Articles | Volume 21, issue 7
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1629-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1629-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
BG Letters
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04 Apr 2024
BG Letters | Highlight paper |
| 04 Apr 2024
| 04 Apr 2024
Rates of palaeoecological change can inform ecosystem restoration
Walter Finsinger
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
ISEM, University of Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, Montpellier, 34095, France
Christian Bigler
Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, Umeå, 90187, Sweden
Christoph Schwörer
Institute of Plant Sciences and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3013 Bern, Switzerland
Willy Tinner
Institute of Plant Sciences and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3013 Bern, Switzerland
Related authors
Jack Longman, Daniel Veres, Aritina Haliuc, Walter Finsinger, Vasile Ersek, Daniela Pascal, Tiberiu Sava, and Robert Begy
Clim. Past, 17, 2633–2652, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2633-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2633-2021, 2021
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Peatlands are some of the best environments for storing carbon; thus, comprehending how much carbon can be stored and how amounts have changed through time is important to understand carbon cycling. We analysed nine peatlands from central–eastern Europe to look at how carbon storage in mountain bogs has changed over the last 10 000 years. We conclude that human activity is the main driver of changes in storage levels over the past 4000 years; prior to this, climate was the primary driver.
Basil A. S. Davis, Manuel Chevalier, Philipp Sommer, Vachel A. Carter, Walter Finsinger, Achille Mauri, Leanne N. Phelps, Marco Zanon, Roman Abegglen, Christine M. Åkesson, Francisca Alba-Sánchez, R. Scott Anderson, Tatiana G. Antipina, Juliana R. Atanassova, Ruth Beer, Nina I. Belyanina, Tatiana A. Blyakharchuk, Olga K. Borisova, Elissaveta Bozilova, Galina Bukreeva, M. Jane Bunting, Eleonora Clò, Daniele Colombaroli, Nathalie Combourieu-Nebout, Stéphanie Desprat, Federico Di Rita, Morteza Djamali, Kevin J. Edwards, Patricia L. Fall, Angelica Feurdean, William Fletcher, Assunta Florenzano, Giulia Furlanetto, Emna Gaceur, Arsenii T. Galimov, Mariusz Gałka, Iria García-Moreiras, Thomas Giesecke, Roxana Grindean, Maria A. Guido, Irina G. Gvozdeva, Ulrike Herzschuh, Kari L. Hjelle, Sergey Ivanov, Susanne Jahns, Vlasta Jankovska, Gonzalo Jiménez-Moreno, Monika Karpińska-Kołaczek, Ikuko Kitaba, Piotr Kołaczek, Elena G. Lapteva, Małgorzata Latałowa, Vincent Lebreton, Suzanne Leroy, Michelle Leydet, Darya A. Lopatina, José Antonio López-Sáez, André F. Lotter, Donatella Magri, Elena Marinova, Isabelle Matthias, Anastasia Mavridou, Anna Maria Mercuri, Jose Manuel Mesa-Fernández, Yuri A. Mikishin, Krystyna Milecka, Carlo Montanari, César Morales-Molino, Almut Mrotzek, Castor Muñoz Sobrino, Olga D. Naidina, Takeshi Nakagawa, Anne Birgitte Nielsen, Elena Y. Novenko, Sampson Panajiotidis, Nata K. Panova, Maria Papadopoulou, Heather S. Pardoe, Anna Pędziszewska, Tatiana I. Petrenko, María J. Ramos-Román, Cesare Ravazzi, Manfred Rösch, Natalia Ryabogina, Silvia Sabariego Ruiz, J. Sakari Salonen, Tatyana V. Sapelko, James E. Schofield, Heikki Seppä, Lyudmila Shumilovskikh, Normunds Stivrins, Philipp Stojakowits, Helena Svobodova Svitavska, Joanna Święta-Musznicka, Ioan Tantau, Willy Tinner, Kazimierz Tobolski, Spassimir Tonkov, Margarita Tsakiridou, Verushka Valsecchi, Oksana G. Zanina, and Marcelina Zimny
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 2423–2445, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2423-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2423-2020, 2020
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The Eurasian Modern Pollen Database (EMPD) contains pollen counts and associated metadata for 8134 modern pollen samples from across the Eurasian region. The EMPD is part of, and complementary to, the European Pollen Database (EPD) which contains data on fossil pollen found in Late Quaternary sedimentary archives. The purpose of the EMPD is to provide calibration datasets and other data to support palaeoecological research on past climates and vegetation cover over the Quaternary period.
Angelica Feurdean, Boris Vannière, Walter Finsinger, Dan Warren, Simon C. Connor, Matthew Forrest, Johan Liakka, Andrei Panait, Christian Werner, Maja Andrič, Premysl Bobek, Vachel A. Carter, Basil Davis, Andrei-Cosmin Diaconu, Elisabeth Dietze, Ingo Feeser, Gabriela Florescu, Mariusz Gałka, Thomas Giesecke, Susanne Jahns, Eva Jamrichová, Katarzyna Kajukało, Jed Kaplan, Monika Karpińska-Kołaczek, Piotr Kołaczek, Petr Kuneš, Dimitry Kupriyanov, Mariusz Lamentowicz, Carsten Lemmen, Enikö K. Magyari, Katarzyna Marcisz, Elena Marinova, Aidin Niamir, Elena Novenko, Milena Obremska, Anna Pędziszewska, Mirjam Pfeiffer, Anneli Poska, Manfred Rösch, Michal Słowiński, Miglė Stančikaitė, Marta Szal, Joanna Święta-Musznicka, Ioan Tanţău, Martin Theuerkauf, Spassimir Tonkov, Orsolya Valkó, Jüri Vassiljev, Siim Veski, Ildiko Vincze, Agnieszka Wacnik, Julian Wiethold, and Thomas Hickler
Biogeosciences, 17, 1213–1230, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-1213-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-1213-2020, 2020
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Our study covers the full Holocene (the past 11 500 years) climate variability and vegetation composition and provides a test on how vegetation and climate interact to determine fire hazard. An important implication of this test is that percentage of tree cover can be used as a predictor of the probability of fire occurrence. Biomass burned is highest at ~ 45 % tree cover in temperate forests and at ~ 60–65 % tree cover in needleleaf-dominated forests.
Jack Longman, Daniel Veres, Aritina Haliuc, Walter Finsinger, Vasile Ersek, Daniela Pascal, Tiberiu Sava, and Robert Begy
Clim. Past, 17, 2633–2652, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2633-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2633-2021, 2021
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Peatlands are some of the best environments for storing carbon; thus, comprehending how much carbon can be stored and how amounts have changed through time is important to understand carbon cycling. We analysed nine peatlands from central–eastern Europe to look at how carbon storage in mountain bogs has changed over the last 10 000 years. We conclude that human activity is the main driver of changes in storage levels over the past 4000 years; prior to this, climate was the primary driver.
Dimitri Osmont, Sandra Brugger, Anina Gilgen, Helga Weber, Michael Sigl, Robin L. Modini, Christoph Schwörer, Willy Tinner, Stefan Wunderle, and Margit Schwikowski
The Cryosphere, 14, 3731–3745, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3731-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3731-2020, 2020
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In this interdisciplinary case study, we were able to link biomass burning emissions from the June 2017 wildfires in Portugal to their deposition in the snowpack at Jungfraujoch, Swiss Alps. We analysed black carbon and charcoal in the snowpack, calculated backward trajectories, and monitored the fire evolution by remote sensing. Such case studies help to understand the representativity of biomass burning records in ice cores and how biomass burning tracers are archived in the snowpack.
Basil A. S. Davis, Manuel Chevalier, Philipp Sommer, Vachel A. Carter, Walter Finsinger, Achille Mauri, Leanne N. Phelps, Marco Zanon, Roman Abegglen, Christine M. Åkesson, Francisca Alba-Sánchez, R. Scott Anderson, Tatiana G. Antipina, Juliana R. Atanassova, Ruth Beer, Nina I. Belyanina, Tatiana A. Blyakharchuk, Olga K. Borisova, Elissaveta Bozilova, Galina Bukreeva, M. Jane Bunting, Eleonora Clò, Daniele Colombaroli, Nathalie Combourieu-Nebout, Stéphanie Desprat, Federico Di Rita, Morteza Djamali, Kevin J. Edwards, Patricia L. Fall, Angelica Feurdean, William Fletcher, Assunta Florenzano, Giulia Furlanetto, Emna Gaceur, Arsenii T. Galimov, Mariusz Gałka, Iria García-Moreiras, Thomas Giesecke, Roxana Grindean, Maria A. Guido, Irina G. Gvozdeva, Ulrike Herzschuh, Kari L. Hjelle, Sergey Ivanov, Susanne Jahns, Vlasta Jankovska, Gonzalo Jiménez-Moreno, Monika Karpińska-Kołaczek, Ikuko Kitaba, Piotr Kołaczek, Elena G. Lapteva, Małgorzata Latałowa, Vincent Lebreton, Suzanne Leroy, Michelle Leydet, Darya A. Lopatina, José Antonio López-Sáez, André F. Lotter, Donatella Magri, Elena Marinova, Isabelle Matthias, Anastasia Mavridou, Anna Maria Mercuri, Jose Manuel Mesa-Fernández, Yuri A. Mikishin, Krystyna Milecka, Carlo Montanari, César Morales-Molino, Almut Mrotzek, Castor Muñoz Sobrino, Olga D. Naidina, Takeshi Nakagawa, Anne Birgitte Nielsen, Elena Y. Novenko, Sampson Panajiotidis, Nata K. Panova, Maria Papadopoulou, Heather S. Pardoe, Anna Pędziszewska, Tatiana I. Petrenko, María J. Ramos-Román, Cesare Ravazzi, Manfred Rösch, Natalia Ryabogina, Silvia Sabariego Ruiz, J. Sakari Salonen, Tatyana V. Sapelko, James E. Schofield, Heikki Seppä, Lyudmila Shumilovskikh, Normunds Stivrins, Philipp Stojakowits, Helena Svobodova Svitavska, Joanna Święta-Musznicka, Ioan Tantau, Willy Tinner, Kazimierz Tobolski, Spassimir Tonkov, Margarita Tsakiridou, Verushka Valsecchi, Oksana G. Zanina, and Marcelina Zimny
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 2423–2445, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2423-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2423-2020, 2020
Short summary
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The Eurasian Modern Pollen Database (EMPD) contains pollen counts and associated metadata for 8134 modern pollen samples from across the Eurasian region. The EMPD is part of, and complementary to, the European Pollen Database (EPD) which contains data on fossil pollen found in Late Quaternary sedimentary archives. The purpose of the EMPD is to provide calibration datasets and other data to support palaeoecological research on past climates and vegetation cover over the Quaternary period.
Fabian Rey, Erika Gobet, Christoph Schwörer, Albert Hafner, Sönke Szidat, and Willy Tinner
Clim. Past, 16, 1347–1367, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1347-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1347-2020, 2020
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We present a novel post Last Glacial Maximum sediment record from Moossee (Swiss Plateau, southern central Europe). For the first time, five major reorganizations of vegetation could be definitely linked to paramount postglacial temperature and/or moisture changes. Present-day beech-dominated forests have been resilient to long-term climate change and human land use. They may prevail in future if climate warming does not exceed the amplitude of Mid Holocene temperature and moisture variability.
Angelica Feurdean, Boris Vannière, Walter Finsinger, Dan Warren, Simon C. Connor, Matthew Forrest, Johan Liakka, Andrei Panait, Christian Werner, Maja Andrič, Premysl Bobek, Vachel A. Carter, Basil Davis, Andrei-Cosmin Diaconu, Elisabeth Dietze, Ingo Feeser, Gabriela Florescu, Mariusz Gałka, Thomas Giesecke, Susanne Jahns, Eva Jamrichová, Katarzyna Kajukało, Jed Kaplan, Monika Karpińska-Kołaczek, Piotr Kołaczek, Petr Kuneš, Dimitry Kupriyanov, Mariusz Lamentowicz, Carsten Lemmen, Enikö K. Magyari, Katarzyna Marcisz, Elena Marinova, Aidin Niamir, Elena Novenko, Milena Obremska, Anna Pędziszewska, Mirjam Pfeiffer, Anneli Poska, Manfred Rösch, Michal Słowiński, Miglė Stančikaitė, Marta Szal, Joanna Święta-Musznicka, Ioan Tanţău, Martin Theuerkauf, Spassimir Tonkov, Orsolya Valkó, Jüri Vassiljev, Siim Veski, Ildiko Vincze, Agnieszka Wacnik, Julian Wiethold, and Thomas Hickler
Biogeosciences, 17, 1213–1230, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-1213-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-1213-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Our study covers the full Holocene (the past 11 500 years) climate variability and vegetation composition and provides a test on how vegetation and climate interact to determine fire hazard. An important implication of this test is that percentage of tree cover can be used as a predictor of the probability of fire occurrence. Biomass burned is highest at ~ 45 % tree cover in temperate forests and at ~ 60–65 % tree cover in needleleaf-dominated forests.
Anina Gilgen, Carole Adolf, Sandra O. Brugger, Luisa Ickes, Margit Schwikowski, Jacqueline F. N. van Leeuwen, Willy Tinner, and Ulrike Lohmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 11813–11829, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-11813-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-11813-2018, 2018
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Microscopic charcoal particles are fire-specific tracers, which are presently the primary source for reconstructing past fire activity. In this study, we implement microscopic charcoal particles into a global aerosol–climate model to better understand the transport of charcoal on a large scale. We find that the model captures a significant portion of the spatial variability but fails to reproduce the extreme variability observed in the charcoal data.
Related subject area
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function: Paleo
Comment on Franz et al. 2023: A reinterpretation of the 1.5 billion year old Volyn ‘biota’ of Ukraine, and discussion of the evolution of the eukaryotes
Paleoecology and evolutionary response of planktonic foraminifera to the mid-Pliocene Warm Period and Plio-Pleistocene bipolar ice sheet expansion
Late Neogene evolution of modern deep-dwelling plankton
Photosynthetic activity in Devonian Foraminifera
Microbial activity, methane production, and carbon storage in Early Holocene North Sea peats
Planktonic foraminifera-derived environmental DNA extracted from abyssal sediments preserves patterns of plankton macroecology
Ecosystem regimes and responses in a coupled ancient lake system from MIS 5b to present: the diatom record of lakes Ohrid and Prespa
Metagenomic analyses of the late Pleistocene permafrost – additional tools for reconstruction of environmental conditions
Differential resilience of ancient sister lakes Ohrid and Prespa to environmental disturbances during the Late Pleistocene
Stable isotope study of a new chondrichthyan fauna (Kimmeridgian, Porrentruy, Swiss Jura): an unusual freshwater-influenced isotopic composition for the hybodont shark Asteracanthus
Amelioration of marine environments at the Smithian–Spathian boundary, Early Triassic
Weathering by tree-root-associating fungi diminishes under simulated Cenozoic atmospheric CO2 decline
The impact of land-use change on floristic diversity at regional scale in southern Sweden 600 BC–AD 2008
Climate-related changes in peatland carbon accumulation during the last millennium
Stratigraphy and paleoenvironments of the early to middle Holocene Chipalamawamba Beds (Malawi Basin, Africa)
Experimental mineralization of crustacean eggs: new implications for the fossilization of Precambrian–Cambrian embryos
The last glacial-interglacial cycle in Lake Ohrid (Macedonia/Albania): testing diatom response to climate
Martin J. Head, James B. Riding, Jennifer M. K. O’Keefe, Julius Jeiter, and Julia Gravendyck
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2748, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2748, 2023
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A diverse suite of 'fossils' associated with the ~1.5 Ga Volyn (Ukraine) kerite was published recently. We show that at least some of them represent modern contamination including plant hairs, pollen, and likely later fungal growth. Comparable diversity is shown to exist in modern museum dust, this calling into question whether any part of the Volyn biota is of biological origin while emphasising the need for scrupulous care in collecting, analysing, and identifying Precambrian microfossils.
Adam Woodhouse, Frances A. Procter, Sophie L. Jackson, Robert A. Jamieson, Robert J. Newton, Philip F. Sexton, and Tracy Aze
Biogeosciences, 20, 121–139, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-121-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-121-2023, 2023
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This study looked into the regional and global response of planktonic foraminifera to the climate over the last 5 million years, when the Earth cooled significantly. These single celled organisms exhibit the best fossil record available to science. We document an abundance switch from warm water to cold water species as the Earth cooled. Moreover, a closer analysis of certain species may indicate higher fossil diversity than previously thought, which has implications for evolutionary studies.
Flavia Boscolo-Galazzo, Amy Jones, Tom Dunkley Jones, Katherine A. Crichton, Bridget S. Wade, and Paul N. Pearson
Biogeosciences, 19, 743–762, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-743-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-743-2022, 2022
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Deep-living organisms are a major yet poorly known component of ocean biomass. Here we reconstruct the evolution of deep-living zooplankton and phytoplankton. Deep-dwelling zooplankton and phytoplankton did not occur 15 Myr ago, when the ocean was several degrees warmer than today. Deep-dwelling species first evolve around 7.5 Myr ago, following global climate cooling. Their evolution was driven by colder ocean temperatures allowing more food, oxygen, and light at depth.
Zofia Dubicka, Maria Gajewska, Wojciech Kozłowski, Pamela Hallock, and Johann Hohenegger
Biogeosciences, 18, 5719–5728, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-5719-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-5719-2021, 2021
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Benthic foraminifera play a significant role in modern reefal ecosystems mainly due to their symbiosis with photosynthetic microorganisms. Foraminifera were also components of Devonian stromatoporoid coral reefs; however, whether they could have harbored symbionts has remained unclear. We show that Devonian foraminifera may have stayed photosynthetically active, which likely had an impact on their evolutionary radiation and possibly also on the functioning of Paleozoic shallow marine ecosystems.
Tanya J. R. Lippmann, Michiel H. in 't Zandt, Nathalie N. L. Van der Putten, Freek S. Busschers, Marc P. Hijma, Pieter van der Velden, Tim de Groot, Zicarlo van Aalderen, Ove H. Meisel, Caroline P. Slomp, Helge Niemann, Mike S. M. Jetten, Han A. J. Dolman, and Cornelia U. Welte
Biogeosciences, 18, 5491–5511, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-5491-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-5491-2021, 2021
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This paper is a step towards understanding the basal peat ecosystem beneath the North Sea. Plant remains followed parallel sequences. Methane concentrations were low with local exceptions, with the source likely being trapped pockets of millennia-old methane. Microbial community structure indicated the absence of a biofilter and was diverse across sites. Large carbon stores in the presence of methanogens and in the absence of methanotrophs have the potential to be metabolized into methane.
Raphaël Morard, Franck Lejzerowicz, Kate F. Darling, Béatrice Lecroq-Bennet, Mikkel Winther Pedersen, Ludovic Orlando, Jan Pawlowski, Stefan Mulitza, Colomban de Vargas, and Michal Kucera
Biogeosciences, 14, 2741–2754, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-2741-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-2741-2017, 2017
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The exploitation of deep-sea sedimentary archive relies on the recovery of mineralized skeletons of pelagic organisms. Planktonic groups leaving preserved remains represent only a fraction of the total marine diversity. Environmental DNA left by non-fossil organisms is a promising source of information for paleo-reconstructions. Here we show how planktonic-derived environmental DNA preserves ecological structure of planktonic communities. We use planktonic foraminifera as a case study.
Aleksandra Cvetkoska, Elena Jovanovska, Alexander Francke, Slavica Tofilovska, Hendrik Vogel, Zlatko Levkov, Timme H. Donders, Bernd Wagner, and Friederike Wagner-Cremer
Biogeosciences, 13, 3147–3162, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-3147-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-3147-2016, 2016
Elizaveta Rivkina, Lada Petrovskaya, Tatiana Vishnivetskaya, Kirill Krivushin, Lyubov Shmakova, Maria Tutukina, Arthur Meyers, and Fyodor Kondrashov
Biogeosciences, 13, 2207–2219, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-2207-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-2207-2016, 2016
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A comparative analysis of the metagenomes from two 30,000-year-old permafrost samples, one of lake-alluvial origin and the other from late Pleistocene Ice Complex sediments, revealed significant differences within microbial communities. The late Pleistocene Ice Complex sediments (which are characterized by the absence of methane with lower values of redox potential and Fe2+ content) showed both a low abundance of methanogenic archaea and enzymes from the carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur cycles.
Elena Jovanovska, Aleksandra Cvetkoska, Torsten Hauffe, Zlatko Levkov, Bernd Wagner, Roberto Sulpizio, Alexander Francke, Christian Albrecht, and Thomas Wilke
Biogeosciences, 13, 1149–1161, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-1149-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-1149-2016, 2016
L. Leuzinger, L. Kocsis, J.-P. Billon-Bruyat, S. Spezzaferri, and T. Vennemann
Biogeosciences, 12, 6945–6954, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-6945-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-6945-2015, 2015
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We measured the oxygen isotopic composition of Late Jurassic chondrichthyan teeth (sharks, rays, chimaeras) from the Swiss Jura to get ecological information. The main finding is that the extinct shark Asteracanthus (Hybodontiformes) could inhabit reduced salinity areas, although previous studies on other European localities always resulted in a clear marine isotopic signal for this genus. We propose a mainly marine ecology coupled with excursions into areas of lower salinity in our study site.
L. Zhang, L. Zhao, Z.-Q. Chen, T. J. Algeo, Y. Li, and L. Cao
Biogeosciences, 12, 1597–1613, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-1597-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-1597-2015, 2015
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The Smithian--Spathian boundary was a key event in the recovery of marine environments and ecosystems following the end-Permian mass extinction ~1.5 million years earlier. Our analysis of the Shitouzhai section in South China reveals major changes in oceanographic conditions at the SSB intensification of oceanic circulation leading to enhanced upwelling of nutrient- and sulfide-rich deep waters and coinciding with an abrupt cooling that terminated the Early Triassic hothouse climate.
J. Quirk, J. R. Leake, S. A. Banwart, L. L. Taylor, and D. J. Beerling
Biogeosciences, 11, 321–331, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-321-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-321-2014, 2014
D. Fredh, A. Broström, M. Rundgren, P. Lagerås, F. Mazier, and L. Zillén
Biogeosciences, 10, 3159–3173, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-3159-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-3159-2013, 2013
D. J. Charman, D. W. Beilman, M. Blaauw, R. K. Booth, S. Brewer, F. M. Chambers, J. A. Christen, A. Gallego-Sala, S. P. Harrison, P. D. M. Hughes, S. T. Jackson, A. Korhola, D. Mauquoy, F. J. G. Mitchell, I. C. Prentice, M. van der Linden, F. De Vleeschouwer, Z. C. Yu, J. Alm, I. E. Bauer, Y. M. C. Corish, M. Garneau, V. Hohl, Y. Huang, E. Karofeld, G. Le Roux, J. Loisel, R. Moschen, J. E. Nichols, T. M. Nieminen, G. M. MacDonald, N. R. Phadtare, N. Rausch, Ü. Sillasoo, G. T. Swindles, E.-S. Tuittila, L. Ukonmaanaho, M. Väliranta, S. van Bellen, B. van Geel, D. H. Vitt, and Y. Zhao
Biogeosciences, 10, 929–944, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-929-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-929-2013, 2013
B. Van Bocxlaer, W. Salenbien, N. Praet, and J. Verniers
Biogeosciences, 9, 4497–4512, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-9-4497-2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-9-4497-2012, 2012
D. Hippler, N. Hu, M. Steiner, G. Scholtz, and G. Franz
Biogeosciences, 9, 1765–1775, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-9-1765-2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-9-1765-2012, 2012
J. M. Reed, A. Cvetkoska, Z. Levkov, H. Vogel, and B. Wagner
Biogeosciences, 7, 3083–3094, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-7-3083-2010, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-7-3083-2010, 2010
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Co-editor-in-chief
Ecosystems are, in many ways, changing more rapidly than they have in the past. Rapid past ecological changes can provide critical insight into how to best understand ecosystem function to improve ecological restoration, but a historic focus on community composition in the paleoecological literature can obscure the causes of these changes, making mechanisms unclear. The authors demonstrate a path forward using pollen and diatom records from a lake in the Italian Alps to construct a narrative of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem changes that combines well-established vegetation changes with rapid changes to water management changes to explore how rapidly the ecosystem responds to perturbations, and how aquatic function has been restored after pollution events. Doing so provides new insight into how to use the paleoecological record to understand restoration success and the time scales upon which ecosystem changes occur.
Ecosystems are, in many ways, changing more rapidly than they have in the past. Rapid past...
Short summary
Rate-of-change records based on compositional data are ambiguous as they may rise irrespective of the underlying trajectory of ecosystems. We emphasize the importance of characterizing both the direction and the rate of palaeoecological changes in terms of key features of ecosystems rather than solely on community composition. Past accelerations of community transformation may document the potential of ecosystems to rapidly recover important ecological attributes and functions.
Rate-of-change records based on compositional data are ambiguous as they may rise irrespective...
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