Fifty years of Quaternary pollen analysis in Fennoscandia 1954–2004

2006

Science

565

416

Ecosystems change in response to factors such as climate variability, invasions, and wildfires. Most records used to assess such change are based on short-term ecological data or satellite imagery spanning only a few decades. In many instances it is impossible to disentangle natural variability from other, potentially significant trends in these records, partly because of their short time scale. We summarize recent studies that show how paleoecological records can be used to provide a longer temporal perspective to address specific conservation issues relating to biological invasions, wildfires, climate change, and determination of natural variability. The use of such records can reduce much of the uncertainty surrounding the question of what is "natural" and thereby start to provide important guidance for long-term management and conservation. P aleoecological records (e.g., fossil pollen, seeds and fruits, animal remains, tree rings, charcoal) spanning tens to millions of years provide a valuable long-term perspective on the dynamics of contemporary ecological systems (1). Such studies are increasingly becoming part of community and landscape ecological research (2). In contrast, conservationrelated research largely ignores paleoecological records. For example, there are no temporal records spanning more than 50 years included in any of the key biodiversity assessments published over the past 7 years (3). Paleoecological records have been considered too descriptive and imprecise, and therefore of little relevance to the actual processes of conservation and management. Such criticisms may have been valid 30 years ago, but there is now a wealth of information in paleoecological records providing detailed spatial and temporal resolutions (1, 4-7) that match in detail most records currently used in conservation research.The potential of paleoecological records in conservation biology has been highlighted several times, including their application to biodiversity maintenance, ecosystem naturalness, conservation evaluation, habitat alteration, changing disturbance regimes, and invasions [e.g., (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)]. Conservation of biodiversity in a changing climate (15) and the relevant temporal and spatial scales for ecological restoration (16) have also been considered to warrant a longer-term temporal perspective. Most of these studies are descriptive and provide little practical application. A number of recent applied paleoecological studies, however, have begun to provide direct management information for biodiversity conservation at local, regional, and global scales. These include recommendations relating to biological invasions, wildfires, climate change, and conservation management within thresholds of natural variability. The overriding message from these studies is that such temporal perspectives are essential for meaningful modeling, prediction, and development of conservation strategies in our rapidly changing Earth. Biological InvasionsBiological invasions are of critical concern to conservation...

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2) Improved taxonomic resolution of the fossils found, because improved resolution invariably enhances the biological value of fossil records (5,21). Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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What Is Natural? The Need for a Long-Term Perspective in Biodiversity Conservation

Willis

2006

Science

565

416

“…The regional pollen rain reflects vegetation at a regional scale, but pollen may also be derived more locally, such as from lake-side and aquatic vegetation (Birks 2005). Plant macrofossils are usually not dispersed far from their source.…”

Section: Pollen Analysis and Plant Macrofossilsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Battarbee 2000;Smol 2002;Brooks 2003;Fritz 2003;Mackay et al 2003), it has increasingly developed its own identity, with its own journal, meetings and research agenda. Pollen analysis has not, however, played a major part in the recent development of palaeolimnology (Birks 2005) even though pollen analysis and the associated study of plant macrofossils can provide the main evidence for catchment vegetation over long time periods. Pollen and plant macrofossil analysis (e.g.…”

Section: Pollen Analysis and Plant Macrofossilsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-proxy studies in palaeolimnology

2006

Veget Hist Archaeobot

316

173

Multi-proxy studies are becoming increasingly common in palaeolimnology. Eight basic requirements and challenges for a multi-proxy study are outlined in this essay -definition of research questions, leadership, site selection and coring, data storage, chronology, presentation of results, numerical tools and data interpretation. The nature of proxy data is discussed in terms of physical proxies and biotic proxies. Loss-on-ignition changes and the use of transfer functions are reviewed as examples of problems in the interpretation of data from multi-proxy studies. The importance of pollen analysis and plant macrofossil analysis in multi-proxy studies is emphasised as lake history cannot be interpreted without knowledge of catchment history. Future directions are outlined about how multi-proxy studies can contribute to understanding biotic responses to environmental change.

Holocene Climate Research – Progress, Paradigms, and Problems

Natural Climate Variability and Global Warming

2008

8 | H. John B. Birks .."normal" science. The spatial patterns of scientific progress are less explored by science historians, but Crane's (1972) "invisible college" effect is clearly important. In this, major researchers and their laboratories develop as nuclei of scientific influence through their methodologies, publications, presentations, research students, and visiting researchers. Visitors assimilate the methods and concepts of the center they have visited, and transfer the learning and experience to their own laboratory and research group. Patterns of scientific progress can often only be explained, in part at least, by the "invisible college" effect and by considering who was where when. For example, many developments in Quaternary pollen analysis in the past 50 years are only explicable in terms of the "invisible college" effect (Birks 2005).Holocene climate research has witnessed several major paradigm shifts in the past 200 years as a result not only of new ideas and conceptual breakthroughs, but also because of new and improved techniques, studies of different climate proxies, increased scientific rigor, improved project design, increased quantification, greater attention to detail, and investigations in different geographic areas and climate regimes (e.g. low latitudes, high latitudes, high altitudes, arid areas). The effects of "invisible colleges" and the inevitable geographic concentration of research effort were clearly important in the development of Holocene climate research, especially in the early pioneering stages.This chapter provides a historical overview of progress and associated paradigm shifts in Holocene climate research. My review is inevitably incomplete for several reasons. First, it reflects my geographic parochialism as there is an inevitable bias towards areas where I have had some direct research interest and experience. Second, it reflects a methodologic bias with an inevitable bias towards terrestrial proxies and Holocene terrestrial paleoecology of which I have had some direct experience. Third, the recent primary literature is so vast that I have mainly cited recent reviews and books rather than original research papers to keep the bibliography a manageable size. Fourth, I pay greatest attention to the early pioneering studies and research stages and the early publications than to the later stages, several of which are being actively pursued today by many researchers. This concern with the pioneering studies is because there is an increasing tendency in these days of the Internet and electronic sources, such as Wikipedia, for the early primary literature and the early pioneering researchers to be forgotten, or at least largely ignored. I apologize for any major omissions in the geographic areas, methodologic developments, research studies, and literature discussed here, and for any unevenness in my accounts of the different stages in Holocene climate research. Progress and paradigm shiftsPioneering Holocene climate research was, I suspect, motivated by natural curiosity abou...