Original plant diversity and ecosystems of a small, remote oceanic island (Corvo, Azores): Implications for biodiversity conservation ...

• Main Authors: Connor, Simon E., Lewis, Tara, van Leeuwen, Jacqueline F. N., van der Knaap, W.O. Pim, Schaefer, Hanno, Porch, Nicholas, Gomes, Ana I., Piva, Stephen B., Gadd, Patricia, Kuneš, Petr, Haberle, Simon G., Adeleye, Matthew A., Mariani, Michela, Elias, Rui Bento
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Elsevier 2024
• Subjects: 580 Plants Botany; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48350/198502; https://boris.unibe.ch/198502/

Remote islands harbour many endemic species and unique ecosystems. They are also some of the world's most human-impacted systems. It is essential to understand how island species and ecosystems behaved prior to major anthropogenic disruption as a basis for their conservation. This research aims to reconstruct the original, pre-colonial biodiversity of a remote oceanic island to understand the scale of past extinctions, vegetation changes and biodiversity knowledge gaps. We studied fossil remains from the North Atlantic island of Corvo (Azores), including pollen, charcoal, plant macrofossils, diatoms and geochemistry of wetland sediments from the central crater of the island, Caldeirão. A comprehensive list of current vascular plant species was compiled, along with a translation table comparing fossilized pollen to plant species and a framework for identifying extinctions and misclassifications. Pollen and macrofossils provide evidence for eight local extinctions from the island's flora and show that four ...