Reconstruction of postglacial to early Holocene vegetation history in terrestrial Central Europe via cuticular lipid biomarkers and pollen records from lake sediments

Tropical limestone forest resilience and late Pleistocene foraging during MIS-2 in the Tràng An massif, Vietnam

“…During periods of climate change that place stress on plants, they either produce shorter n-alkane chain lengths or are unable to survive. n-Alkanes preserve well in Quaternary deposits, and as the environment and climate are important controls on chain length distribution, they can furnish an independent and complementary record into past conditions (Meyers & Ishiwatari 1993;Schwark et al 2002;Blyth et al 2007;Ludgate 2013).…”

Late Quaternary climate and environmental reconstruction based on leaf wax analyses in the loess sequence of Möhlin, Switzerland

“…They are straight, saturated carbon-hydrogen chains (C n H 2n+2 ), stable over geological timescales (Eglinton and Eglinton, 2008;Schimmelmann et al, 2006) and thus preserved in various sedimentary archives. Their homologue pattern depends on the type of vegetation (Cranwell, 1973;Marseille et al, 1999;Schwark et al, 2002) and can provide information about whether deciduous trees or grasses were dominant in the research area, whereas deciduous trees produce mainly n-C 27 and grasses predominantly n-C 31 and n-C 33 (Zech et al, 2010;Schäfer et al, 2016b;Schwark et al, 2002). Although controversy exists as to whether this approach can be used universally to reconstruct paleovegetation (Bush and McInerney, 2013;Wang et al, 2015), there is good evidence that leaf wax patterns can be used on a local (Schwark et al, 2002) and regional (Schäfer et al, 2016a) scale in Europe.…”

“…Although controversy exists as to whether this approach can be used universally to reconstruct paleovegetation (Bush and McInerney, 2013;Wang et al, 2015), there is good evidence that leaf wax patterns can be used on a local (Schwark et al, 2002) and regional (Schäfer et al, 2016a) scale in Europe. Schwark et al (2002) investigated n-alkanes in a lake in southern Germany and found a remarkable accordance of pollen records and nalkanes. Schäfer et al (2016a) measured leaf wax patterns along a transect from southern to northern Europe in grasslands, deciduous forests and coniferous forests.…”

Lipid biomarkers in Lake Enol (Asturias, Northern Spain): Coupled natural and human induced environmental history

“…Terrigenous plants contain a high proportion of HMW nalkanes (C 27 , C 29 and C 31 ) in their epicuticular wax Hamilton, 1963, 1967;Eglinton and Calvin, 1967;Cranwell et al, 1987;Rieley et al, 1991;Nott et al, 2000;Pancost et al, 2002). Deciduous trees typically maximize at C 27 , whereas in marsh plants and possibly grasses C 31 is dominant (Cranwell et al, 1987;Schwark et al, 2002;Ortiz et al, 2004Ortiz et al, , 2011. However, data from a broad survey of modern plants show that n-alkane chain length distributions are highly variable within plant groups, and chemotaxonomic distinction between grasses and woody plants is difficult, with the exception of aquatic plants and Sphagnum moss (Bush and Mclnerney, 2013).…”