Can relict-rich communities be of an anthropogenic origin? Palaeoecological insight into conservation strategy for endangered Carpathian travertine fens

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F67985939%3A_____%2F20%3A00533004" target="_blank" >RIV/67985939:_____/20:00533004 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/00216224:14310/20:00114139 RIV/00216208:11310/20:10422496

Result on the web

<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106241" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106241</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106241" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106241</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Can relict-rich communities be of an anthropogenic origin? Palaeoecological insight into conservation strategy for endangered Carpathian travertine fens

Original language description

Western-Carpathian travertine fens developed on deep-circulation groundwater are highly localised and harbour unique communities that combine rare species of calcareous fens and salt marshes, with many species considered glacial or Early-Holocene relicts. Using a multi-proxy palaeoecological approach, we tested the assumption of naturalness and Holocene continuity of the current plant and mollusc communities occupying one of the best-preserved travertine fens in Europe. Our novel results, based on two complete cores throughout the fen deposits, document an anthropogenic origin of the current communities, despite their richness in rare and relict species. The habitat originated in the very beginning of the Holocene, later it was encroached by a semi-open woodland with spruce and alder and then by a dense reed bed that suppressed fen species even more than woodland encroachment. When compared with a fen site on shallow-circulation groundwater, the Holocene succession to woodlands has been blocked by travertine formation, allowing survival of light-demanding relicts in small patches. The current communities were established once the woody plants, and especially reed, were reduced by medieval land use. The community itself is therefore not relict, but it harbours probable descendants of relict populations that survived in neighbouring small refugia throughout the Holocene. Our results strongly support the need for active conservation actions as mowing and extensive grazing, mimicking the traditional type of land use, which has conditioned the recent travertine assemblages in the past.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10511 - Environmental sciences (social aspects to be 5.7)

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA17-05696S" target="_blank" >GA17-05696S: Holocene development of temperate European biota: effects of climate, refugia and local factors tested by complex datasets of independent proxies</a><br>

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2020

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Quaternary Science Reviews

ISSN

0277-3791

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

234

Issue of the periodical within the volume

15 Apr

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

13

Pages from-to

1-13

UT code for WoS article

000525791800004

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85081015689