ORCID

Abstract

Large herbivorous mammals strongly influence vegetation structure by creating and maintaining open areas and causing disturbance within closed woody habitats. The herbivores alive today in Europe are only a small remnant of the large species that existed in high diversity and abundance before modern humans. The extinction of so many large herbivores during the last 50,000 years, and the loss of megaherbivores (body weight ≥1000 kg) from most of the continent before the Pleistocene–Holocene transition, is likely to have had cascading effects on vegetation structure and composition. To evaluate these effects within the European temperate forest biome, we examine the abundance change of three important European woody taxa (deciduous oaks, Quercus spp.; hazel, Corylus [mainly C. avellana]; and yew, Taxus baccata) before and after the late-Quaternary downgrading of the region''s large herbivore fauna. These taxa are disturbance-favoured, depend on canopy openings for regeneration, and tend to decline in closed dense forests. Quercus and Corylus may thrive in systems affected by megafauna herbivory or fire, whilst Taxus is fire-sensitive but can thrive in grazed systems. Using pollen-based reconstructions (REVEALS), we investigated the proportional cover of these three focal taxa in the Last Interglacial (129,000–116,000 before present [BP]) and early–mid-Holocene (8700–5700 BP). We found that woodlands in the Last Interglacial exhibited higher cover of Corylus and Taxus relative to the Holocene, with the former reaching very high percentage cover; meanwhile, Quercus had a consistent, moderately high percentage cover in both periods. Furthermore, we found that the cover of Corylus and Taxus appeared to be influenced more by unmeasured, non-climatic factors than Quercus. Synthesis: The abundance of Taxus suggests a limited role of fire; whilst the observed levels of Taxus, Corylus and Quercus align with the potential influence of megafauna herbivory; however, a direct quantitative link remains to be established. Our results suggest that vegetation was structurally and compositionally affected by differences in disturbance regimes between the Last Interglacial and early–mid-Holocene, with the loss of diverse disturbance regimes likely contributing to the divergence of Holocene vegetation from long-term ecological baselines.

Publication Date

2024-10-01

Publication Title

Journal of Ecology

Volume

112

Issue

12

ISSN

0022-0477

Acceptance Date

2024-09-12

Deposit Date

2024-11-26

Funding

This work was supported by the project TERRANOVA, the European Landscape Learning Initiative, which received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 813904. The output reflects only the views of the authors and the European Union cannot be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein. We thank VILLUM FONDEN for economic support via J.-C.S\u2019 VILLUM Investigator project \u2018Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World\u2019 (grant 16549). We also consider this work a contribution to Centre for Ecological Dynamics in a Novel Biosphere (ECONOVO), funded by the Danish National Research Foundation (grant DNRF173 to J.-C.S.) and the MegaComplexity project, funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark | Natural Sciences (grant 0135-00225B to J.-C.S.). This work was supported by the project TERRANOVA, the European Landscape Learning Initiative, which received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Marie Sklodowska\u2010Curie grant agreement no. 813904. The output reflects only the views of the authors and the European Union cannot be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein. We thank VILLUM FONDEN for economic support via J.\u2010C.S\u2019 VILLUM Investigator project \u2018Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World\u2019 (grant 16549). We also consider this work a contribution to Centre for Ecological Dynamics in a Novel Biosphere (ECONOVO), funded by the Danish National Research Foundation (grant DNRF173 to J.\u2010C.S.) and the MegaComplexity project, funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark | Natural Sciences (grant 0135\u201000225B to J.\u2010C.S.).

Keywords

disturbance regimes, European forests, forest structure, megafauna, reference conditions

First Page

2813

Last Page

2827

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