@article{WoutersenJardineGiovanniBogotaAngeletal.2018,
  author    = {Woutersen, Amber and Jardine, Phillip E. and Giovanni Bogota-Angel, Raul and Zhang, Hong-Xiang and Silvestro, Daniele and Antonelli, Alexandre and Gogna, Elena and Erkens, Roy H. J. and Gosling, William D. and Dupont-Nivet, Guillaume and Hoorn, Carina},
  title     = {A novel approach to study the morphology and chemistry of pollen in a phylogenetic context, applied to the halophytic taxon Nitraria L.(Nitrariaceae)},
  series = {PeerJ},
  volume    = {6},
  journal   = {PeerJ},
  publisher = {PeerJ Inc.},
  address   = {London},
  issn      = {2167-8359},
  doi       = {10.7717/peerj.5055},
  pages     = {31},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {Nitraria is a halophytic taxon (i.e., adapted to saline environments) that belongs to the plant family Nitrariaceae and is distributed from the Mediterranean, across Asia into the south-eastern tip of Australia. This taxon is thought to have originated in Asia during the Paleogene (66-23 Ma), alongside the proto-Paratethys epicontinental sea. The evolutionary history of Nitraria might hold important clues on the links between climatic and biotic evolution but limited taxonomic documentation of this taxon has thus far hindered this line of research. Here we investigate if the pollen morphology and the chemical composition of the pollen wall are informative of the evolutionary history of Nitraria and could explain if origination along the proto-Paratethys and dispersal to the Tibetan Plateau was simultaneous or a secondary process. To answer these questions, we applied a novel approach consisting of a combination of Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), to determine the chemical composition of the pollen wall, and pollen morphological analyses using Light Microscopy (LM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). We analysed our data using ordinations (principal components analysis and non-metric multidimensional scaling), and directly mapped it on the Nitrariaceae phylogeny to produce a phylomorphospace and a phylochemospace. Our LM, SEM and FTIR analyses show clear morphological and chemical differences between the sister groups Peganum and Nitraria. Differences in the morphological and chemical characteristics of highland species (Nitraria schoberi, N. sphaerocarpa, N. sibirica and N. tangutorum) and lowland species (Nitraria billardierei and N. retusa) are very subtle, with phylogenetic history appearing to be a more important control on Nitraria pollen than local environmental conditions. Our approach shows a compelling consistency between the chemical and morphological characteristics of the eight studied Nitrariaceae species, and these traits are in agreement with the phylogenetic tree. Taken together, this demonstrates how novel methods for studying fossil pollen can facilitate the evolutionary investigation of living and extinct taxa, and the environments they represent.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{JulierJardineAduBreduetal.2017,
  author    = {Julier, Adele C. M. and Jardine, Phillip E. and Adu-Bredu, Stephen and Coe, Angela L. and Duah-Gyamfi, Akwasi and Fraser, Wesley T. and Lomax, Barry H. and Malhi, Yadvinder and Moore, Sam and Owusu-Afriyie, Kennedy and Gosling, William D.},
  title     = {The modern pollen-vegetation relationships of a tropical forest-savannah mosaic landscape, Ghana, West Africa},
  series = {Palynology},
  volume    = {42},
  journal   = {Palynology},
  number    = {3},
  publisher = {Taylor \& Francis Group},
  address   = {Philadelphia},
  issn      = {0191-6122},
  doi       = {10.1080/01916122.2017.1356392},
  pages     = {324 -- 338},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {Transitions between forest and savannah vegetation types in fossil pollen records are often poorly understood due to over-production by taxa such as Poaceae and a lack of modern pollen-vegetation studies. Here, modern pollen assemblages from within a forest-savannah transition in West Africa are presented and compared, their characteristic taxa discussed, and implications for the fossil record considered. Fifteen artificial pollen traps were deployed for 1 year, to collect pollen rain from three vegetation plots within the forest-savannah transition in Ghana. High percentages of Poaceae and Melastomataceae/Combretaceae were recorded in all three plots. Erythrophleum suaveolens characterised the forest plot, Manilkara obovata the transition plot and Terminalia the savannah plot. The results indicate that Poaceae pollen influx rates provide the best representation of the forest-savannah gradient, and that a Poaceae abundance of >40\% should be considered as indicative of savannah-type vegetation in the fossil record.},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{GoslingScerriKabothBahr2022,
  author    = {Gosling, William D. and Scerri, Eleanor and Kaboth-Bahr, Stefanie},
  title     = {The climate and vegetation backdrop to hominin evolution in Africa},
  series = {Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London : B, Biological sciences},
  volume    = {377},
  journal   = {Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London : B, Biological sciences},
  number    = {1849},
  publisher = {Royal Society},
  address   = {London},
  issn      = {0962-8436},
  doi       = {10.1098/rstb.2020.0483},
  pages     = {11},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {The most profound shift in the African hydroclimate of the last 1 million years occurred around 300 thousand years (ka) ago. This change in African hydroclimate is manifest as an east-west change in moisture balance that cannot be fully explained through linkages to high latitude climate systems. The east-west shift is, instead, probably driven by a shift in the tropical Walker Circulation related to sea surface temperature change driven by orbital forcing. Comparing records of past vegetation change, and hominin evolution and development, with this breakpoint in the climate system is challenging owing to the paucity of study sites available and uncertainties regarding the dating of records. Notwithstanding these uncertainties we find that, broadly speaking, both vegetation and hominins change around 300 ka. The vegetative backdrop suggests that relative abundance of vegetative resources shifted from western to eastern Africa, although resources would have persisted across the continent. The climatic and vegetation changes probably provided challenges for hominins and are broadly coincident with the appearance of Homo sapiens (ca 315 ka) and the emergence of Middle Stone Age technology. The concomitant changes in climate, vegetation and hominin evolution suggest that these factors are closely intertwined. This article is part of the theme issue 'Tropical forests in the deep human past'.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{GoslingJulierAduBreduetal.2018,
  author    = {Gosling, William D. and Julier, Adele C. M. and Adu-Bredu, Stephen and Djagbletey, Gloria D. and Fraser, Wesley T. and Jardine, Phillip E. and Lomax, Barry H. and Malhi, Yadvinder and Manu, Emmanuel A. and Mayle, Francis E. and Moore, Sam},
  title     = {Pollen-vegetation richness and diversity relationships in the tropics},
  series = {Vegetation History and Archaeobotany},
  volume    = {27},
  journal   = {Vegetation History and Archaeobotany},
  number    = {2},
  publisher = {Springer},
  address   = {New York},
  issn      = {0939-6314},
  doi       = {10.1007/s00334-017-0642-y},
  pages     = {411 -- 418},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {Tracking changes in biodiversity through time requires an understanding of the relationship between modern diversity and how this diversity is preserved in the fossil record. Fossil pollen is one way in which past vegetation diversity can be reconstructed. However, there is limited understanding of modern pollen-vegetation diversity relationships from biodiverse tropical ecosystems. Here, pollen (palynological) richness and diversity (Hill N (1)) are compared with vegetation richness and diversity from forest and savannah ecosystems in the New World and Old World tropics (Neotropics and Palaeotropics). Modern pollen data were obtained from artificial pollen traps deployed in 1-ha vegetation study plots from which vegetation inventories had been completed in Bolivia and Ghana. Pollen counts were obtained from 15 to 22 traps per plot, and aggregated pollen sums for each plot were > 2,500. The palynological richness/diversity values from the Neotropics were moist evergreen forest = 86/6.8, semi-deciduous dry forest = 111/21.9, wooded savannah = 138/31.5, and from the Palaeotropics wet evergreen forest = 144/28.3, semi-deciduous moist forest = 104/4.4, forest-savannah transition = 121/14.1; the corresponding vegetation richness/diversity was 100/36.7, 80/38.7 and 71/39.4 (Neotropics), and 101/54.8, 87/45.5 and 71/34.5 (Palaeotropics). No consistent relationship was found between palynological richness/diversity, and plot vegetation richness/diversity, due to the differential influence of other factors such as landscape diversity, pollination strategy, and pollen source area. Palynological richness exceeded vegetation richness, while pollen diversity was lower than vegetation diversity. The relatively high global diversity of tropical vegetation was found to be reflected in the pollen rain.},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{GoslingJulierAduBreduetal.2017,
  author    = {Gosling, William D. and Julier, Adele C. M. and Adu-Bredu, Stephen and Djagbletey, Gloria D. and Fraser, Wesley T. and Jardine, Phillip E. and Lomax, Barry H. and Malhi, Yadvinder and Manu, Emmanuel A. and Mayle, Francis E. and Moore, Sam},
  title     = {Pollen-vegetation richness and diversity relationships in the tropics},
  series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  journal   = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe},
  number    = {562},
  issn      = {1866-8372},
  doi       = {10.25932/publishup-42308},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-423081},
  pages     = {8},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {Tracking changes in biodiversity through time requires an understanding of the relationship between modern diversity and how this diversity is preserved in the fossil record. Fossil pollen is one way in which past vegetation diversity can be reconstructed. However, there is limited understanding of modern pollen-vegetation diversity relationships from biodiverse tropical ecosystems. Here, pollen (palynological) richness and diversity (Hill N (1)) are compared with vegetation richness and diversity from forest and savannah ecosystems in the New World and Old World tropics (Neotropics and Palaeotropics). Modern pollen data were obtained from artificial pollen traps deployed in 1-ha vegetation study plots from which vegetation inventories had been completed in Bolivia and Ghana. Pollen counts were obtained from 15 to 22 traps per plot, and aggregated pollen sums for each plot were > 2,500. The palynological richness/diversity values from the Neotropics were moist evergreen forest = 86/6.8, semi-deciduous dry forest = 111/21.9, wooded savannah = 138/31.5, and from the Palaeotropics wet evergreen forest = 144/28.3, semi-deciduous moist forest = 104/4.4, forest-savannah transition = 121/14.1; the corresponding vegetation richness/diversity was 100/36.7, 80/38.7 and 71/39.4 (Neotropics), and 101/54.8, 87/45.5 and 71/34.5 (Palaeotropics). No consistent relationship was found between palynological richness/diversity, and plot vegetation richness/diversity, due to the differential influence of other factors such as landscape diversity, pollination strategy, and pollen source area. Palynological richness exceeded vegetation richness, while pollen diversity was lower than vegetation diversity. The relatively high global diversity of tropical vegetation was found to be reflected in the pollen rain.},
  language  = {en}
}