Contrasting Holocene environmental histories may explain patterns of species richness and rarity in a Central European landscape

0455589 - BÚ 2017 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Hájek, M. - Dudová, Lydie - Hájková, Petra - Roleček, Jan - Moutelíková, J. - Jamrichová, Eva - Horsák, M.
Contrasting Holocene environmental histories may explain patterns of species richness and rarity in a Central European landscape.
Quaternary Science Reviews. Roč. 133, FEB 1 2016 (2016), s. 48-61. ISSN 0277-3791. E-ISSN 1873-457X
Institutional support: RVO:67985939
Keywords : species pool * extreme species richness * biogeography * Carpathians * palaeoecology
Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour
Impact factor: 4.797, year: 2016

We analysed pollen, macrofossils and molluscs and dated the sequence with 13 radiocarbon dates. We further reconstructed past human activities using available archaeological evidence. All available evidence confirmed an early post-Glacial expansion of broad-leaved trees, supporting the hypothesis on their glacial refugia in the Carpathians, as well as presence of closed-canopy forest well before the Neolithic. This environmental history was unfavourable for the survival of Early-Holocene forest-steppe species in the north-eastern White Carpathians and may explain the impoverished grassland flora compared to the south-western part. We conclude that contrasting Holocene histories may explain those patterns in species richness and distributions, which cannot be explained by recent environmental conditions alone.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0262706