Postglacial change of the floristic diversity gradient in Europe

Giesecke, Thomas; Wolters, Steffen; van Leeuwen, Jacqueline F. N.; van der Knaap, Pim W. O.; Leydet, Michelle; Brewer, Simon (2019). Postglacial change of the floristic diversity gradient in Europe. Nature communications, 10(1) Nature Publishing Group 10.1038/s41467-019-13233-y

Preview

Text 2019_NatCommun_10_5422.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY). Download (922kB) | Preview

Climate warming is expected to cause a poleward spread of species, resulting in increased richness at mid to high latitudes and weakening the latitudinal diversity gradient. We used pollen data to test if such a change in the latitudinal diversity gradient occurred during the last major poleward shift of plant species in Europe following the end of the last glacial period. In contrast to expectations, the slope of the gradient strengthened during the Holocene. The increase in temperatures around 10 ka ago reduced diversity at mid to high latitude sites due to the gradual closure of forests. Deforestation and the introduction of agriculture during the last 5 ky had a greater impact on richness in central Europe than the earlier climate warming. These results do not support the current view that global warming alone will lead to a loss in biodiversity, and demonstrate that non-climatic human impacts on the latitudinal diversity gradient is of a greater magnitude than climate change.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

122 since deposited on 13 Dec 2019
29 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item