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.
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
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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.
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
Short summary
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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.
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Editorial statement
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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