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Pollen-based reconstruction reveals the impact of the onset of agriculture on plant functional trait composition
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dc.contributor.author | Veeken, Annegreet | |
dc.contributor.author | Santos, Maria | |
dc.contributor.author | McGowan, Suzanne | |
dc.contributor.author | Davies, Althea | |
dc.contributor.author | Schrodt, Franziska | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2022-07-21T14:30:14Z | |
dc.date.available | 2022-07-21T14:30:14Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2022-07-11 | |
dc.identifier | 280536844 | |
dc.identifier | 9b4f006b-64fe-486a-a9a5-cbb7402bffbd | |
dc.identifier | 85133680028 | |
dc.identifier | 000822831200001 | |
dc.identifier.citation | Veeken , A , Santos , M , McGowan , S , Davies , A & Schrodt , F 2022 , ' Pollen-based reconstruction reveals the impact of the onset of agriculture on plant functional trait composition ' , Ecology Letters , vol. Early View . https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14063 | en |
dc.identifier.issn | 1461-023X | |
dc.identifier.other | ORCID: /0000-0002-8982-7471/work/116275137 | |
dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10023/25688 | |
dc.description.abstract | The onset of agriculture improved the capacity of ecosystems to produce food, but inadvertently altered other vital ecosystem functions. Plant traits play a central role in determining ecosystem properties, therefore we investigated how the onset of agriculture in Europe changed plant trait composition using 78 pollen records. Using a novel Bayesian approach for reconstructing plant trait composition from pollen records, we provide a robust method that can account for trait variability within pollen types. We estimate an overall four-fold decrease in plant size through agriculture and associated decreases in leaf and seed size. We show an increase in niche space towards the resource-acquisitive end of the leaf economic spectrum. Decreases in leaf phosphorus might have been caused by nutrient depletion through grazing and burning. Our results show that agriculture, from its start, has likely been gradually impacting biogeochemical cycles through altered vegetation composition. | |
dc.format.extent | 15 | |
dc.format.extent | 14129542 | |
dc.language.iso | eng | |
dc.relation.ispartof | Ecology Letters | en |
dc.subject | Climate | en |
dc.subject | Early agriculture | en |
dc.subject | Holocene | en |
dc.subject | Plant functional traits | en |
dc.subject | Pollen data | en |
dc.subject | GE Environmental Sciences | en |
dc.subject | DAS | en |
dc.subject.lcc | GE | en |
dc.title | Pollen-based reconstruction reveals the impact of the onset of agriculture on plant functional trait composition | en |
dc.type | Journal article | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. School of Geography & Sustainable Development | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Centre for Energy Ethics | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Geographies of Sustainability, Society, Inequalities and Possibilities | en |
dc.contributor.institution | University of St Andrews. Environmental Change Research Group | en |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1111/ele.14063 | |
dc.description.status | Peer reviewed | en |
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