Temporal pattern of terrestrial plant diversity in northern Fennoscandia

Understanding the dynamics of biodiversity in the past will contribute to a better informed inference of future biodiversity. Palaeoecological patterns in biodiversity are mainly preserved in natural archives such as lake sediments. Using ancient DNA from the sediment of 10 lakes from northern Fennoscandia, we analysed terrestrial plant diversity pattern for the entire Holocene, and how these patterns correspond to drivers of change such as temperature and biota. We modeled temporal trends in taxonomic richness and turnover using generalized additive models (GAM). We included delta oxygen isotope values from North Greenland Ice Core Project as a proxy for regional temperature, and the presence of dominant woody species as biotic drivers of terrestrial plant diversity.  

Results show a general tendency of an increase in species richness from the early Holocene onwards, but this pattern is asynchronous across the lakes, with some lakes having a peak in diversity in the mid-Holocene (8,000-6,000 cal. BP), late Holocene (~2,500 cal. BP), or in recent times. The turnover decreases in most of the lakes throughout the Holocene. Meanwhile, it consistently increases in a few lakes. With some exceptions, temperature and biotic variable differentially affects the richness and turnover across the lakes. Our study from multiple lakes and heterogeneous habitats may be able to identify the main drivers of past biodiversity changes in these systems. As a result, it may help us to understand the mechanisms of change so that the impacts of current climate change and biotic factors on biodiversity may be assessed.

 

Author's list and affiliations:

Dilli Prasad Rijal¹, Peter D. Heintzman², Youri Lammers², Nigel Gilles Yoccoz¹, Tony Gavin Brown^2,3, Kelsey Lorberau¹, Dorothee Ehrich¹, Iva Pitelkova², Tomasz Goslar⁴, Jostein Bakke⁵, Kari Anne Bråthen¹, Inger Greve Alsos²

¹Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, NO-9037 Tromsø, Norway.

²The Arctic University Museum of Norway, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, NO-9037 Tromsø, Norway.

³School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK.4

⁴Faculty of Physics, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland

⁵Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway