Postglacial species arrival and diversity buildup of northern ecosystems took millennia

• Published in: Science Advances
• Main Authors: Alsos, Inger Greve, Rijal, Dilli Prasad, Ehrich, Dorothee, Karger, Dirk Nicolaus, Yoccoz, Nigel Gilles, Heintzman, Peter D., Brown, Anthony G., Lammers, Youri, Pellissier, Loïc, Alm, Torbjørn, Brathen, Kari Anne, Coissac, Eric, Merkel, Marie Kristine Føreid, Alberti, Adriana, Denoeud, France, Bakke, Jostein, Consortium, Phylonorway
• Other Authors: The Arctic University of Norway Tromsø, Norway (UiT), Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, School of Geography Southampton, University of Southampton, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems (ITES), Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH Zürich), Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine (LECA ), Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), Génomique métabolique (UMR 8030), Genoscope - Centre national de séquençage Evry (GENOSCOPE), Université Paris-Saclay-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris-Saclay-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne (UEVE)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire d'Analyses Génomiques des Eucaryotes (LAGE), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne (UEVE)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Genoscope - Centre national de séquençage Evry (GENOSCOPE), Laboratoire de Bioinformatique pour la Génomique et la Biodiversité (LBGB), University of Bergen (UiB)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2022
• Subjects: [SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio]; Fennoscandia
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04281351; https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abo7434

International audience What drives ecosystem buildup, diversity, and stability? We assess species arrival and ecosystem changes across 16 millennia by combining regional-scale plant sedimentary ancient DNA from Fennoscandia with near-complete DNA and trait databases. We show that postglacial arrival time varies within and between plant growth forms. Further, arrival times were mainly predicted by adaptation to temperature, disturbance, and light. Major break points in ecological trait diversity were seen between 13.9 and 10.8 calibrated thousand years before the present (cal ka BP), as well as break point in functional diversity at 12.0 cal ka BP, shifting from a state of ecosystem buildup to a state where most habitat types and biotic ecosystem components were in place. Trait and functional diversity stabilized around 8 cal ka BP, after which both remained stable, although changes in climate took place and species inflow continued. Our ecosystem reconstruction indicates a millennial-scale time phase of formation to reach stable and resilient levels of diversity and functioning.