Plant biomes demonstrate that landscape resilience today is the lowest it has been since end‐Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions
Resilient landscapes have helped maintain terrestrial biodiversity during periods of climatic and environmental change. Identifying the tempo and mode of landscape transitions and the drivers of landscape resilience is critical to maintaining natural systems and preserving biodiversity given today&#...
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Published in: | Global change biology 2020-10, Vol.26 (10), p.5914-5927 |
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Main Authors: | , , , , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Citations: | Items that this one cites Items that cite this one |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | Resilient landscapes have helped maintain terrestrial biodiversity during periods of climatic and environmental change. Identifying the tempo and mode of landscape transitions and the drivers of landscape resilience is critical to maintaining natural systems and preserving biodiversity given today's rapid climate and land use changes. However, resilient landscapes are difficult to recognize on short time scales, as perturbations are challenging to quantify and ecosystem transitions are rare. Here we analyze two components of North American landscape resilience over 20,000 years: residence time and recovery time. To evaluate landscape dynamics, we use plant biomes, preserved in the fossil pollen record, to examine how long a biome type persists at a given site (residence time) and how long it takes for the biome at that site to reestablish following a transition (recovery time). Biomes have a median residence time of only 230–460 years. Only 64% of biomes recover their original biome type, but recovery time is 140–290 years. Temperatures changing faster than 0.5°C per 500 years result in much reduced residence times. Following a transition, biodiverse biomes reestablish more quickly. Landscape resilience varies through time. Notably, short residence times and long recovery times directly preceded the end‐Pleistocene megafauna extinction, resulting in regional destabilization, and combining with more proximal human impacts to deliver a one‐two punch to megafauna species. Our work indicates that landscapes today are once again exhibiting low resilience, foreboding potential extinctions to come. Conservation strategies focused on improving both landscape and ecosystem resilience by increasing local connectivity and targeting regions with high richness and diverse landforms can mitigate these extinction risks.
Resilient landscapes preserve terrestrial biodiversity despite environmental changes. Here, we analyze North American landscape resilience over 20,000 years by examining the residence and recovery times of plant biomes preserved in the fossil pollen record. Biomes have a median residence time of 240–460 years and a median recovery time of 140–290 years. Rapid temperature change reduces residence times. Biodiverse biomes reestablish more quickly. Importantly, landscapes today are experiencing resilience that is lower than any we have seen since the end‐Pleistocene megafauna extinctions, foreboding potential extinctions to come. Going forward, we must bolst |
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ISSN: | 1354-1013 1365-2486 |
DOI: | 10.1111/gcb.15299 |