ORCID Profile
0000-0001-5685-2390
Current Organisation
Australian National University
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Research Topics
In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Top 5 Research Topics
ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)
Quaternary Environments | Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience | Natural Hazards | Archaeology | Forestry Fire Management | Archaeology Of Agricultural And Pastoral Societies | Archaeological Science | Archaeology Of Complex Societies: Europe, The Mediterranean And | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Archaeology | Archaeological Science |
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Preserving the built environment | Preserving movable cultural heritage | Effects of Climate Change and Variability on Australia (excl. Social Impacts) | Natural Hazards in Forest and Woodlands Environments | Understanding Australia's Past | Conserving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage | Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity at Regional or Larger Scales | Forest and Woodlands Land Management
Related Links
Publications
Fire risk modulation by long-term dynamics in land cover and dominant forest type in Eastern and Central Europe
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 13-08-2019
DOI: 10.5194/BG-2019-260
Abstract: Abstract. Wildfire occurrence is influenced by climate, vegetation and human activities. A key challenge for understanding fire-climate-vegetation interactions is to quantify the effect vegetation has in mediating fire regime. Here, we explore the relative importance of Holocene land cover and dominant functional forest type, and climate dynamics on biomass burned in temperate and boreo-nemoral regions of Central and Eastern Europe over the past 12 ka BP years. We used an extensive data set of Holocene pollen and sedimentary charcoal records, in combination with climate simulations and novel statistical modelling. Biomass burned was highest during the early Holocene and lowest during the mid Holocene in all three ecoregions, but erged more markedly over the past 3–4 ka BP. Although the climate was an important driver of fire hazard during the warm and dry early Holocene, tree cover was consistently the strongest predictor of past biomass burning. In temperate forests, biomass burned was high at ~ 45 % tree cover and decreased strongly towards 60 % tree cover. In needleleaf dominated forests, biomass burned was highest at ~ 60–65 % tree cover and abruptly declined at 65 % tree cover. Biomass burned also increased when arable lands and grasslands reached ~ 15–20 %, although this relationship was highly dynamic depending on land use intensity throughout ignition and fuel type and availability. Our observations cover the full range of Holocene climate variability and land cover changes and illustrates that percentages of land cover is a key predictor of the probability of fire occurrence over timescales of centuries to millennia. We suggest that long-term fire risk may be effectively reduced through land cover management, given that land cover has controlled fire regimes under the dynamic climates of the Holocene.
Estimating absolute pollen productivity for some European Tertiary-relict taxa
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-2010
Environmental change during the last glacial on an ancient land bridge of southeast Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-09-2021
DOI: 10.1111/JBI.14255
Abstract: The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) remains an enigmatic period in southeast Australia due to the limited spatial and temporal resolution of its palaeoclimatic records. A major feature of the LGM landscape was the existence of the Bassian Land Bridge, joining Tasmania with the mainland of Australia during periods of low sea level, and potentially facilitating increased biotic movement between these regions. To better understand biogeographical changes on the land bridge and in southeast Australia generally during the LGM, we present a 35 ka‐year palaeoecological record from one of the larger islands of Bass Strait. Bass Strait, southeast Australia. Eucalyptus , Poaceae, Monotoca , Myriophyllum , Zygnemataceae, Botryococcus , Pediastrum . Pollen, charcoal, and non‐pollen palynomorphs were analysed in a 1.75‐m sediment core from truwana/Cape Barren Island, Bass Strait, to reconstruct changes in vegetation, fire regimes and lake levels on the Bassian Land Bridge. Results were then compared to existing palaeoenvironmental studies in the region to develop a broader context of the prevailing land bridge environment and the potential influence on biotic dispersals in Australia during the last glacial period. Results suggest a major vegetation shift on the Bassian Land Bridge in response to the establishment of the LGM climate, with grassland expansion at the expense of woodland from ~29–11 ka. Floristic richness, biomass burned and lake levels also markedly decreased through this period, with the driest interval being ~25–18 ka. Dryland herbaceous taxa dispersed between the mainland and Tasmania when the landbridge was fully exposed. In agreement with previous studies, our results show that the dry grassland that dominated southeast Australia (and Southern Hemisphere mid‐latitude areas) during the LGM also extended across the Bassian Land Bridge. The prevailing environment on the land bridge is likely to have exerted a selective influence on biotic dispersals in Australia during glacial periods.
Holocene heathland development in temperate oceanic Southern Hemisphere: Key drivers in a global context
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-02-2021
DOI: 10.1111/JBI.14057
The human dimension of biodiversity changes on islands
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 30-04-2021
Abstract: Oceanic islands are among the most recent areas on Earth to have been colonized by humans, in many cases in just the past few thousand years. Therefore, they are important laboratories for the study of human impacts on natural vegetation and bio ersity. Nogué et al. provide a quantitative palaeoecological study of 27 islands around the world, focusing on pollen records of vegetation composition before and after human arrival. The authors found a consistent pattern of acceleration of vegetation turnover after human invasion, with median rates of change increasing by a factor of six. These changes occurred regardless of geographical and ecological features of the island and show how rapidly ecosystems can change and how island ecosystems are set on new trajectories. Science , this issue p. 488
Long‐term trajectories of non‐native vegetation on islands globally
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-03-2023
DOI: 10.1111/ELE.14196
Abstract: Human‐mediated changes in island vegetation are, among others, largely caused by the introduction and establishment of non‐native species. However, data on past changes in non‐native plant species abundance that predate historical documentation and censuses are scarce. Islands are among the few places where we can track human arrival in natural systems allowing us to reveal changes in vegetation dynamics with the arrival of non‐native species. We matched fossil pollen data with botanical status information (native, non‐native), and quantified the timing, trajectories and magnitude of non‐native plant vegetational change on 29 islands over the past 5000 years. We recorded a proportional increase in pollen of non‐native plant taxa within the last 1000 years. In idual island trajectories are context‐dependent and linked to island settlement histories. Our data show that non‐native plant introductions have a longer and more dynamic history than is generally recognized, with critical implications for bio ersity baselines and invasion biology.
Zelkova carpinifolia (Pallas) K. Koch in Holocene sediments of Georgia—an indicator of climatic optima
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2005
Disruption of cultural burning promotes shrub encroachment and unprecedented wildfires
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-02-2022
DOI: 10.1002/FEE.2395
Abstract: Recent catastrophic fires in Australia and North America have raised broad‐scale questions about how the cessation of Indigenous burning practices has impacted fuel accumulation and structure. For sustainable coexistence with fire, a better understanding of the ancient nexus between humans and flammable landscapes is needed. We used novel palaeoecological modeling and charcoal compilations to reassess evidence for changes in land cover and fire activity, focusing on southeast Australia before and after British colonization. Here, we provide what we believe is the first quantitative evidence that the region’s forests and woodlands contained fewer shrubs and more grass before colonization. Changes in vegetation, fuel structures, and connectivity followed different trajectories in different vegetation types. The pattern is best explained by the disruption of Indigenous vegetation management caused by European settlement. Combined with climate‐change impacts on fire weather and drought, the widespread absence of Indigenous fire management practices likely preconditioned fire‐prone regions for wildfires of unprecedented extent.
Potential natural vegetation and pre-anthropic pollen records on the Azores Islands in a Macaronesian context
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-09-2017
DOI: 10.1111/JBI.13083
Humans take control of fire-driven diversity changes in Mediterranean Iberia’s vegetation during the mid–late Holocene
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 14-02-2019
Abstract: Fire regime changes are considered a major threat to future bio ersity in the Mediterranean Basin. Such predictions remain uncertain, given that fire regime changes and their ecological impacts occur over timescales that are too long for direct observation. Here we analyse centennial- and millennial-scale shifts in fire regimes and compositional turnover to track the consequences of fire regime shifts on Mediterranean vegetation ersity. We estimated rate-of-change, richness and compositional turnover (beta ersity) in 13 selected high-resolution palaeoecological records from Mediterranean Iberia and compared these with charcoal-inferred fire regime changes. Event sequence analysis showed fire regime shifts to be significantly temporally associated with compositional turnover, particularly during the last three millennia. We find that the timing and direction of fire and ersity change in Mediterranean Iberia are best explained by long-term human–environment interactions dating back perhaps 7500 years. Evidence suggests that Neolithic burning propagated a first wave of increasing vegetation openness and promoted woodland ersity around early farming settlements. Landscape transformation intensified around 5500 to 5000 cal. yr BP and accelerated during the last two millennia, as fire led to permanent transitions in ecosystem state. These fire episodes increased open vegetation ersity, decreased woodland ersity and significantly altered richness on a regional scale. Our study suggests that anthropogenic fires played a primary role in ersity changes in Mediterranean Iberia. Their millennia-long legacy in today’s vegetation should be considered for bio ersity conservation and landscape management.
How old is the Tasmanian cultural landscape? A test of landscape openness using quantitative land-cover reconstructions
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-06-2017
DOI: 10.1111/JBI.13040
Ecological Potential Analysis of Green Open Space (GOS) for the Karebos Field Complex Before and After Revitalization
Publisher: IJSER Publishing
Date: 2023
DOI: 10.14299/000000
Erratum to: The European Modern Pollen Database (EMPD) project
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-06-2013
European colonization and the emergence of novel fire regimes in southeast Australia
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 20-09-2021
DOI: 10.1177/20530196211044630
Abstract: The rapid increase in severe wildfires in many parts of the world, especially in temperate systems, requires urgent attention to reduce fires’ catastrophic impacts on human lives, livelihoods, health and economy. Of particular concern is southeast Australia, which harbours one of the most flammable vegetation types on Earth. While previous studies suggest climate and European activities drove changes in southeast Australian fire regimes in the last 200 years, no study has quantitatively tested the relative roles of these drivers. Here, we use a Generalized Linear Modelling to identify the major driver(s) of fire regime change in the southeast Australian mainland during and prior to European colonization. We use multiple charcoal and pollen records across the region and quantitatively compare fire history to records of climate and vegetation change. Results show low levels of biomass burned before colonization, when landscapes where under Indigenous management, even under variable climates. Biomass burned increased markedly due to vegetation/land-use change after colonization and a major decline in regional precipitation about 100 years later. We conclude that Indigenous-maintained open vegetation minimized the amount of biomass burned prior to colonization, while European-suppression of Indigenous land management has lified biomass accumulation and fuel connectivity in southeast Australian forests since colonization. While climate change remains a major challenge for fire mitigation, implementation of a management approach similar to the pre-colonial period is suggested to ameliorate the risk of future catastrophic fires in the region.
Sediments as archives of industrialization: Evidence of atmospheric pollution in coastal wetlands of Southern Sydney, Australia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 2003
Pollen-based continental climate reconstructions at 6 and 21 ka: a global synthesis
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 30-09-2010
The sedimentary and remote‐sensing reflection of biomass burning in Europe
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-12-2017
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.12682
A compilation of Western European terrestrial records 60–8 ka BP: towards an understanding of latitudinal climatic gradients
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2014
The ecological impact of oceanic island colonization - a palaeoecological perspective from the Azores
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-01-2012
Catastrophic bushfires, indigenous fire knowledge and reframing science in Southeast Australia
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 09-09-2021
DOI: 10.3390/FIRE4030061
Abstract: The catastrophic 2019/2020 Black Summer bushfires were the worst fire season in the recorded history of Southeast Australia. These bushfires were one of several recent global conflagrations across landscapes that are homelands of Indigenous peoples, homelands that were invaded and colonised by European nations over recent centuries. The subsequent suppression and cessation of Indigenous landscape management has had profound social and environmental impacts. The Black Summer bushfires have brought Indigenous cultural burning practices to the forefront as a potential management tool for mitigating climate-driven catastrophic bushfires in Australia. Here, we highlight new research that clearly demonstrates that Indigenous fire management in Southeast Australia produced radically different landscapes and fire regimes than what is presently considered “natural”. We highlight some barriers to the return of Indigenous fire management to Southeast Australian landscapes. We argue that to adequately address the potential for Indigenous fire management to inform policy and practice in managing Southeast Australian forest landscapes, scientific approaches must be decolonized and shift from post-hoc engagement with Indigenous people and perspectives to one of collaboration between Indigenous communities and scientists.
Assessing Long-Term Ecological Changes in Wetlands of the Bass Strait Islands, Southeast Australia: Palaeoecological Insights and Management Implications
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 23-08-2021
Forgotten impacts of European land-use on riparian and savanna vegetation in northwest Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-12-2018
DOI: 10.1111/JVS.12591
The development of composite dispersal functions for estimating absolute pollen productivity in the Swiss Alps
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-2010
7000-year human legacy of elevation-dependent European fire regimes
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2016
Changes in fire regimes since the Last Glacial Maximum: an assessment based on a global synthesis and analysis of charcoal data
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 14-12-2007
Fibroblast growth factor receptor 4 (FGFR4) as detected by immunohistochemistry is associated with postoperative residual disease in ovarian cancer
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-08-2019
Long‐term population dynamics: Theory and reality in a peatland ecosystem
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-10-2018
Human impacts and Anthropocene environmental change at Lake Kutubu, a Ramsar wetland in Papua New Guinea
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 27-09-2021
Abstract: Wetland environments are increasingly threatened by climate change, population expansion, resource extraction, forest clearance, and pollution. The Ramsar Convention aims to monitor internationally important wetlands to ensure their ongoing maintenance and survival through wise use and management. However, many wetlands have undergone substantial human-induced changes prior to being listed with Ramsar. In the case of Lake Kutubu, a Ramsar wetland situated in the tropical rainforests of Papua New Guinea, paleoecological indicators preserved in lake sediments have been used to identify baseline conditions and to track anthropogenic impacts over time. This methodology can be applied to wetlands around the world to determine baseline environmental conditions and to track historic ecological changes in areas where constant monitoring has not been possible.
Toward the saving of global rainforests.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-02-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.16112
Abstract: Rainforests are the Earth's largest terrestrial carbon sinks and are rapidly shrinking due to unprecedented human impact, especially tropical rainforests, which host ~50% of global bio ersity. Understanding what makes rainforests resilient on a long-term basis is key to preserving global rainforests and their ecological services. Here, using estimates of rates of change (RoC) in fossil pollen records, an indicator for temporal compositional change (turnover) in vegetation, we show that accelerating trends in global rainforest changes (increasing RoC/turnover) during the last 12,000 years were mainly driven by intensive agricultural practices, and the highly erse and productive tropical rainforests were the most impacted. Management/conservation strategies aimed at the effective management of human impact will help promote rainforest health and ersity and increase resilience under projected climate change.
Drought, fire and grazing precursors to large‐scale pine forest decline
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-03-2021
DOI: 10.1111/DDI.13261
Abstract: Temperate forests are currently facing multiple stresses due to climate change, biological invasions, habitat fragmentation and fire regime change. How these stressors interact with each other influences how, when and whether ecosystems recover, or whether they adapt or transition to a different ecological state. Because forest recovery or collapse may take longer than a human lifetime, predicting the outcomes of different stressor combinations remains difficult. A clearer vision of future forest trajectories in a changing world may be gained by examining collapses of forests in the past. Here, we use long‐term ecological data to conduct a post‐mortem examination of the decline of maritime pine forests ( Pinus pinaster Ait.) on the SW Iberian Peninsula 7000–6500 years ago. Portugal and Spain. We compared four palaeoecological records—two with pine declines and two without—using a multiproxy approach. Bioclimatic differences between the four sites were explored. Proxies for past vegetation and disturbance (fire and grazing) were compared with independent palaeoclimatic records. We performed functional traits analysis and used phase plots to examine the causes of pine decline. The pine decline represents a critical transition in SW Iberia, which lies close to maritime pine's bioclimatic limits. Prolonged drought likely killed trees and suppressed the fires that normally stimulate pine germination and pinewood recovery. Increased grazing pressure facilitated the rapid spread of resprouter shrubs. These competed with pine trees and ultimately replaced them. Our data highlight complex interactions between climate, fire, grazing and forest resilience. The pine decline occurred at least a century after post‐fire resprouters overtook obligate seeders in the vegetation, constituting an early‐warning signal of forest loss. Fire suppression, resprouter encroachment and grazing may threaten the persistence of Mediterranean forests as droughts become more frequent and extreme.
Testing quantitative pollen dispersal models in animal-pollinated vegetation mosaics: An example from temperate Tasmania, Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2016
Holocene sea level and climate interactions on wet dune slack evolution in SW Portugal: A model for future scenarios?
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 17-10-2018
Abstract: We examine the Holocene environmental changes in a wet dune slack of the Portuguese coast, Poço do Barbarroxa de Baixo. Lithology, organic matter, biological proxies and high-resolution chronology provide estimations of sediment accumulation rates and changes in environmental conditions in relation to sea-level change and climate variability during the Holocene. Results show that the wet dune slack was formed 7.5 cal. ka BP, contemporaneous with the last stages of the rapid sea-level rise. This depositional environment formed under frequent freshwater flooding and water ponding that allowed the development and post-mortem accumulation of abundant plant remains. The wetland evolved into mostly palustrine conditions over the next 2000 years, until a phase of stabilization in relative sea-level rise, when sedimentation rates slowed down to 0.04 mm yr −1 , between 5.3 and 2.5 cal. ka BP. Later, about 0.8 cal. ka BP, high-energy events, likely due to enhanced storminess and more frequent onshore winds, caused the collapse of the foredune above the wetlands’ seaward margin. The delicate balance between hydrology (controlled by sea-level rise and climate change), sediment supply and storminess modulates the habitat’s resilience and ecological stability. This underpins the relevance of integrating past records in coastal wet dune slacks management in a scenario of constant adaptation processes.
Indigenous Fire-Managed Landscapes in Southeast Australia during the Holocene—New Insights from the Furneaux Group Islands, Bass Strait
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 29-03-2021
DOI: 10.3390/FIRE4020017
Abstract: Indigenous land use and climate have shaped fire regimes in southeast Australia during the Holocene, although their relative influence remains unclear. The archaeologically attested mid-Holocene decline in land-use intensity on the Furneaux Group islands (FGI) relative to mainland Tasmanian and SE Australia presents a natural experiment to identify the roles of climate and anthropogenic land use. We reconstruct two key facets of regional fire regimes, biomass (vegetation) burned (BB) and recurrence rate of fire episodes (RRFE), by using total charcoal influx and charcoal peaks in palaeoecological records, respectively. Our results suggest climate-driven biomass accumulation and dryness-controlled BB across southeast Australia during the Holocene. Insights from the FGI suggest people elevated the recurrence rate of fire episodes through frequent cultural burning during the early Holocene and reduction in recurrent Indigenous cultural burning during the mid–late Holocene led to increases in BB. These results provide long-term evidence of the effectiveness of Indigenous cultural burning in reducing biomass burned and may be effective in stabilizing fire regimes in flammable landscapes in the future.
Is there solid evidence of widespread landscape disturbance in the Azores before the arrival of the Portuguese?
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 19-01-2022
Ecological zonation of benthic foraminifera in the lower Guadiana Estuary (southeastern Portugal)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2015
Modelling late Quaternary changes in plant distribution, vegetation and climate using pollen data from Georgia, Caucasus
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2009
Long-term drivers of vegetation turnover in Southern Hemisphere temperate ecosystems
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-12-2021
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.13232
NFIB Mediates BRN2 Driven Melanoma Cell Migration and Invasion Through Regulation of EZH2 and MITF
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2017
The European Modern Pollen Database (EMPD) project
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 03-03-2013
Paleoenvironmental evolution of the Guadiana Estuary, Portugal, during the Holocene: A modern foraminifera analog approach
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 04-08-2016
Abstract: In this paper, we reconstruct the Holocene paleoenvironmental evolution of the Guadiana Estuary, southwestern Iberian Peninsula. Two previously studied boreholes (CM3 and CM5) were revisited and analyzed in the light of a foraminifera modern analog approach. Cluster analyses define four assemblages with different biocenotic, taphonomic, elevation and distance-to-sea settings, which serve as a baseline for paleoassemblages interpretation. Faunal changes along the sedimentary sequences, together with previous sedimentological and chronological data, redefine the different phases of environmental evolution in the Guadiana Estuary since ca. 13 kyr cal. BP, with special emphasis on the Holocene marine highstand. Estuarine flooding began synchronously in both locations (ca. 9 kyr cal. BP) but manifested differently in each sedimentary sequence. The most seaward borehole records a more evident and longer highstand (ca. 8.8–3.8 kyr cal. BP), characterized by the occurrence of subtidal environments and by the presence of open marine species ( Pararotalia cf. spinigera, planktic forms and a significant number of exotic/allochthonous tests), indicating warmer and more marine conditions than today. In the most landward borehole, the highstand is shorter (ca. 8–7.6 kyr cal. BP) and less intense, characterized by the presence of a erse, mainly autochthonous, open estuary assemblage, dominated by Ammonia aberdoveyensis and Haynesina germanica. At 4.4 kyr cal. BP, during a long deceleration phase of regional sea-level rise, a short but well-defined pulse of marine influence is recorded in CM5, when open estuarine assemblages reappear and replace marsh agglutinated assemblages, suggesting a new submergence phase. This short event is not identified in the previous works carried out in the same area, thus further data are needed to understand whether it is consequent from a global, warming period or whether it resulted only from local and ephemeral forcing effects.
A quantitative synthesis of Holocene vegetation change in Nigeria (Western Africa)
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 14-07-2021
DOI: 10.1177/09596836211033198
Abstract: Understanding long-term (centennial–millennial scale) ecosystem stability and dynamics are key to sustainable management and conservation of ecosystem processes under the currently changing climate. Fossil pollen records offer the possibility to investigate long-term changes in vegetation composition and ersity on regional and continental scales. Such studies have been conducted in temperate systems, but are underrepresented in the tropics, especially in Africa. This study attempts to synthesize pollen records from Nigeria (tropical western Africa) and nearby regions to quantitatively assess Holocene regional vegetation changes (turnover) and stability under different climatic regimes for the first time. We use the squared chord distance metric (SCD) to assess centennial-scale vegetation turnover in pollen records. Results suggest vegetation in most parts of Nigeria experienced low turnover under a wetter climatic regime (African Humid Period), especially between ~8000 and 5000 cal year BP. In contrast, vegetation turnover increased significantly under the drier climatic regime of the late-Holocene (between ~5000 cal year BP and present), reflecting the imp role of moisture changes in tropical west African vegetation dynamics during the Holocene. Our results are consistent with records of vegetation and climatic changes in other parts of Africa, suggesting the Holocene pattern of vegetation change in Nigeria is a reflection of continental-scale climatic changes.
Environmental conditions in the SE Balkans since the Last Glacial Maximum and their influence on the spread of agriculture into Europe
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2013
Human impact - the last nail in the coffin for ancient plants?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2009
Fire hazard modulation by long-term dynamics in land cover and dominant forest type in eastern and central Europe
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 04-03-2020
Abstract: Abstract. Wildfire occurrence is influenced by climate, vegetation and human activities. A key challenge for understanding the risk of fires is quantifying the mediating effect of vegetation on fire regimes. Here, we explore the relative importance of Holocene land cover, land use, dominant functional forest type, and climate dynamics on biomass burning in temperate and boreo-nemoral regions of central and eastern Europe over the past 12 kyr. We used an extensive data set of Holocene pollen and sedimentary charcoal records, in combination with climate simulations and statistical modelling. Biomass burning was highest during the early Holocene and lowest during the mid-Holocene in all three ecoregions (Atlantic, continental and boreo-nemoral) but was more spatially variable over the past 3–4 kyr. Although climate explained a significant variance in biomass burning during the early Holocene, tree cover was consistently the highest predictor of past biomass burning over the past 8 kyr. In temperate forests, biomass burning was high at ∼45 % tree cover and decreased to a minimum at between 60 % and 70 % tree cover. In needleleaf-dominated forests, biomass burning was highest at ∼ 60 %–65 % tree cover and steeply declined at % tree cover. Biomass burning also increased when arable lands and grasslands reached ∼ 15 %–20 %, although this relationship was variable depending on land use practice via ignition sources, fuel type and quantities. Higher tree cover reduced the amount of solar radiation reaching the forest floor and could provide moister, more wind-protected microclimates underneath canopies, thereby decreasing fuel flammability. Tree cover at which biomass burning increased appears to be driven by warmer and drier summer conditions during the early Holocene and by increasing human influence on land cover during the late Holocene. We suggest that long-term fire hazard may be effectively reduced through land cover management, given that land cover has controlled fire regimes under the dynamic climates of the Holocene.
A 5600-yr history of changing vegetation, sea levels and human impacts from the Black Sea coast of Georgia
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 2007
Abstract: Mid-late Holocene pollen evidence from the Ispani-II Sphagnum bog in lowland Western Georgia shows that 4500 years ago Castanea (chestnut)-dominated woods rapidly declined to be replaced by alder sw s and, later, during the first millennium bc, by open, marshy landscapes in which fire played a prominent part. Around 1900 years ago, Sphagnum blanket bog encroached on the marshes and dense Fagus-Carpinus (beech-hornbeam) forest enveloped the surrounding land. This vegetation remained until the mid-twentieth century, when forests were clear-felled and marshes were drained for large-scale, mechanized agriculture. Previous studies have emphasized climate’s governing role in setting the course of Holocene vegetation development in lowland Western Georgia, but our results provide little support for this hypothesis. To a much greater degree, episodes of coastal subsidence, sea-level rise and human impact have shaped the vegetation history of coastal Western Caucasus.
Pollen and plant diversity relationships in a Mediterranean montane area
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-11-2021
Long‐term drivers and timing of accelerated vegetation changes in African biomes and their management implications
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-05-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.13518
Abstract: Owing to its erse bioclimatic zones, long human history and intense anthropogenic impacts, Africa provides a model system for studying how global terrestrial ecosystems might respond to accelerated socio‐environmental stress. Africa is particularly vulnerable to climate change and human impact, and insufficient baseline data h er current environmental management efforts. Using palaeoecological data, we seek to identify the timing, pace and drivers of change in African biomes on a long‐term scale to inform current ecosystem management frameworks on the continent. Africa. 0–12 ka. African biomes. Sixty‐four pollen records across Africa and nearby sites were retrieved from multiple databases/sources and grouped into biomes. Turnover (quantified using the squared chord distance dissimilarity metric) and rarefaction analyses were conducted on pollen records in each biome group to reconstruct regional temporal vegetation turnover and richness. Reconstructed vegetation turnover and richness were compared with independent records of climate, fire and human activity to identify possible drivers of change. We found that the most stable biomes were those with the greatest floristic richness. Southern Africa's mediterranean‐type (SAM) ecosystems were the most stable and northern Africa's mediterranean‐type (NAM) ecosystems were the most unstable (mainly owing to fire). Tropical savannas (TS) and SAM ecosystems expressed the most sensitivity to climatic shifts from ≥6 ka, whereas tropical forests (TF) were relatively stable before human activities intensified from c . 2 ka. Floristic richness also declined across the tropics from c . 2 ka. Our analysis pinpoints NAM ecosystems as undergoing the fastest acceleration in turnover on the continent in response to fire, whereas TF and TS have been undergoing unprecedented changes in bio ersity in the last 2,000 years. We expect further changes in bio ersity where climate becomes warmer and drier and where human impacts are novel and rapid in comparison to long‐term baselines.
Assessing changes in global fire regimes
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 08-02-2023
DOI: 10.1101/2023.02.07.527551
Abstract: Human activity has fundamentally altered wildfire on Earth, creating serious consequences for human health, global bio ersity, and climate change. However, it remains difficult to predict fire interactions with land use, management, and climate change, representing a serious knowledge gap and vulnerability. We used expert assessment to combine opinions about past and future fire regimes from 98 wildfire researchers. We asked for quantitative and qualitative assessments of the frequency, type, and implications of fire regime change from the beginning of the Holocene through the year 2300. Respondents indicated that direct human activity was already influencing wildfires locally since at least ~ 12,000 years BP, though natural climate variability remained the dominant driver of fire regime until around 5000 years BP. Responses showed a ten-fold increase in the rate of wildfire regime change during the last 250 years compared with the rest of the Holocene, corresponding first with the intensification and extensification of land use and later with anthropogenic climate change. Looking to the future, fire regimes were predicted to intensify, with increases in fire frequency, severity, and/or size in all biomes except grassland ecosystems. Fire regime showed quite different climate sensitivities across biomes, but the likelihood of fire regime change increased with higher greenhouse gas emission scenarios for all biomes. Bio ersity, carbon storage, and other ecosystem services were predicted to decrease for most biomes under higher emission scenarios. We present recommendations for adaptation and mitigation under emerging fire regimes, concluding that management options are seriously constrained under higher emission scenarios.
A survey of modern pollen and vegetation along an altitudinal transect in southern Georgia, Caucasus region
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2004
Testate amoebae and tintinnids as spatial and seasonal indicators in the intertidal margins of Guadiana Estuary (southeastern Portugal)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2015
The Curse of Conservation: Empirical Evidence Demonstrating That Changes in Land-Use Legislation Drove Catastrophic Bushfires in Southeast Australia
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 26-10-2022
DOI: 10.3390/FIRE5060175
Abstract: Protecting “wilderness” and removing human involvement in “nature” was a core pillar of the modern conservation movement through the 20th century. Conservation approaches and legislation informed by this narrative fail to recognise that Aboriginal people have long valued, used, and shaped most landscapes on Earth. Aboriginal people curated open and fire-safe Country for millennia with fire in what are now forested and fire-prone regions. Settler land holders recognised the importance of this and mimicked these practices. The Land Conservation Act of 1970 in Victoria, Australia, prohibited burning by settler land holders in an effort to protect natural landscapes. We present a 120-year record of vegetation and fire regime change from Gunaikurnai Country, southeast Australia. Our data demonstrate that catastrophic bushfires first impacted the local area immediately following the prohibition of settler burning in 1970, which allowed a rapid increase in flammable eucalypts that resulted in the onset of catastrophic bushfires. Our data corroborate local narratives on the root causes of the current bushfire crisis. Perpetuation of the wilderness myth in conservation may worsen this crisis, and it is time to listen to and learn from Indigenous and local people, and to empower these communities to drive research and management agendas.
A long-term perspective on biomass burning in the Serra da Estrela, Portugal
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2012
Fire and the Transformation of Landscapes
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date: 20-10-2022
DOI: 10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780190095611.013.12
Abstract: Australia is a fire-prone continent, and its long-term history of burning is the product of millennia of interactions between climatic and cultural fire. Australia is also highly erse, both in terms of landscape composition and fire regimes, as well as ecosystem responses to fire-regime changes. This article presents a compilation of research on Holocene fire histories across major climatic and biogeographic zones of Australia into New Guinea. It then brings together research on pollen-based vegetation change and fire history for key sites within each zone. The result is a series of ecosystem ‘fire moments’ that explore fire’s role as an environmental transformer, an artefact of climate, vegetation, and culture. This article seeks to promote collaborative research in the examination of fire and its effects in time and space, ultimately seeking fine-resolution transdisciplinary studies that encompass a range of knowledge systems in partnership research and as a means to address future methodological challenges.
Sediment cores as archives of historical changes in floodplain lake hydrology
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2016
DOI: 10.1016/J.SCITOTENV.2015.11.153
Abstract: Anthropogenic activities are contributing to the changing hydrology of rivers, often resulting in their degradation. Understanding the drivers and nature of these changes is critical for the design and implementation of effective mitigation strategies for these systems. However, this can be hindered by gaps in historical measured flow data. This study therefore aims to use sediment cores to identify historical hydrological changes within a river catchment. Sediment cores from two floodplain lakes (billabongs) in the urbanised Yarra River catchment (Melbourne, South-East Australia) were collected and high resolution images, trends in magnetic susceptibility and trends in elemental composition through the sedimentary records were obtained. These were used to infer historical changes in river hydrology to determine both average trends in hydrology (i.e., coarse temporal resolution) as well as discrete flood layers in the sediment cores (i.e., fine temporal resolution). Through the 20th century, both billabongs became increasingly disconnected from the river, as demonstrated by the decreasing trends in magnetic susceptibility, particle size and inorganic matter in the cores. Additionally the number of discrete flood layers decreased up the cores. These reconstructed trends correlate with measured flow records of the river through the 20th century, which validates the methodology that has been used in this study. Not only does this study provide evidence on how natural catchments can be affected by land-use intensification and urbanisation, but it also introduces a general analytical framework that could be applied to other river systems to assist in the design of hydrological management strategies.
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