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European pollen-based REVEALS land-cover reconstructions for the Holocene : Methodology, mapping and potentials

Githumbi, Esther LU ; Fyfe, Ralph ; Gaillard, Marie Jose ; Trondman, Anna Kari ; Mazier, Florence LU ; Nielsen, Anne Birgitte LU orcid ; Poska, Anneli LU ; Sugita, Shinya ; Woodbridge, Jessie and Azuara, Julien , et al. (2022) In Earth System Science Data 14(4). p.1581-1619
Abstract

Quantitative reconstructions of past land cover are necessary to determine the processes involved in climate-human-land-cover interactions. We present the first temporally continuous and most spatially extensive pollen-based land-cover reconstruction for Europe over the Holocene (last 11g€¯700g€¯calg€¯yrg€¯BP). We describe how vegetation cover has been quantified from pollen records at a 11 spatial scale using the "Regional Estimates of VEgetation Abundance from Large Sites"(REVEALS) model. REVEALS calculates estimates of past regional vegetation cover in proportions or percentages. REVEALS has been applied to 1128 pollen records across Europe and part of the eastern Mediterranean-Black Sea-Caspian corridor (30-75° N, 25° W-50° E) to... (More)

Quantitative reconstructions of past land cover are necessary to determine the processes involved in climate-human-land-cover interactions. We present the first temporally continuous and most spatially extensive pollen-based land-cover reconstruction for Europe over the Holocene (last 11g€¯700g€¯calg€¯yrg€¯BP). We describe how vegetation cover has been quantified from pollen records at a 11 spatial scale using the "Regional Estimates of VEgetation Abundance from Large Sites"(REVEALS) model. REVEALS calculates estimates of past regional vegetation cover in proportions or percentages. REVEALS has been applied to 1128 pollen records across Europe and part of the eastern Mediterranean-Black Sea-Caspian corridor (30-75° N, 25° W-50° E) to reconstruct the percentage cover of 31 plant taxa assigned to 12 plant functional types (PFTs) and 3 land-cover types (LCTs). A new synthesis of relative pollen productivities (RPPs) for European plant taxa was performed for this reconstruction. It includes multiple RPP values (≥2 values) for 39 taxa and single values for 15 taxa (total of 54 taxa). To illustrate this, we present distribution maps for five taxa (Calluna vulgaris, Cerealia type (t)., Picea abies, deciduous Quercus t. and evergreen Quercus t.) and three land-cover types (open land, OL; evergreen trees, ETs; and summer-green trees, STs) for eight selected time windows. The reliability of the REVEALS reconstructions and issues related to the interpretation of the results in terms of landscape openness and human-induced vegetation change are discussed. This is followed by a review of the current use of this reconstruction and its future potential utility and development. REVEALS data quality are primarily determined by pollen count data (pollen count and sample, pollen identification, and chronology) and site type and number (lake or bog, large or small, one site vs. multiple sites) used for REVEALS analysis (for each grid cell). A large number of sites with high-quality pollen count data will produce more reliable land-cover estimates with lower standard errors compared to a low number of sites with lower-quality pollen count data. The REVEALS data presented here can be downloaded from https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.937075 (Fyfe et al., 2022).

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Landscape reconstruction, Holocene, Palynology, Palaeoecology
in
Earth System Science Data
volume
14
issue
4
pages
39 pages
publisher
Copernicus GmbH
external identifiers
  • scopus:85128759533
ISSN
1866-3508
DOI
10.5194/essd-14-1581-2022
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Funding Information: Financial support. This research has been supported by the Swedish Research Council VR (Vetenskapsrådet) (Quantification of the bio-geophysical and biogeochemical forcings from anthropogenic de-forestation on regional Holocene climate in Europe, LandClim II). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Esther Githumbi et al. Contributor: LandClimII data contributors
id
33e0858a-a91c-4826-b854-abb180b8ba37
date added to LUP
2023-02-07 12:28:41
date last changed
2023-09-25 16:19:49
@article{33e0858a-a91c-4826-b854-abb180b8ba37,
  abstract     = {{<p>Quantitative reconstructions of past land cover are necessary to determine the processes involved in climate-human-land-cover interactions. We present the first temporally continuous and most spatially extensive pollen-based land-cover reconstruction for Europe over the Holocene (last 11g€¯700g€¯calg€¯yrg€¯BP). We describe how vegetation cover has been quantified from pollen records at a 11 spatial scale using the "Regional Estimates of VEgetation Abundance from Large Sites"(REVEALS) model. REVEALS calculates estimates of past regional vegetation cover in proportions or percentages. REVEALS has been applied to 1128 pollen records across Europe and part of the eastern Mediterranean-Black Sea-Caspian corridor (30-75° N, 25° W-50° E) to reconstruct the percentage cover of 31 plant taxa assigned to 12 plant functional types (PFTs) and 3 land-cover types (LCTs). A new synthesis of relative pollen productivities (RPPs) for European plant taxa was performed for this reconstruction. It includes multiple RPP values (≥2 values) for 39 taxa and single values for 15 taxa (total of 54 taxa). To illustrate this, we present distribution maps for five taxa (Calluna vulgaris, Cerealia type (t)., Picea abies, deciduous Quercus t. and evergreen Quercus t.) and three land-cover types (open land, OL; evergreen trees, ETs; and summer-green trees, STs) for eight selected time windows. The reliability of the REVEALS reconstructions and issues related to the interpretation of the results in terms of landscape openness and human-induced vegetation change are discussed. This is followed by a review of the current use of this reconstruction and its future potential utility and development. REVEALS data quality are primarily determined by pollen count data (pollen count and sample, pollen identification, and chronology) and site type and number (lake or bog, large or small, one site vs. multiple sites) used for REVEALS analysis (for each grid cell). A large number of sites with high-quality pollen count data will produce more reliable land-cover estimates with lower standard errors compared to a low number of sites with lower-quality pollen count data. The REVEALS data presented here can be downloaded from https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.937075 (Fyfe et al., 2022).</p>}},
  author       = {{Githumbi, Esther and Fyfe, Ralph and Gaillard, Marie Jose and Trondman, Anna Kari and Mazier, Florence and Nielsen, Anne Birgitte and Poska, Anneli and Sugita, Shinya and Woodbridge, Jessie and Azuara, Julien and Feurdean, Angelica and Grindean, Roxana and Lebreton, Vincent and Marquer, Laurent and Nebout-Combourieu, Nathalie and Stančikaite, Migle and Tanţǎu, Ioan and Tonkov, Spassimir and Shumilovskikh, Lyudmila and Åkesson, Christine and Balakauskas, Lauras and Batalova, Vlada and Birks, H. John B. and Bjune, Anne E. and Borisova, Olga and Bozilova, Elissaveta and Burjachs, Francesc and Cheddadi, Rachid and Christiansen, Jörg and David, Remi and De Klerk, Pim and Di Rita, Federico and Dörfler, Walter and Doyen, Elise and Eastwood, Warren and Etienne, David and Feeser, Ingo and Filipova-Marinova, Mariana and Fischer, Elske and Galop, Didier and Carrion, Jose Garcia Sebastian and Gauthier, Emilie and Giesecke, Thomas and Herking, Christa and Herzschuh, Ulrike and Jouffroy-Bapicot, Isabelle and Kasianova, Alisa and Kouli, Katerina and Lagerås, Per and Persson, Thomas}},
  issn         = {{1866-3508}},
  keywords     = {{Landscape reconstruction; Holocene; Palynology; Palaeoecology}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{04}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{1581--1619}},
  publisher    = {{Copernicus GmbH}},
  series       = {{Earth System Science Data}},
  title        = {{European pollen-based REVEALS land-cover reconstructions for the Holocene : Methodology, mapping and potentials}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1581-2022}},
  doi          = {{10.5194/essd-14-1581-2022}},
  volume       = {{14}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}