@article{TianQinZhangetal.2022, author = {Tian, Fang and Qin, Wen and Zhang, Ran and Herzschuh, Ulrike and Ni, Jian and Zhang, Chengjun and Mischke, Steffen and Cao, Xianyong}, title = {Palynological evidence for the temporal stability of the plant community in the Yellow River Source Area over the last 7,400 years}, series = {Vegetation history and archaeobotany}, volume = {31}, journal = {Vegetation history and archaeobotany}, number = {6}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {New York}, issn = {0939-6314}, doi = {10.1007/s00334-022-00870-5}, pages = {549 -- 558}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The terrestrial ecosystem in the Yellow River Source Area (YRSA) is sensitive to climate change and human impacts, although past vegetation change and the degree of human disturbance are still largely unknown. A 170-cm-long sediment core covering the last 7,400 years was collected from Lake Xingxinghai (XXH) in the YRSA. Pollen, together with a series of other environmental proxies (including grain size, total organic carbon (TOC) and carbonate content), were analysed to explore past vegetation and environmental changes for the YRSA. Dominant and common pollen components-Cyperaceae, Poaceae, Artemisia, Chenopodiaceae and Asteraceae-are stable throughout the last 7,400 years. Slight vegetation change is inferred from an increasing trend of Cyperaceae and decreasing trend of Poaceae, suggesting that alpine steppe was replaced by alpine meadow at ca. 3.5 ka cal bp. The vegetation transformation indicates a generally wetter climate during the middle and late Holocene, which is supported by increased amounts of TOC and Pediastrum (representing high water-level) and is consistent with previous past climate records from the north-eastern Tibetan Plateau. Our results find no evidence of human impact on the regional vegetation surrounding XXH, hence we conclude the vegetation change likely reflects the regional climate signal.}, language = {en} } @article{MoradiFakheranPeintingeretal.2012, author = {Moradi, H. and Fakheran, S. and Peintinger, M. and Bergamini, A. and Schmid, B. and Joshi, Jasmin Radha}, title = {Profiteers of environmental change in the Swiss Alps increase of thermophilous and generalist plants in wetland ecosystems within the last 10 years}, series = {Alpine botany}, volume = {122}, journal = {Alpine botany}, number = {1}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Basel}, issn = {1664-2201}, doi = {10.1007/s00035-012-0102-3}, pages = {45 -- 56}, year = {2012}, abstract = {It has been predicted that Europe will experience a rise in temperature of 2.2-5.3 A degrees C within this century. This increase in temperature may lead to vegetation change along altitudinal gradients. To test whether vegetation composition has already changed in the recent decade due to current warming (and other concomitant environmental changes), we recorded plant species composition in 1995 and 2005/2006 in Swiss pre-alpine fen meadows (800-1,400 m a.s.l.). Despite no obvious changes in the management of these fens, overall, plant species richness (cumulative number of plant species at five plots per site) significantly increased over this period. This was mainly due to an increase in the number of thermophilous, rich-soil-indicator and shade-indicator species, which corresponded to increased community productivity and shading within the vegetation layer. In contrast, fen specialists significantly declined in species numbers. The strongest species shifts occurred at the lowest sites, which overall had a higher colonization rate by new species than did sites at higher altitudes. Vegetation change along the altitudinal gradient was also affected by different types of land management: early-flowering species and species with low habitat specificity had high colonization rates in grazed fens, especially at low altitudes.}, language = {en} }