Holocene succession patterns of land snails across temperate Europe: East to west variation related to glacial refugia, climate and human impact

Horsák, Michal; Limondin-Lozouët, Nicole; Juříčková, Lucie; Granai, Salomé; Horáčková, Jitka; Legentil, Claude; Ložek, Vojen

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2019.03.028

Cited by 21 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Our results largely conform to the classic concept of two developmental pathways, proposed for Central-European landscapes based on the study of Holocene succession of mollusc assemblages (Horsák et al, 2019;Ložek, 1982). The main difference we identified in plant diversity dynamics is that the Carpathians are more similar to lowlands across the study area than to the Hercynian mountain ranges (see possible explanations below).…”

Section: Holocene Plant Diversity Patterns Mirror Latitude Elevationsupporting

confidence: 89%

Holocene plant diversity dynamics shows a distinct biogeographical pattern in temperate Europe

Roleček

Abrahám

Vild

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Aims: Reconstruction of the Holocene diversity changes in a biogeographically complex region. Description of major diversity patterns, testing their predictors, and their interpretation in the palaeoecological and biogeographical context. Testing the assumption that pollen record is informative with respect to plant diversity in our study area. Methods: Fossil pollen extracted from 18 high-quality profiles was used as a proxy of past plant diversity. Pollen counts of tree taxa were corrected by pollen productivity, and pollen assemblages were resampled to 100 grains per sample and 150 grains per 500-years time window. SiZer analysis was used to test and visualize multi-scale diversity patterns. Linear modelling was used to identify the best predictors. SiZer maps and pollen composition were analysed using non-metric multidimensional scaling. K-means clustering and indicator species analysis were used to interpret ordination results. Results: Mean Holocene plant diversity is significantly predicted by latitude, while its temporal pattern followed the biogeographical region and elevation. Major differences were found between the Mesic and Montane Hercynia (lower diversity, increasing only in the Late Holocene) and Pannonia, the Carpathians and Warm Hercynia (higher diversity, increasing from the Early or Middle Holocene on). Low diversity in the Middle and Late Holocene is associated with the prevalence of woody and acidophilic taxa. High diversity is associated with numerous grassland and minerotrophic wetland taxa, crops and weeds. Fossil-modern pollen diversity and modern pollen-plant diversity show significant positive relationships. Conclusions: Plant diversity and its changes during the Holocene are geographically structured across temperate Europe. Main causes appear to be differences in past dynamics of the landscape openness and vegetation composition, driven mainly by changes in climate and human impact and their different timing. Fossil pollen, if appropriately treated, is a useful proxy of past plant diversity.

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Section: Holocene Plant Diversity Patterns Mirror Latitude Elevationsupporting

confidence: 89%

Holocene plant diversity dynamics shows a distinct biogeographical pattern in temperate Europe

Roleček

Abrahám

Vild

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…Many of the above-mentioned demanding woodland species that had been rare so far, gradually (Valečov) or sharply (Vítovo abri) increased in abundances (Figures 3 and 4, Supplementary 1, available online). Thus, we recorded there the so-called ‘boom of silvicols’ observed already in other Central European Holocene mollusc successions (Horsák et al., 2019; Juřičková et al., 2018). Bulgarica cana , Cochlodina orthostoma and Isognomostoma isognomostomos appeared even after the event 8.2, the first two having one of the oldest occurrences in postglacial Central Europe (unpublished data).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 53%

“…Thus, during the first half of the middle Holocene, there was a maximum of species diversity and abundance of canopy forest species, similarly as in other Central European mollusc successions (e.g. Horsák et al., 2019; Juřičková et al., 2014b; Ložek, 1964). Incrustations of CaCO 3 , sometimes found right in the samples, reflected the calcium-rich surface of sandstone rock walls, enabling the occurrence of calciphilous rocky dwellers ( Clausilia parvula , Faustina faustina and Pyramidula pusilla , Chondrina clienta in particular), which are recently not able to survive on the decalcified acidic sandstone walls.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…Such declines in the diversity of forest flora and fauna from the Holocene climatic optimum to the present can be observed globally in temperate environments (e.g. Birks and Birks, 2004; Giesecke et al., 2017; Horsák et al., 2019), and have been explained both by a natural loss of nutrients because of Iversen’s cycle (Iversen, 1958, 1969) and by the expansion of agriculture (e.g. Bogucki, 1996), or other forms of human impacts like domestic animal grazing or the burning of forest undergrowth (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

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The lost paradise of snails: Transformation of the middle-Holocene forest ecosystems in Bohemia, Czech Republic, as revealed by declining land snail diversity

et al. 2020

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We studied the transformation of a middle-to-late Holocene forested ecosystem using the highly indicative remains of land snails. The study areas were sandstone landscapes of northern Bohemia (Czech Republic) that provide extremely rich terrestrial fossil records. As far as we know, nowhere else in the world does such a type of sedimentary environment provide Holocene records of snail shells. Currently, these sandstone landscapes are covered by low productivity coniferous forests with very low species pools. In sharp contrast, in the middle Holocene, they were dominated by species-rich productive woodland communities. Such ecosystems were then supported by a favourable warm and wet climate and by nutrient-rich, calcareous substrata formed of late Pleistocene aeolian dust (loess). A radical transformation of this temporal ecological equilibrium began in the third millennium BC. Over the next millennia, the species-rich canopy forest mollusc assemblages almost completely disappeared, together with calciphilous rock dwellers. The main driving force of this transformation was gradual soil leaching that resulted in the loss of calcium carbonate and principal nutrients (like P and N) and subsequent ecosystem retrogression. Synergistically with this background trend, the unstable climatic regime of the late Holocene, along with long-term anthropogenic pressure that peaked for the first time during the late Bronze Age, accelerated the transformation.

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“…Our models predict a significant increase in climatic suitability during the Holocene in almost all Carpathian massifs as well as in areas more westward, in Moravia and the Eastern Sudetes. This change in environmental conditions has also been confirmed by fossil data from the Western Carpathians, where a number of forest snails sharply increased during the first half of this period and were predominating during the entire Holocene (Horsák et al 2019). In addition, F. faustina dispersed westwards from the Carpathians to the Moravian Karst and the Bohemian Sudetes foothills during the Holocene (Juřičková et al 2013(Juřičková et al , 2019b.…”

Section: Potential Pleistocene Refugia and Post-glacial Expansionsupporting

confidence: 56%

Phylogeography and potential glacial refugia of terrestrial gastropod Faustina faustina (Rossmässler, 1835) (Gastropoda: Eupulmonata: Helicidae) inferred from molecular data and species distribution models

et al. 2020

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Faustina faustina is a conchologically highly diverse forest gastropod with several morphological forms. It is a Carpathian species, but it also occurs in northern isolated localities, where it was probably introduced. We performed the first phylogeographic analysis of 22 populations, based on three molecular markers: COI, ITS-2, and 28S rRNA. Genetic data were complemented by paleo-distribution models of spatial occupancy during the Last Glacial Maximum to strengthen inferences of refugial areas. We discovered high genetic variability of COI sequences with p-distances between haplotypes ranged from 0.2 to 18.1% (6.3–16.6% between clades). For nuclear markers, a haplotype distribution pattern was revealed. Species distribution models indicated a few potential refugia in the Carpathians, with the most climatically stable and largest areas in the Southern Carpathians. In some climate scenarios, putative microrefugia were also predicted in the Western and Eastern Carpathians, and in the Apuseni Mts. Our results suggest the glacial in situ survival of F. faustina and its Holocene expansion in the Sudetes. Although our genetic data as well as shell phenotypes showed considerable variation within and between studied populations, the molecular species delimitation approaches still imply only one single species. Our study contributes to the understanding of the impact of processes on shaping contemporary population genetic structure and diversity in low-dispersal, forest species.

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Holocene succession patterns of land snails across temperate Europe: East to west variation related to glacial refugia, climate and human impact

Cited by 21 publications

References 67 publications

Holocene plant diversity dynamics shows a distinct biogeographical pattern in temperate Europe

Holocene plant diversity dynamics shows a distinct biogeographical pattern in temperate Europe

The lost paradise of snails: Transformation of the middle-Holocene forest ecosystems in Bohemia, Czech Republic, as revealed by declining land snail diversity

Phylogeography and potential glacial refugia of terrestrial gastropod Faustina faustina (Rossmässler, 1835) (Gastropoda: Eupulmonata: Helicidae) inferred from molecular data and species distribution models

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