Biodiversity responses to Lateglacial climate change in the subdecadally-resolved record of Lake Hämelsee (Germany)

authored by: S. Engels, C. S. Lane, W. Z. Hoek, I. Baneschi, A. Bouwman, E. Brogan, C. Bronk Ramsey, J. Collins, R. de Bruijn, A. Haliuc, O. Heiri, K. Hubay, G. Jones, V. Jones, A. Laug, J. Merkt, F. Muschitiello, T. Peters, F. Peterse, A. Pueschel, R. A. Staff, A. ter Schure, F. Turner, V. van den Bos, F. Wagner-Cremer, Meike Müller
Abstract: Anthropogenically-driven climate warming and land use change are the main causes of an ongoing decrease in global biodiversity. It is unclear how ecosystems, particularly freshwater habitats, will respond to such continuous and potentially intensifying disruptions. Here we analyse how different components of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems responded to natural climate change during the Lateglacial. By applying a range of analytical techniques (sedimentology, palaeoecology, geochemistry) to the well-dated sediment archive from Lake Hämelsee (Germany), we show evidence for vegetation development, landscape dynamics and aquatic ecosystem change typical for northwest Europe during the Lateglacial. By particularly focussing on periods of abrupt climate change, we determine the timing and duration of changes in biodiversity in response to external forcing. We show that onsets of changes in biodiversity indicators (e.g. diatom composition, Pediastrum concentrations) lag changes in environmental records (e.g. loss-on-ignition) by a few decades, particularly at the Allerød/Younger Dryas transition. Most biodiversity indicators showed transition times of 10–50 years, whereas environmental records typically showed a 50–100 year long transition. In some cases, transition times observed for the compositional turnover or productivity records were up to 185 years, which could have been the result of the combined effects of direct (e.g. climate) and indirect (e.g. lake stratification) drivers of ecosystem change. Our results show differences in timing and duration of biodiversity responses to external disturbances, suggesting that a multi-decadal view needs to be taken when designing effective conservation management of freshwater ecosystems under current global warming.
Organisation(s): Institute of Geobotany
External Organisation(s): Birkbeck University of London
University of Cambridge
Utrecht University
Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources (IGG), Pisa Section
University College London (UCL)
University of Oxford
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ)
Geological Survey of the Netherlands (GDN)
Stefan Cel Mare University
University of Basel
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Swansea University
Technische Universität Braunschweig
University of Glasgow
University of Oslo
GNS Science
University of Amsterdam
Type: Article
Journal: Quaternary science reviews
Volume: 331
No. of pages: 20
ISSN: 0277-3791
Publication date: 01.05.2024
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Global and Planetary Change, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Archaeology, Archaeology, Geology
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 13 - Climate Action, SDG 15 - Life on Land
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108634 (Access: Open)

BibTeX

@article{f4937d09b0ed44039f0e155920d0d633,
title = "Biodiversity responses to Lateglacial climate change in the subdecadally-resolved record of Lake H{\"a}melsee (Germany)",
abstract = "Anthropogenically-driven climate warming and land use change are the main causes of an ongoing decrease in global biodiversity. It is unclear how ecosystems, particularly freshwater habitats, will respond to such continuous and potentially intensifying disruptions. Here we analyse how different components of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems responded to natural climate change during the Lateglacial. By applying a range of analytical techniques (sedimentology, palaeoecology, geochemistry) to the well-dated sediment archive from Lake H{\"a}melsee (Germany), we show evidence for vegetation development, landscape dynamics and aquatic ecosystem change typical for northwest Europe during the Lateglacial. By particularly focussing on periods of abrupt climate change, we determine the timing and duration of changes in biodiversity in response to external forcing. We show that onsets of changes in biodiversity indicators (e.g. diatom composition, Pediastrum concentrations) lag changes in environmental records (e.g. loss-on-ignition) by a few decades, particularly at the Aller{\o}d/Younger Dryas transition. Most biodiversity indicators showed transition times of 10–50 years, whereas environmental records typically showed a 50–100 year long transition. In some cases, transition times observed for the compositional turnover or productivity records were up to 185 years, which could have been the result of the combined effects of direct (e.g. climate) and indirect (e.g. lake stratification) drivers of ecosystem change. Our results show differences in timing and duration of biodiversity responses to external disturbances, suggesting that a multi-decadal view needs to be taken when designing effective conservation management of freshwater ecosystems under current global warming.",
keywords = "Biodiversity, Europe, Lake sediment, Multi-proxy, Palaeoenvironment, Productivity, Younger Dryas",
author = "S. Engels and Lane, {C. S.} and Hoek, {W. Z.} and I. Baneschi and A. Bouwman and E. Brogan and {Bronk Ramsey}, C. and J. Collins and {de Bruijn}, R. and A. Haliuc and O. Heiri and K. Hubay and G. Jones and V. Jones and A. Laug and J. Merkt and F. Muschitiello and T. Peters and F. Peterse and A. Pueschel and Staff, {R. A.} and {ter Schure}, A. and F. Turner and {van den Bos}, V. and F. Wagner-Cremer and Meike M{\"u}ller",
note = "Funding Information: This study forms a contribution to the INTIMATE project (INTegrating Ice core, MArine and Terrestrial records, http://intimate.nbi.ku.dk/ ) and follows on from the INTIMATE Example 2013 Research and Training school (COST action ES0907). We thank all the participants in the INTIMATE Example 2013 training school for their contribution to this research. We would also like to thank Camping Rittergut H\u00E4melsee for giving access to the site and the coring team Hans van Aken, David Maas and Hessel Woolderink. We thank Marjolein Gouw-Bouman for help with selecting macro-remains for 14 C dating, Dirk Sachse for supporting the n-alkane and stable isotope analysis and Achim Brauer for supporting the XRF and varve analysis. AH acknowledges support by a grant of the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization, CNCS - UEFISCDI , project number PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2021-0465 , within PNCDI III ( https://uefiscdi.gov.ro ). We would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers and editor prof. Rioual for their constructive comments that helped to improve the manuscript. ",
year = "2024",
month = may,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108634",
language = "English",
volume = "331",
journal = "Quaternary science reviews",
issn = "0277-3791",
publisher = "Elsevier Ltd.",
}