Biodiversity trends within the Holocene
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12265199 |
|---|---|
| Authors | H J B Birks (0000-0002-5891-9859, University of Bergen, corresponding author), HJB Birks (University of Bergen), Vivian A Felde (0000-0002-2855-0894, University of Bergen), Alistair W R Seddon (0000-0002-8266-0947, University of Bergen) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 994-1001 |
| Publication date | 2016-01-11 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Holocene (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0959-6836 • E-ISSN: 1477-0911 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0959683615622568 |
| OpenAlex | W2341614914 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 93 |
There is a rapidly emerging interest in detecting and understanding biodiversity trends during the ‘Anthropocene’ in response to human stressors and climate change. Surprisingly few studies have, however, considered trends in biodiversity during the preceding Holocene. Here, we present general trends in terrestrial alpha- and beta-diversity and biomass for the four main ecological phases (protocratic, mesocratic, Homo sapiens, oligocratic) of the Holocene in north-west Europe based on palynological data at the meta-community scale. Alpha- and beta-diversity decreased in the protocratic, showed little change in the mesocratic, decreased in the oligocratic, and increased markedly in the Homo sapiens phase. Biomass was maximal in the mesocratic. Biodiversity changes in the last 200 years (‘Anthropocene’), as detected from palynological data, are small compared with the changes over the Holocene. There are minor decreases in α-diversity, spatial β-diversity and biomass and a slight increase in temporal β-diversity at sites on fertile soils. This analysis is designed to encourage ecologists and biogeographers interested in the ‘Anthropocene’ to extend the time-scale of their analyses and to consider whether ‘Anthropocene’ biodiversity trends are a simple continuation of trends in the late Holocene or whether recent ‘Anthropocene’ trends deviate from the long-term Holocene trends. Hopefully, it will also stimulate palaeoecologists to consider Holocene biodiversity trends in different geographical areas and different organism groups and ecological systems
Anthropocene · Archaeology · Biodiversity · Biology · Biomass (ecology · Geography · Holocene · Species richness · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Isotope Analysis in Ecology · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Ecology
A novel multiproxy approach to detect the impact of charcoal production on the natural environment in NW Poland – project concept and preliminary results
Palynological approaches to forest restoration in Southeast Asia
Pollen and plant diversity relationships in a Mediterranean montane area
Complex responses of vegetation diversity to Holocene climate change in the eastern Tibetan Plateau
One hundred years of Quaternary pollen analysis 1916–2016
Drivers of land cover and plant compositional changes in Northeast China since the mid-Holocene
Palynology for Sustainability
Late Holocene vegetation diversity change and potential response to climate variations on the northern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau
Middle and late Pleistocene environmental conditions in the vicinity of the Paleolithic Huadian cave in Northeast China
The development of arable cultivation in the south-east of England and its relationship with vegetation cover
Land use, settlement, and plant diversity in Iron Age Northwest France
Climate and human induced 2000-year vegetation diversity change in Yunnan, southwestern China
Agricultural systems regulate plant and insect diversity and induce ecosystem novelty
What Is Natural? The Need for a Long-Term Perspective in Biodiversity Conservation
The use of annual arboreal pollen deposition values for delimiting tree-lines in the landscape and exploring models of pollen dispersal
Science for a wilder Anthropocene
Biodiversity loss and its impact on humanity
Approaching a state shift in Earth’s biosphere
Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived?
Fossil pollen as a record of past biodiversity
Global effects of land use on local terrestrial biodiversity
Diversity and Evenness
Defaunation in the Anthropocene
Planetary boundaries
A safe operating space for humanity
Numerical methods in quaternary pollen analysis
Modern pollen–plant richness and diversity relationships exist along a vegetational gradient in southern Norway
The use of Rarefaction Analysis for Estimating Palynological Richness from Quaternary Pollen-Analytical Data
Loss of apatite caused irreversible early-Holocene lake acidification
Calibrated pollen accumulation rates as a basis for quantitative tree biomass reconstructions
Determining the long-term changes in biodiversity and provisioning services along a transect from Central Europe to the Mediterranean
Biological responses to rapid climate change at the Younger Dryas—Holocene transition at Kråkenes, western Norway
Safe and just operating spaces for regional social-ecological systems
Approaches to defining a planetary boundary for biodiversity
Towards mapping the late Quaternary vegetation change of Europe
The European Pollen Database
Estimating the amount of compositional change in late-Quaternary pollen-stratigraphical data
The role of landscape structure in determining palynological and floristic richness
The Anthropocene
The Anthropocene
Planetary Boundaries
| Citations per year | 1.44 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2017 - 2025 (9) |
| Highly cited | No |