Plant species, biomass and environmental characteristics of relevés along the North America Arctic bioclimate gradient

Question: How do interactions between the physical environment and biotic properties of vegetation influence the formation of small patterned-ground features along the Arctic bioclimate gradient? Location: At 68° to 78°N: six locations along the Dalton Highway in arctic Alaska and three in Canada (Banks Island, Prince Patrick Island and Ellef Ringnes Island). Methods: We analysed floristic and structural vegetation, biomass and abiotic data (soil chemical and physical parameters, the n-factor [a soil thermal index] and spectral information [NDVI, LAI]) on 147 microhabitat releves of zonalpatterned-ground features. Using mapping, table analysis (JUICE) and ordination techniques (NMDS). Results: Table analysis using JUICE and the phi-coefficient to identify diagnostic species revealed clear groups of diagnostic plant taxa in four of the five zonal vegetation complexes. Plant communities and zonal complexes were generally well separated in the NMDS ordination. The Alaska and Canada communities were spatially separated in the ordination because of different glacial histories and location in separate floristic provinces, but there was no single controlling environmental gradient. Vegetation structure, particularly that of bryophytes and total biomass, strongly affected thermal properties of the soils. Patterned-ground complexes with the largest thermal differential between the patterned-ground features and the surrounding vegetation exhibited the clearest patterned-ground morphologies.

Pollen record and age determiation of sediments from the Labaz Lake area

Pollen records from perennially frozen sequences provide vegetation and climate reconstruction for the last 48,000 14C years in the central part of Taymyr Peninsula. Open larch forest with Alnus fruticosa and Betula nana grew during the Kargin (Middle Weichselian) Interstade, ca. 48,000-25,000 14C yr B.P. The climate was generally warmer and wetter than today. Open steppe-like communities with Artemisia, Poaceae, Asteraceae, and herb tundralike communities with dwarf Betula and Salix dominated during the Sartan (Late Weichselian) Stade, ca. 24,000-10,300 14C yr B.P. The statistical information method used for climate reconstruction shows that the coldest climate was ca. 20,000-17,000 14C yr B.P. A warming (Allerød Interstade?) with mean July temperature ca. 1.5°C warmer than today occurred ca. 12,000 14C yr B.P. The following cooling with temperatures about 3°-4°C cooler than present and precipitation about 100 mm lower corresponds well with the Younger Dryas Stade. Tundra-steppe vegetation changed to Betula nana-Alnus fruticosa shrub tundra ca. 10,000 14C yr B.P. Larch appeared in the area ca. 9400 14C yr B.P. and disappeared after 2900 14C yr B.P. Cooling events ca. 10,500, 9600, and 8200 14C yr B.P. characterized the first half of the Holocene. A significant warming occurred ca. 8500 14C yr B.P., but the Holocene temperature maximum was at about 6000-4500 14C yr B.P. The vegetation cover approximated modern conditions ca. 2800 14C yr B.P. Late Holocene warming events occurred at ca. 3500, 2000, and 1000 14C yr B.P. A cooling (Little Ice Age?) took place between 500 and 200 14C yr ago.

(Table 1) Pollen analysis of clay-gyttja layers obtained in 1966 near Hitzhusen, north Germany

Bereits im Jahre 1956 wurde bei Baugrund-Aufschlußbohrungen für das zweite Kurmittelhaus in Bad Bramstedt bei einer Serie von 11 Bohrungen - ausgeführt durch die Firma Fritz Eising K. G. in Hamburg - in drei benachbart gelegenen Bohrpunkten an der südlichen Ecke des Gebäudes in einer Teufe von ca. 10 m u. T. eine offensichtlich organogene Schicht von ca. 2 m Mächtigkeit erbohrt. Eines dieser Bohrprofile hat folgenden Aufbau: -5,8 m Fein-Mittelsand, -7,7 m Mittelsand, Fein-Mittelkies, -10,0 m Mittelsand, wenig Kies, -12,0 m Gyttja, -15,0 m Mittelsand, Grobsand. Die bereits wiedergegebene Teufenangabe ist insofern recht interessant, als im Jahre 1966 bei der Brücke über die Bramau bei Hitzhusen, demnach in der Talaue der Bramau in einer Teufe von 8,55 m ebenfalls eine Gyttja erbohrt wurde. Die Tiefenlagen beider Vorkommen scheinen sich demnach relativ zu entsprechen. Das gesamte Profil bei Hitzhusen ist in einigen Punkten abweichend ausgebildet und enthält vor allem noch ein zweites Gyttja-Band in 11,25 m Teufe. Im Einzelnen wurde hier durch die Bohrfirma Paul Hammers A. G., Hamburg, diese Schichtfolge angetroffen: -1.55 m Fein-Mittelsand, Humus, -3,10 m Mittel-Grobsand, Kies, Steine, etwas Lehm, -4,50 m Mittel-Grobsand, -7,20 m Mittel-Grobsand, Kies, -8,00 m Grobsand, -8,55 m Grobsand, Kies, -8,65 m Schluff-Gyttja, -9,70 m Fein-Grobsand, -10,25 m Mittel-Grobsand, Kies, -10,75 m Mittel-Grobsand, -11,25 m Mittel-Grobsand, Schluffstreifen, -11,40 m Schluff-Gyttja, -12,10 m Mittelsand, -12,30 m Mittel-Grobsand, Kies, -17,85 m Geschiebemergel. Die gewonnenen Proben der Schluff-Gyttjen wurden näher untersucht. Da es sich in beiden Fällen um geringmächtige Lagen handelt (0,1 m resp. 0,15 m), und das Material durchaus als stark feinsandig bis schluffig zu bezeichnen ist (das spricht für eine wesentlich schnellere Sedimentation, als die einer reinen biogenen Gyttja), ist der Effekt einer 'Mischprobe' weitgehend ausgeschlossen. Außerdem lagen die Proben - obgleich wahrscheinlich mit einem Ventilbohrer gefördert - als relativ ungestörte Brocken mit erhaltengebliebener Feinschichtung vor. Auf den Schichtflächen waren gröbere Pflanzenreste erkennbar (in der Tabelle angegeben). Der sehr hohe mineralische Anteil läßt zunächst den Verdacht auf sekundären Pollen aufkommen. Keines der beiden pollenanalytisch ermittelten Vegetationsbilder liefert dagegen irgendeine Bestätigung hierfür.

Pollen, DNA and Vegetation records from surface sediments of lacustrine lakes along a forest tundra - tundra transect at the Taymyr peninsula, northern Siberia

Reliable information of past vegetation changes are important to project future changes, especially for areas undergoing rapid transitioning such as the boreal treeline. The application of detailed sedDNA records has the potential to enhance our understanding of vegetation changes gained mainly from pollen studies of lake sediments. This study investigates sedDNA and pollen records from 31 lakes along a gradient of increasing larch forest cover in northern Siberia (Taymyr Peninsula) and compares them with vegetation field surveys within the lake's catchment. With respect to vegetation richness, sedDNA recorded 114 taxa, about half of them to species level, while pollen analyses identified 43 pollen taxa. Both approaches exceed the 31 taxa revealed by vegetation field surveys of 400 m**2 plots. From north to south, Larix percentages increase, as is consistently recorded by all three methods. Furthermore, tundra sites are separated from forested sites in the plots of the principal component analyses. Comparison of ordination results by Procrustes and Protest analyses yields a significant fit among all compared pairs of records. Despite the overall comparability of sedDNA and pollen analyses certain idiosyncrasies in the compositional signal are observed, such as high percentages of Alnus and Betula in all pollen spectra and high percentages of Salix in all sedDNA spectra. In conclusion, our results from the treeline show that sedDNA analyses perform better than pollen in recording site-specific richness (i.e. presence/absence of certain vegetation taxa in the direct vicinity of the lake) and perform as good as pollen in tracing regional vegetation composition.

Results of a sediment profile and water analyses from Lake Hancza in northeastern Poland

We investigated the sedimentary record of Lake Hancza (northeastern Poland) using a multi-proxy approach, focusing on early to mid-Holocene climatic and environmental changes. AMS 14C dating of terrestrial macrofossils and sedimentation rate estimates from occasional varve thickness measurements were used to establish a chronology. The onset of the Holocene at c. 11600 cal. a BP is marked by the decline of Lateglacial shrub vegetation and a shift from clastic-detrital deposition to an autochthonous sedimentation dominated by biochemical calcite precipitation. Between 10000 and 9000 cal. a BP, a further environmental and climatic improvement is indicated by the spread of deciduous forests, an increase in lake organic matter and a 1.7% rise in the oxygen isotope ratios of both endogenic calcite and ostracod valves. Rising d18O values were probably caused by a combination of hydrological and climatic factors. The persistence of relatively cold and dry climate conditions in northeastern Poland during the first one and a half millennia of the Holocene could be related to a regional eastern European atmospheric circulation pattern. Prevailing anticyclonic circulation linked to a high-pressure cell above the retreating Scandinavian Ice Sheet might have blocked the influence of warm and moist Westerlies and attenuated the early Holocene climatic amelioration in the Lake Hancza region until the final decay of the ice sheet.