Gordon, Jonathan, Fagan, Brennen orcid.org/0000-0002-8451-920X, Thomas, Chris D orcid.org/0000-0003-2822-1334 et al. (1 more author) (2024) Floristic diversity and its relationships with human land use varied regionally during the Holocene. Nature Ecology and Evolution. ISSN 2397-334X
Abstract
Humans have caused growing levels of ecosystem and diversity changes at a global scale in recent centuries but longer-term diversity trends and how they are affected by human impacts are less well understood. Analysing data from 64,305 pollen samples from 1,763 pollen records revealed substantial community changes (turnover) and reductions in diversity (richness and evenness) in the first ~1,500 to ~4,000 years of the Holocene epoch (starting 11,700 years ago). Turnover and diversity generally increased thereafter, starting ~6,000 to ~1,000 years ago, although the timings, magnitudes and even directions of these changes varied among continents, biomes and sites. Here, modelling these diversity changes, we find that most metrics of biodiversity change are associated with human impacts (anthropogenic land-cover change estimates for the last 8,000 years), often positively but the magnitudes, timings and sometimes directions of associations differed among continents and biomes and sites also varied. Once-forested parts of the world tended to exhibit biodiversity increases while open areas tended to decline. These regionally specific relationships between humans and floristic diversity highlight that human–biodiversity relationships have generated positive diversity responses in some locations and negative responses in others, for over 8,000 years.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (York) > Archaeology (York) The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Biology (York) The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Mathematics (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 31 Jul 2024 14:40 |
Last Modified: | 21 Jan 2025 18:14 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02457-x |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41559-024-02457-x |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:215627 |