Abstract
ABSTRACTOceanic island flora is vulnerable to future climate warming, which is likely to promote changes in vegetation composition, and invasion of non‐native species. Sub‐Antarctic islands are predicted to experience rapid warming during the next century; therefore, establishing trajectories of change in vegetation communities is essential for developing conservation strategies to preserve biological diversity. We present a Late‐glacial‐early Holocene (16 500–6450 cal a bp) palaeoecological record from Hooker's Point, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Atlantic. This period spans the Pleistocene‐Holocene transition, providing insight into biological responses to abrupt climate change. Pollen and plant macrofossil records appear insensitive to climatic cooling during the Late‐glacial, but undergo rapid turnover in response to regional warming. The absence of trees throughout the Late‐glacial‐early Holocene enables the recognition of far‐travelled pollen from southern South America. The first occurrence of Nothofagus (southern beech) may reflect changes in the strength and/or position of the Southern Westerly Wind Belt during the Late‐glacial period. Peat inception and accumulation at Hooker's Point is likely to be promoted by the recalcitrant litter of wind‐adapted flora. This recalcitrant litter helps to explain widespread peatland development in a comparatively dry environment, and suggests that wind‐adapted peatlands can remain carbon sinks even under low precipitation regimes. © 2019 The Authors. Journal of Quaternary Science Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Highlights
Vegetation communities on small oceanic islands are vulnerable to future climate change because of their often‐ restricted biological diversity, specialised adaptations and limited habitat availability, which impedes species ability to shift ranges (Nurse et al, 2014; Harter et al, 2015)
The durable litter produced by these grasses provides a means to tip a catchment balance towards organic accumulation in what would otherwise be a marginal environment for peatland development
Studies of Holocene raised peat accumulation in Europe have shown that similar litter accumulation processes operated in the northern hemisphere, where peat accumulation following the fen‐bog transition often occurred in dry climatic phases during the early to mid‐Holocene
Summary
Vegetation communities on small oceanic islands are vulnerable to future climate change because of their often‐ restricted biological diversity, specialised adaptations and limited habitat availability, which impedes species ability to shift ranges (Nurse et al, 2014; Harter et al, 2015). Annual mean temperatures have increased by 0.5 °C in Stanley, East Falkland (Lister and Jones, 2015), and are predicted to rise a further 1.8 (±0.34) °C by 2080 (Jones et al, 2013). This warming is likely to lead to decreased soil moisture (Bokhorst et al, 2007) and alter plant distributions across the islands, with limited
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