North American pollen records provide evidence for macroscale ecological changes in the Anthropocene.

ABSTRACT: Recent global changes associated with anthropogenic activities are impacting ecological systems globally, giving rise to the Anthropocene. Critical reorganization of biological communities and biodiversity loss are expected to accelerate as anthropogenic global change continues. Long-term records offer context for understanding baseline conditions and those trajectories that are beyond the range of normal fluctuation seen over recent millennia: Are we causing changes that are fundamentally different from changes in the past? Using a rich dataset of late Quaternary pollen records, stored in the open-access and community-curated Neotoma database, we analyzed changes in biodiversity and community composition since the end Pleistocene in North America. We measured taxonomic richness, short-ter

SUBMITTER: Stegner MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10614604 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature