ◽

Forest Composition ◽

High Temporal Resolution ◽

Pollen Record ◽

Pollen Diagram ◽

Short Period ◽

History Of ◽

Estimated Error

A pollen diagram from Lac Brulé in southwestern Québec (45°43′09″N, 75°26′32″W, 270 m) provides a late Holocene history of the vegetation. The presence of varved sediments permitted the development of a high-resolution (10-year), cross-dated chronology with an estimated error of approximately 1%. During the last 1400 years, the forests were dominated by Tsuga, Fagus, Betula, Acer and Pinus. A peak in microcharcoal and evidence of post-fire succession suggest that the changes in the pollen assemblages around ad 1375 were a consequence of a fire in the region. There was a decrease in pollen influx of several deciduous taxa and Tsuga between ad 1600 and 1700, suggesting a rapid climate change that was significant enough to have affected pollen production of these taxa. This change, associated with the beginning of the ‘Little Ice Age’ in the region, affected the forest composition for the subsequent centuries. A detailed comparison of this pollen record with that from a nearby pollen diagram also prepared at high-temporal resolution shows the ability of pollen records to record short-period climate variations and disturbances.

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Late Holocene climate and land-use history in the Mongolian Altai Mountains: Combined evidence from palynological, macro-charcoal and tree-ring analyses

Trees, Forests and People ◽

10.1016/j.tfp.2021.100073 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

pp. 100073

Author(s):

Julia Unkelbach ◽

Choimaa Dulamsuren ◽

Hermann Behling

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Tree Ring ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Land Use History ◽

Altai Mountains ◽

Holocene Climate ◽

Mongolian Altai

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Middle Holocene Climate Oscillations Recorded in the Western Dvina Lakeland

Water ◽

10.3390/w13111611 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (11) ◽

pp. 1611

Author(s):

Agnieszka Mroczkowska ◽

Dominik Pawłowski ◽

Emilie Gauthier ◽

Andrey Mazurkevich ◽

Tomi P. Luoto ◽

...

Keyword(s):

River System ◽

Summer Temperature ◽

Human Occupation ◽

Holocene Climate ◽

Climate History ◽

Remarkable Feature ◽

Climate Oscillations ◽

Climate Fluctuations ◽

The North ◽

The North Atlantic Oscillation

Although extensive archeological research works have been conducted in the Serteya region in recent years, the Holocene climate history in the Western Dvina Lakeland in Western Russia is still poorly understood. The Neolithic human occupation of the Serteyka lake–river system responded to climate oscillations, resulting in the development of a pile-dwelling settlement between 5.9 and 4.2 ka cal BP. In this paper, we present the quantitative paleoclimatic reconstructions of the Northgrippian stage (8.2–4.2 ka cal BP) from the Great Serteya Palaeolake Basin. The reconstructions were created based on a multiproxy (Chironomidae, pollen and Cladocera) approach. The mean July air temperature remained at 17–20 °C, which is similar to the present temperature in the Smolensk Upland. The summer temperature revealed only weak oscillations during 5.9 and 4.2 ka cal BP. A more remarkable feature during those events was an increase in continentality, manifested by a lower winter temperature and lower annual precipitation. During the third, intermediate oscillation in 5.0–4.7 ka cal BP, a rise in summer temperature and stronger shifts in continental air masses were recorded. It is still unclear if the above-described climate fluctuations are linked to the North Atlantic Oscillation and can be interpreted as an indication of Bond events because only a few high-resolution paleoclimatic reconstructions from the region have been presented and these reconstructions do not demonstrate explicit oscillations in the period of 5.9 and 4.2 ka cal BP.

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