Temporal and spatial variations of terrestrial biomes and carbon storage since 13 000 yr BP in Europe: Reconstruction from pollen data and statistical models

Abstract

Statistical models calibrated from field measurement data are used to reconstruct the past terrestrial carbon (C) storage from pollen data for the last 13 000 yr BP in Europe. The pollen-based climatic and biome reconstructions provide the input data for these statistical models, i.e., annual mean temperature, total annual precipitation, annual actual evapotranspiration, annual potential evapotranspiration and biome type with a spatial resolution of 0.5°×0.5° longitude/latitude. Our reconstructions indicate that the last 13 000 yr BP were characterized in Europe by variations of terrestrial biome and net primary productivity (NPP) at various temporal and spatial scales. For the considered region, our results also suggest that changes in climate have significantly altered the distribution of terrestrial biomes and affected the uptake of CO2 for NPP. However, these changes did not translate into significant C storage change in potential terrestrial biosphere during the Holocene. The largest decrease of terrestrial C storage (compared to modern levels) is found during the late-Glacial period mainly due to the persistence of ice sheets and the small extension of forest.