The role of landscape structure in determining palynological and floristic richness

Meltsov, Vivika; Poska, Anneli; Reitalu, Triin; Sammul, Marek; Kull, Tiiu

doi:10.1007/s00334-012-0358-y

Cited by 46 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Palynological richness is used here as an estimation of floristic diversity and not as an accurate representation of vegetation communities (e.g. Goring et al 2013;Meltsov et al 2013). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene stand-scale vegetation dynamics and fire history of an old-growth spruce forest in southern Finland

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Seppä

Kuosmanen

et al. 2015

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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Forest vegetation composition, including\ud dominant keystone species and floristic diversity, is driven\ud by natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Disentangling\ud these complex interactions to identify the role of species\ud competition, climate and disturbances in boreal forest dynamics\ud is challenging. Here, pollen and charcoal data are\ud used to reconstruct Holocene vegetation and fire history at\ud the local stand-scale within an old-growth Picea abies\ud (Norway spruce) forest hollow in southern Finland. The\ud aim is to reconstruct vegetation history with specific emphasis\ud on the mid-Holocene expansion of Picea and the\ud decline in deciduous species in relation to fire history.\ud Early-Holocene forest development and vegetation dynamics\ud are primarily driven by climatic variations. The\ud spread of Picea at approximately 5,200 cal BP does not\ud coincide with local natural or anthropogenic disturbance or\ud a decline in deciduous species and is consistent with its\ud regional expansion, suggesting climate as the most likely\ud control over the late establishment of this taxon. The mid-\ud Holocene decline in deciduous species corresponds to an\ud increased fire frequency suggesting a higher anthropogenic\ud disturbance (also considered as the primary reason for the\ud loss of floristic diversity in southern Finland). The ‘natural’\ud fire frequency in this local stand-scale boreal forest is lower\ud than that observed in the recent past (i.e. the time of significant\ud anthropogenic impact), yet the present-day absence\ud or low frequency of fire remains within the range of natural\ud variability observed during the early- and mid-Holocen

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“…Palynological richness is used here as an estimation of floristic diversity and not as an accurate representation of vegetation communities (e.g. Goring et al 2013;Meltsov et al 2013). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene stand-scale vegetation dynamics and fire history of an old-growth spruce forest in southern Finland

Clear

Seppä

Kuosmanen

et al. 2015

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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“…Despite these biases and problems, several studies show that there are positive correlations between modern pollen and plant diversity and modern pollen and landscape mosaic (Meltsov et al. ; Matthias et al. ; Birks et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A major challenge in reconstructing past vegetation and its diversity is to define the relevant spatial scale and pollen source area (Prentice, 1985;Sugita, 1993Sugita, , 1994. Despite these biases and problems, several studies show that there are positive correlations between modern pollen and plant diversity and modern pollen and landscape mosaic Felde et al, 2016;Matthias, Semmler, & Giesecke, 2015;Meltsov, Poska, Reitalu, Sammul, & Kull, 2013). Composition of pollen assemblages and vegetation in southern Norway corresponds well within and between different vegetation zones, except for sites near the tree line and in the low-alpine zone Felde, Peglar, Bjune, Grytnes, & Birks, 2014;Felde et al, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are diversity trends in western Scandinavia influenced by post‐glacial dispersal limitation?

Felde

Grytnes

Bjune

et al. 2017

J Vegetation Science

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Questions What are the latitudinal diversity patterns in Scandinavia over the last 8 ka? Have they been consistent over time? What are the long‐term diversity trends at different sites? Is there a consistent rate‐of‐change between sites? Location Thirty sites in Norway, two sites in north‐west Sweden. Methods Pollen data from these 32 lakes. The sites lie within six of the vegetation zones of Moen (1998). The data are used to estimate pollen diversity using Hill′s effective species numbers N0, N1 and N2. Diversity relationships in time and along latitude are assessed using ANCOVA. Linear regression is used to investigate site‐independent long‐term trends. Patterns in the regression slopes are investigated between vegetation zones and along the latitudinal gradient. Results The latitudinal pattern of decreasing diversity with increasing latitude existed over the last 8 ka, although for the number of effectively common (N1) and abundant (N2) pollen taxa the relationship was slightly weaker between 8–6 ka. Long‐term trends show that diversity increases at most sites over time. However, the magnitude and rate‐of‐change vary between sites. Highest rate‐of‐change in N0 over time is observed in southern sites, although the spatial relationship of rate‐of‐change is not statistically significant. Conclusions The constant increase in diversity over time may reflect additional taxa arriving and changes in abundances. Most sites change in the same direction, but at different rates and magnitudes. There is no clear spatial pattern in rate‐of‐change, and the general patterns of increasing diversity over time are consistent with the hypothesis of post‐glacial (Holocene) dispersal limitation. Drivers of these changes have not been rigorously investigated, but our results suggest that environmental and historical processes are not mutually exclusive. During the last 2–1 ka BP diversity patterns have probably been increasingly affected by human land use.

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“…There are several studies that have investigated modern pollen-plant diversity relationships (e.g. Felde, Peglar, Bjune, Grytnes, & Birks, 2016;Matthias, Semmler, & Giesecke, 2015;Meltsov, Poska, Odgaard, Sammul, & Kull, 2011;Meltsov, Poska, Reitalu, Sammul, & Kull, 2013) and the results usually show a positive relationship between modern pollen and plant diversity estimates (but see Goring, Lacourse, Pellatt, & Mathewes, 2013;Gosling et al, 2018). Most of these modernday pollen-plant studies are done at relatively local scales where climate variation is small and the diversity relationships mainly depend on landscape factors (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of modern pollen and plant richness across northern Europe

et al. 2019

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Sedimentary pollen offers excellent opportunities to reconstruct vegetation changes over past millennia. Number of different pollen taxa or pollen richness is used to characterise past plant richness. To improve the interpretation of sedimentary pollen richness, it is essential to understand the relationship between pollen and plant richness in contemporary landscapes. This study presents a regional‐scale comparison of pollen and plant richness from northern Europe and evaluates the importance of environmental variables on pollen and plant richness. We use a pollen dataset of 511 lake‐surface pollen samples ranging through temperate, boreal and tundra biomes. To characterise plant diversity, we use a dataset formulated from the two largest plant atlases available in Europe. We compare pollen and plant richness estimates in different groups of taxa (wind‐pollinated vs. non‐wind‐pollinated, trees and shrubs vs. herbs and grasses) and test their relationships with climate and landscape variables. Pollen richness is significantly positively correlated with plant richness (r = 0.53). The pollen plant richness correlation improves (r = 0.63) when high pollen producers are downweighted prior to estimating richness minimising the influence of pollen production on the pollen richness estimate. This suggests that methods accommodating pollen‐production differences in richness estimates deserve further attention and should become more widely used in Quaternary pollen diversity studies. The highest correlations are found between pollen and plant richness of trees and shrubs (r = 0.83) and of wind‐pollinated taxa (r = 0.75) suggesting that these are the best measures of broad‐scale plant richness over several thousands of square kilometres. Mean annual temperature is the strongest predictor of both pollen and plant richness. Landscape openness is positively associated with pollen richness but not with plant richness. Pollen richness values from extremely open and/or cold areas where pollen production is low should be interpreted with caution because low local pollen production increases the proportion of extra‐regional pollen. Synthesis. Our results confirm that pollen data can provide insights into past plant richness changes in northern Europe, and with careful consideration of pollen‐production differences and spatial scale represented, pollen data make it possible to investigate vegetation diversity trends over long time‐scales and under changing climatic and habitat conditions.

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The role of landscape structure in determining palynological and floristic richness

Cited by 46 publications

References 45 publications

Holocene stand-scale vegetation dynamics and fire history of an old-growth spruce forest in southern Finland

Holocene stand-scale vegetation dynamics and fire history of an old-growth spruce forest in southern Finland

Are diversity trends in western Scandinavia influenced by post‐glacial dispersal limitation?

Patterns of modern pollen and plant richness across northern Europe

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