Impacts of changing climate and land use on vegetation dynamics in a Mediterranean ecosystem: insights from paleoecology and dynamic modeling

Forests near the Mediterranean coast have been shaped by millennia of human disturbance. Consequently, ecological studies relying on modern observations or historical records may have difficulty assessing natural vegetation dynamics under current and future climate. We combined a sedimentary pollen record from Lago di Massacciucoli, Tuscany, Italy with simulations from the LandClim dynamic vegetation model to determine what vegetation preceded intense human disturbance, how past changes in vegetation relate to fire and browsing, and the potential of an extinct vegetation type under present climate. We simulated vegetation dynamics near Lago di Massaciucoli for the last 7,000years using a local chironomid-inferred temperature reconstruction with combinations of three fire regimes (small infrequent, large infrequent, small frequent) and three browsing intensities (no browsing, light browsing, and moderate browsing), and compared model output to pollen data. Simulations with low disturbance support pollen-inferred evidence for a mixed forest dominated by Quercus ilex (a Mediterranean species) and Abies alba (a montane species). Whereas pollen data record the collapse of A. alba after 6000calyr bp, simulated populations expanded with declining summer temperatures during the late Holocene. Simulations with increased fire and browsing are consistent with evidence for expansion by deciduous species after A. alba collapsed. According to our combined paleo-environmental and modeling evidence, mixed Q. ilex and A. alba forests remain possible with current climate and limited disturbance, and provide a viable management objective for ecosystems near the Mediterranean coast and in regions that are expected to experience a mediterranean-type climate in the futur

Long-Term Responses of Mediterranean Mountain Forests to Climate Change, Fire and Human Activities in the Northern Apennines (Italy)

Fagus sylvatica (beech) dominates the montane forests of the Apennines and builds old-growth high-conservation value stands. However, recent severe drought-induced diebacks raise concern on the future persistence of these forests and of Southern European mesophilous woodlands overall, growing at their dry edge. To explore the history of Apennine beech-dominated forests, we draw on the multiproxy paleoecological record from Lago Verdarolo, which includes a robust vegetation-independent temperature reconstruction. Numerical techniques are used to investigate the drivers of long-term Mediterranean mountain forest dynamics. Specifically, we focus on disentangling the ecological factors that caused the shift from high-diversity mixed forests to beech-dominated stands and on assessing the occurrence of legacy effects on present-day forests. Abrupt climate change largely drove vegetation dynamics during the Late Glacial and Early Holocene. Species-rich mixed Abies alba (silver fir) forests dominated about 10,500—5500 years ago, under rather dry and warmer-than-today conditions (+ 1—2 °C) and limited fire occurrence. Cooler and moister summers and increasing fire activity caused declines in several fire-sensitive temperate deciduous trees (for example, Ulmus, Tilia, Fraxinus) and favored the establishment of fir-beech forests around 5500 years ago. Further enhancement of fire activity and farming around 2000 years ago led to local Abies alba extinction and forest impoverishment. We conclude that the currently widespread monospecific Apennine beech forests are the result of multi-millennial land-use intensification superimposed on Late Holocene cooling and moistening. Given their higher drought-tolerance compared to beech stands, reviving ancient species-rich mixed fir forests represents a feasible and ‘tested’ possibility to adapt forests to climate change

Nanostructured materials based on the integration of ferrocenyl-tethered dendrimer and redox proteins on self-assembled monolayers: an efficient biosensor interface

In this paper we report the use of ferrocenyl-tethered dendrimer (Fc-D) as an electrode modifier supported by a self-assembled monolayer coated gold surface. The pretreatment of electrodes with Fc-D allows the covalent immobilization of glucose oxidase. The resulting integrated hybrid system provides electrical contact between the redox center of the enzyme and the electrode, and improves the overall bioelectrocatalyzed oxidation of glucose. Cyclic voltammetry combined with surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is used to investigate the redox-induced orientation changes of ferrocene-tethered dendrimers and the optimal electrical wiring of the enzyme, depending on the length of the alkyl chain of the ferrocene-tethered groups. The amount of substrate controls the steady-state concentration ratio of Fc/Fc(+) in the film composition. Therefore, the SPR spectrum of the film is controlled by the reversible change in the refractive index of the enzyme-integrated redox film. The proposed method demonstrates a new procedure for developing a stable amperometric redox enzyme-based sensor by designing a new nanostructured material that control the biosensing performance

Warm Mediterranean mid-Holocene summers inferred from fossil midge assemblages

Understanding past climate trends is key for reliable projections of global warming and associated risks and hazards. Uncomfortably large discrepancies between vegetation-based summer temperature reconstructions (mainly based on pollen) and climate model results have been reported for the current interglacial, the Holocene. For the Mediterranean region these reconstructions indicate cooler-than-present mid-Holocene summers, in contrast with expectations based on climate models and long-term changes in summer insolation. We present new quantitative and replicated Holocene summer temperature reconstructions based on fossil chironomid midges from the northern central Mediterranean region. The Holocene thermal maximum is reconstructed 9,000–5,000 years ago and estimated to have been 1–2 °C warmer in mean July temperature than the recent pre-industrial period, consistent with glacier and marine records, and with transient climate model runs. This combined evidence implies that widely used pollen-based summer temperature reconstructions in the Mediterranean area are significantly biased by precipitation or other forcings such as early land use. Our interpretation can resolve the previous discrepancy between climate models and quantitative palaeotemperature records for millennial-scale Holocene summer temperature trends in the Mediterranean region. It also suggests that pollen-based evidence for cool mid-Holocene summers in other semi-arid to arid regions of the Northern Hemisphere may have to be reconsidered, with potential implications for global-scale reconstructions

Impacts of changing climate and land use on vegetation dynamics in a Mediterranean ecosystem: Insights from paleoecology and dynamic modeling

ISSN:0921-2973ISSN:1572-976

Vegetation History of the Upper Leventina Valley from Neolithic to Roman Times, Recorded by Pollen, Spores, Plant Macrofossils, and Charcoal

We use pollen, spores plant macrofossils, microscopic charcoal and radiocarbon dates to reconstruct vegetation changes in the upper Leventina valley (Ticino, Swiss Alps) since the beginning of the Neolithic. Two mires and two lakes were investigated in the framework of several palaeoecological projects interrelated with archaeological investigations at the Airolo-Madrano (Ticino) archaeological site. Our records suggest that first transient openings of vegetation started during the Early Neolithic around 5200 cal BC caused by early agricultural activities. With increasing human disturbance Picea abies (spruce) gradually almost completely replaced Abies alba (silver fir) in the montane belt and Pinus cembra (stone pine) in the subalpine belt. A few centuries after the beginning of the Bronze Age (ca. 2000 cal BC) forest fires increased moderately in the upper Leventina valley, and in the montane and subalpine belts Alnus viridis (green alder) expanded, pointing to a further moderate increase of land use. Besides grazing, cereals were cultivated at favourable sites from the lowlands to the subalpine belt. Only during and after the Roman period the landscape became more open, likely as a consequence of the use of efficient cultivation tools (e.g. scythes) and approaches (e.g. hay making). Today's landscape including the remaining forests is thus the result of millennium-long human activities aiming at forming and keeping an environment that is suitable for land use

Validation of climate model-inferred regional temperature change for late-glacial Europe

Comparisons of climate model hindcasts with independent proxy data are essential for assessing model performance in non-analogue situations. However, standardized palaeoclimate data sets for assessing the spatial pattern of past climatic change across continents are lacking for some of the most dynamic episodes of Earth’s recent past. Here we present a new chironomid-based palaeotemperature dataset designed to assess climate model hindcasts of regional summer temperature change in Europe during the late-glacial and early Holocene. Latitudinal and longitudinal patterns of inferred temperature change are in excellent agreement with simulations by the ECHAM-4 model, implying that atmospheric general circulation models like ECHAM-4 can successfully predict regionally diverging temperature trends in Europe, even when conditions differ significantly from present. However, ECHAM-4 infers larger amplitudes of change and higher temperatures during warm phases than our palaeotemperature estimates, suggesting that this and similar models may overestimate past and potentially also future summer temperature changes in Europe