Lake sediment multi-taxon DNA from North Greenland records early post-glacial appearance of vascular plants and accurately tracks environmental changes
High Arctic environments are particularly sensitive to climate changes, but retrieval of paleoecological data is challenging due to low productivity and biomass. At the same time, Arctic soils and sediments have proven exceptional for long-term DNA preservation due to their constantly low temperatur...
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ftgriffithuniv:oai:research-repository.griffith.edu.au:10072/172176 2023-05-15T14:55:41+02:00 Lake sediment multi-taxon DNA from North Greenland records early post-glacial appearance of vascular plants and accurately tracks environmental changes Epp, Laura Saskia Gussarova, Galina L. Boessenkool, Sanne Olsen, Jesper Haile, James Schroder-Nielsen, Audun Ludikova, Anna V. Hassel, Kristian Stenoien, Hans Kristen Funder, Svend Willerslev, Eske Kjaer, Kurt H. Brochmann, Christian 2015 http://hdl.handle.net/10072/172176 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.03.027 English eng Elsevier Quaternary Science Reviews Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience not elsewhere classified Journal article 2015 ftgriffithuniv https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.03.027 2018-07-30T10:59:16Z High Arctic environments are particularly sensitive to climate changes, but retrieval of paleoecological data is challenging due to low productivity and biomass. At the same time, Arctic soils and sediments have proven exceptional for long-term DNA preservation due to their constantly low temperatures. Lake sediments contain DNA paleorecords of the surrounding ecosystems and can be used to retrieve a variety of organismal groups from a single sample. In this study, we analyzed vascular plant, bryophyte, algal (in particular diatom) and copepod DNA retrieved from a sediment core spanning the Holocene, taken from Bliss Lake on the northernmost coast of Greenland. A previous multi-proxy study including microscopic diatom analyses showed that this lake experienced changes between marine and lacustrine conditions. We inferred the same environmental changes from algal DNA preserved in the sediment core. Our DNA record was stratigraphically coherent, with no indication of leaching between layers, and our cross-taxon comparisons were in accordance with previously inferred local ecosystem changes. Authentic ancient plant DNA was retrieved from nearly all layers, both from the marine and the limnic phases, and distinct temporal changes in plant presence were recovered. The plant DNA was mostly in agreement with expected vegetation history, but very early occurrences of vascular plants, including the woody Empetrum nigrum, document terrestrial vegetation very shortly after glacial retreat. Our study shows that multi-taxon metabarcoding of sedimentary ancient DNA from lake cores is a valuable tool both for terrestrial and aquatic paleoecology, even in low-productivity ecosystems such as the High Arctic. No Full Text Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Empetrum nigrum Greenland North Greenland Griffith University: Griffith Research Online Arctic Greenland Bliss Lake ENVELOPE(-113.718,-113.718,62.650,62.650) Quaternary Science Reviews 117 152 163 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Griffith University: Griffith Research Online |
op_collection_id |
ftgriffithuniv |
language |
English |
topic |
Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience not elsewhere classified |
spellingShingle |
Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience not elsewhere classified Epp, Laura Saskia Gussarova, Galina L. Boessenkool, Sanne Olsen, Jesper Haile, James Schroder-Nielsen, Audun Ludikova, Anna V. Hassel, Kristian Stenoien, Hans Kristen Funder, Svend Willerslev, Eske Kjaer, Kurt H. Brochmann, Christian Lake sediment multi-taxon DNA from North Greenland records early post-glacial appearance of vascular plants and accurately tracks environmental changes |
topic_facet |
Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience not elsewhere classified |
description |
High Arctic environments are particularly sensitive to climate changes, but retrieval of paleoecological data is challenging due to low productivity and biomass. At the same time, Arctic soils and sediments have proven exceptional for long-term DNA preservation due to their constantly low temperatures. Lake sediments contain DNA paleorecords of the surrounding ecosystems and can be used to retrieve a variety of organismal groups from a single sample. In this study, we analyzed vascular plant, bryophyte, algal (in particular diatom) and copepod DNA retrieved from a sediment core spanning the Holocene, taken from Bliss Lake on the northernmost coast of Greenland. A previous multi-proxy study including microscopic diatom analyses showed that this lake experienced changes between marine and lacustrine conditions. We inferred the same environmental changes from algal DNA preserved in the sediment core. Our DNA record was stratigraphically coherent, with no indication of leaching between layers, and our cross-taxon comparisons were in accordance with previously inferred local ecosystem changes. Authentic ancient plant DNA was retrieved from nearly all layers, both from the marine and the limnic phases, and distinct temporal changes in plant presence were recovered. The plant DNA was mostly in agreement with expected vegetation history, but very early occurrences of vascular plants, including the woody Empetrum nigrum, document terrestrial vegetation very shortly after glacial retreat. Our study shows that multi-taxon metabarcoding of sedimentary ancient DNA from lake cores is a valuable tool both for terrestrial and aquatic paleoecology, even in low-productivity ecosystems such as the High Arctic. No Full Text |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Epp, Laura Saskia Gussarova, Galina L. Boessenkool, Sanne Olsen, Jesper Haile, James Schroder-Nielsen, Audun Ludikova, Anna V. Hassel, Kristian Stenoien, Hans Kristen Funder, Svend Willerslev, Eske Kjaer, Kurt H. Brochmann, Christian |
author_facet |
Epp, Laura Saskia Gussarova, Galina L. Boessenkool, Sanne Olsen, Jesper Haile, James Schroder-Nielsen, Audun Ludikova, Anna V. Hassel, Kristian Stenoien, Hans Kristen Funder, Svend Willerslev, Eske Kjaer, Kurt H. Brochmann, Christian |
author_sort |
Epp, Laura Saskia |
title |
Lake sediment multi-taxon DNA from North Greenland records early post-glacial appearance of vascular plants and accurately tracks environmental changes |
title_short |
Lake sediment multi-taxon DNA from North Greenland records early post-glacial appearance of vascular plants and accurately tracks environmental changes |
title_full |
Lake sediment multi-taxon DNA from North Greenland records early post-glacial appearance of vascular plants and accurately tracks environmental changes |
title_fullStr |
Lake sediment multi-taxon DNA from North Greenland records early post-glacial appearance of vascular plants and accurately tracks environmental changes |
title_full_unstemmed |
Lake sediment multi-taxon DNA from North Greenland records early post-glacial appearance of vascular plants and accurately tracks environmental changes |
title_sort |
lake sediment multi-taxon dna from north greenland records early post-glacial appearance of vascular plants and accurately tracks environmental changes |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10072/172176 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.03.027 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-113.718,-113.718,62.650,62.650) |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland Bliss Lake |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland Bliss Lake |
genre |
Arctic Empetrum nigrum Greenland North Greenland |
genre_facet |
Arctic Empetrum nigrum Greenland North Greenland |
op_relation |
Quaternary Science Reviews |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.03.027 |
container_title |
Quaternary Science Reviews |
container_volume |
117 |
container_start_page |
152 |
op_container_end_page |
163 |
_version_ |
1766327707423997952 |