ArticleNature communications2022
High resolution ancient sedimentary DNA shows that alpine plant diversity is associated with human land use and climate change.
Article in Nature communications, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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19 citing papers in PubMed.
- Getting to the Core of the Matter-Assessing the Role of Replication in Metabarcoding-Based sedaDNA.Molecular ecology resources · 2026Article
- Woody plant encroachment enhanced negative interactions in Arctic plant communities over the last 24,000 years.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Decadal-scale pollen records link land use and plant diversity change across European lowlands over seven millennia.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Archaeoentomological SedaDNA from two French gallo-roman wells reveals the presence of arthropods not identified by sclerotized remains.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Acinetobacter baumannii's lifestyle includes soil-dwelling colonization of decaying plant material and airborne spread.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Can Amplicon Sequencing Be Replaced by Metagenomics for Biodiversity Inventories?Molecular ecology resources · 2025Article
- Linking Tree and Shrub Biomass to Plant Diversity During Early-Stage Alpine Afforestation.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- A 75,000-y-old Scandinavian Arctic cave deposit reveals past faunal diversity and paleoenvironment.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Vulnerability Assessment of Six Endemic Tibetan-Himalayan Plants Under Climate Change and Human Activities.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Wild and domesticated animal abundance is associated with greater late-Holocene alpine plant diversity.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Exploring Fungal Abundance and WHO Fungal Priority Pathogens in Agricultural Fields: A One Health Perspective in Northeast Thailand.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Potential plant extinctions with the loss of the Pleistocene mammoth steppe.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Sediment Core DNA-Metabarcoding and Chitinous Remain Identification: Integrating Complementary Methods to Characterise Chironomidae Biodiversity in Lake Sediment Archives.Molecular ecology resources · 2025Article
- Predicting the responses of European grassland communities to climate and land cover change.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Using ancient sedimentary DNA to forecast ecosystem trajectories under climate change.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- A novel approach for quantitatively distinguishing between anthropogenic and natural effects on paleovegetation.PNAS nexus · 2024Article
- Mitochondrial genomes of Pleistocene megafauna retrieved from recent sediment layers of two Siberian lakes.eLife · 2024Article
- Transnational conservation to anticipate future plant shifts in Europe.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
- Human-triggered magnification of erosion rates in European Alps since the Bronze Age.Nature communications · 2024Article
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21 authors.
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Abstract
The European Alps are highly rich in species, but their future may be threatened by ongoing changes in human land use and climate. Here, we reconstructed vegetation, temperature, human impact and livestock over the past ~12,000 years from Lake Sulsseewli, based on sedimentary ancient plant and mammal DNA, pollen, spores, chironomids, and microcharcoal. We assembled a highly-complete local DNA reference library (PhyloAlps, 3923 plant taxa), and used this to obtain an exceptionally rich sedaDNA record of 366 plant taxa. Vegetation mainly responded to climate during the early Holocene, while human activity had an additional influence on vegetation from 6 ka onwards. Land-use shifted from episodic grazing during the Neolithic and Bronze Age to agropastoralism in the Middle Ages. Associated human deforestation allowed the coexistence of plant species typically found at different elevational belts, leading to levels of plant richness that characterise the current high diversity of this region. Our findings indicate a positive association between low intensity agropastoral activities and precipitation with the maintenance of the unique subalpine and alpine plant diversity of the European Alps.
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