Four thousand years of vegetation and fire history in the spruce forests of northern Kyrgyzstan (Kungey Alatau,Central Asia)

Analyses of pollen, macrofossils and microscopic charcoal in the sediment of a small sub-alpine lake (Karakol, Kyrgyzstan) provide new data to reconstruct the vegetation history of the Kungey Alatau spruce forest during the late-Holocene, i.e. the past 4,000 years. The pollen data suggest that Picea schrenkiana F. and M. was the dominant tree in this region from the beginning of the record. The pollen record of pronounced die-backs of the forests, along with lithostratigraphical evidence, points to possible climatic cooling (and/or drying) around 3,800 cal year b.p. and between 3,350 and 2,520 cal year b.p., with a culmination at 2,800–2,600 cal b.p., although stable climatic conditions are reported for this region for the past 3,000–4,000 years in previous studies. From 2,500 to 190 cal year b.p. high pollen values of P. schrenkiana suggest rather closed and dense forests under the environmental conditions of that time. A marked decline in spruce forests occurred with the onset of modern human activities in the region from 190 cal year b.p. These results show that the present forests are anthropogenically reduced and represent only about half of their potential natural extent. As P. schrenkiana is a species endemic to the western Tien Shan, it is most likely that its refugium was confined to this region. However, our palaeoecological record is too recent to address this hypothesis thoroughly.     

New insights on stomata analysis of European conifers 65 years after the pioneering study of Werner Trautmann (1953)

Vegetation History and Archaeobotany - Conifer-stomata analysis is an essential part of the palaeoecological toolbox because it allows the determination of the local presence of plant populations...     

Long-term forest fire ecology and dynamics in southern Switzerland

1 Pollen and charcoal analysis at two lakes in southern Switzerland revealed that fire has had a prominent role in changing the woodland composition of this area for more than 7000 years.
2 The sediment of Lago di Origlio for the period between 5100 and 3100  bc cal. was sampled continuously with a time interval of about 10 years. Peaks of charcoal particles were significantly correlated with repeated declines in pollen of Abies , Hedera , Tilia , Ulmus , Fraxinus excelsior t., Fagus and Vitis and with increases in Alnus glutinosa t., shrubs (e.g. Corylus , Salix and Sambucus nigra t.) and several herbaceous species. The final disappearance of the lowland Abies alba stands at around 3150  bc cal. may be an example of a fire-caused local extinction of a fire-intolerant species.
3 Forest fires tended to diminish pollen diversity. The charcoal peaks were preceded by pollen types indicating human activity. Charcoal minima occurred during periods of cold humid climate, when fire susceptibility would be reduced.
4 An increase of forest fires at about 2100  bc cal. severely reduced the remaining fire-sensitive plants: the mixed-oak forest was replaced by a fire-tolerant alder–oak forest. The very strong increase of charcoal influx, and the marked presence of anthropogenic indicators, point to principally anthropogenic causes.
5 We suggest that without anthropogenic disturbances Abies alba would still form lowland forests together with various deciduous broadleaved tree taxa.     

Influence of human impact and bedrock differences on the vegetational history of the Insubrian Southern Alps

Vegetation history for the study region is reconstructed on the basis of pollen, charcoal and AMS¹⁴C investigations of lake sediments from Lago del Segrino (calcareous bedrock) and Lago di Muzzano (siliceous bedrock). Late-glacial forests were characterised byBetula andPinus sylvestris. At the beginning of the Holocene they were replaced by temperate continental forest and shrub communities. A special type of temperate lowland forest, withAbies alba as the most important tree, was present in the period 8300 to 4500 B.P. Subsequently,Fagus, Quercus andAlnus glutinosa were the main forest components andA. alba ceased to be of importance.Castanea sativa andJuglans regia were probably introduced after forest clearance by fire during the first century A.D. On soils derived from siliceous bedrock,C. sativa was already dominant at ca. A.D. 200 (A.D. dates are in calendar years). In limestone areas, however,C. sativa failed to achieve a dominant role. After the introduction ofC. sativa, the main trees were initially oak (Quercus spp.) and later the walnut (Juglans regia). Ostrya carpinifolia became the dominant tree around Lago del Segrino only in the last 100–200 years though it had spread into the area at ca. 5000 cal. B.C. This recent expansion ofOstrya is confirmed at other sites and appears to be controlled by human disturbances involving especially clearance. It is argued that these forests should not be regarded as climax communities. It is suggested that under undisturbed succession they would develop into mixed deciduous forests consisting ofFraxinus excelsior, Tilia, Ulmus, Quercus andAcer.     

Mechanism of monoclonal antibody inhibition/stimulation of reactions catalyzed by cytochrome P450IIB1

We describe two monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against rat cytochrome P450IIB1 and investigate the mechanisms by which they influence P450IIB1-mediated catalysis. MAb ce9 partially inhibits the activities toward p-nitroanisole, 7-ethoxycoumarin, and benzphetamine as well as NADPH oxidation. These findings can be explained by the observation that ce9 cross-links P450 to form large aggregates resulting in the inhibition of the functional interaction with NADPH cytochrome P450 reductase. Binding of ce9 to P450IIB1 does not affect the spin state of the P450 heme, as revealed by comparing the magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectra of free and antibody-bound P450IIB1. On the other hand, the second antibody tested, MAb 14E10, induces a remarkable low to high spin transition upon binding to P450IIB1, as shown by MCD difference spectroscopy. This MAb stimulates activities toward p-nitroanisole and 7-ethoxycoumarin without affecting the rate of NADPH oxidation. This observation indicates that MAb 14E10 may increase the efficiency of electron utilization by P450IIB1. Benzphetamine metabolism remains unchanged in the presence of MAb 14E10.     

Taxon-related pollen source areas for lake basins in the southern Alps: an empirical approach

The pollen/vegetation relationship in broadleaved forests dominated by Castanea sativa was analysed using an empirical approach. The pollen content of surface sediments of three lake basins of different sizes (6.3, 22.2, and 101.2 ha) in Ticino (southern Switzerland) was used for a comparison with the surrounding vegetation. We surveyed the vegetation around the two small lakes, Lago di Origlio and Lago di Muzzano, and estimated the relative crown coverage of tree species. The regional vegetation outside the lake catchment (ca. >1 km) was determined with the data from the first Swiss National Forest Inventory. For the third large lake, basin of Ponte Tresa, we used only this latter approach for comparison with pollen data. We compare uncorrected and corrected pollen percentages with vegetational data that were processed with distance-weighting functions. To assess the degree of correspondence between pollen and vegetation data we define a ratio pollen/vegetation, which allows a comparison at the taxon level. The best fit between total pollen load and vegetation is reached for a distance from the lake shore of ca. 300 m for Lago di Origlio (150×350 m in size) and of ca. 600 m for Lago di Muzzano (300×750 m in size). Beside these general patterns, our analysis reveals taxon-specific pollen dispersal patterns that are in agreement with results from previous studies in northern Europe. Ratios of species with local (proximal) and long-distance (distal) pollen dispersal provide evidence that pollen dispersal mechanisms can influence the size of the taxon-related pollen source area, from small (100–400 m) to large (>5 km) for the same lake. The proportion of distal species increases with increasing lake size, highlighting the predominance of atmospheric pollen transport. We conclude that the large species-related differences in pollen source areas have to be taken into account when the provenance at a site is estimated and discussed.     

A model‐data comparison of Holocene timberline changes in the Swiss Alps reveals past and future drivers of mountain forest dynamics

Mountain vegetation is strongly affected by temperature and is expected to shift upwards with climate change. Dynamic vegetation models are often used to assess the impact of climate on vegetation and model output can be compared with paleobotanical data as a reality check. Recent paleoecological studies have revealed regional variation in the upward shift of timberlines in the Northern and Central European Alps in response to rapid warming at the Younger Dryas/Preboreal transition ca. 11 700 years ago, probably caused by a climatic gradient across the Alps. This contrasts with previous studies that successfully simulated the early Holocene afforestation in the (warmer) Central Alps with a chironomid‐inferred temperature reconstruction from the (colder) Northern Alps. We use LandClim , a dynamic landscape vegetation model to simulate mountain forests under different temperature, soil and precipitation scenarios around Iffigsee (2065 m a.s.l.) a lake in the Northwestern Swiss Alps, and compare the model output with the paleobotanical records. The model clearly overestimates the upward shift of timberline in a climate scenario that applies chironomid‐inferred July‐temperature anomalies to all months. However, forest establishment at 9800 cal. BP at Iffigsee is successfully simulated with lower moisture availability and monthly temperatures corrected for stronger seasonality during the early Holocene. The model‐data comparison reveals a contraction in the realized niche of Abies alba due to the prominent role of anthropogenic disturbance after ca. 5000 cal. BP, which has important implications for species distribution models (SDMs) that rely on equilibrium with climate and niche stability. Under future climate projections, LandClim indicates a rapid upward shift of mountain vegetation belts by ca. 500 m and treeline positions of ca. 2500 m a.s.l. by the end of this century. Resulting biodiversity losses in the alpine vegetation belt might be mitigated with low‐impact pastoralism to preserve species‐rich alpine meadows.