TY - JOUR
T1 - Volcanic impact on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in the Eastern Mediterranean
AU - Pickarski, Nadine
AU - Kwiecien, Ola
AU - Litt, Thomas
N1 - Funding information: Financial support was provided by the German Research Foundation (DFG; LI 582/20-1, 2). We thank all colleagues of the PALEOVAN scientific team who were involved in the drilling, core opening, and sampling campaign. We kindly thank Ulla Röhl, Holger Kuhlmann, and Alex Wülbers from the IODP Bremen Core Repository (MARUM) for their help during the sampling. N.P. especially thanks Karen Schmeling for preparing excellent pollen samples. We thank the editor, Joe Aslin, and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and useful recommendations, which improved the quality of the paper.
PY - 2023/5/16
Y1 - 2023/5/16
N2 - Natural disturbances such as volcanic eruptions provide a unique opportunity to study past ecological dynamics. Here we illustrate the response of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems to volcanic eruptions in connection to prevailing climate conditions. We selected five volcaniclastic depositions in the Lake Van (Turkey) sediments from different interglacial/glacial periods (Marine Isotope Stages 3 to 9e). Using high-resolution pollen data, non-pollen palynomorphs, and microscopic charcoal particles we attempted to disentangle climatic and volcanic forcing of natural environmental disturbances. Our results highlights that the thickness of subsequent volcanic deposits and the respective climatic conditions strongly influence the impact on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The most common response to ash deposition is a shift towards herbaceous taxa and abrupt fire activity. The affected herbaceous vegetation recovers to pre-eruption levels in 20 to 40 varve-years. The lake water experiences intensified productivity due to subsequent nutrient input and significant increase in aquatic microfossils. Our findings pave the way for disentangling climatic and volcanic forcing of natural environmental disturbances.
AB - Natural disturbances such as volcanic eruptions provide a unique opportunity to study past ecological dynamics. Here we illustrate the response of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems to volcanic eruptions in connection to prevailing climate conditions. We selected five volcaniclastic depositions in the Lake Van (Turkey) sediments from different interglacial/glacial periods (Marine Isotope Stages 3 to 9e). Using high-resolution pollen data, non-pollen palynomorphs, and microscopic charcoal particles we attempted to disentangle climatic and volcanic forcing of natural environmental disturbances. Our results highlights that the thickness of subsequent volcanic deposits and the respective climatic conditions strongly influence the impact on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The most common response to ash deposition is a shift towards herbaceous taxa and abrupt fire activity. The affected herbaceous vegetation recovers to pre-eruption levels in 20 to 40 varve-years. The lake water experiences intensified productivity due to subsequent nutrient input and significant increase in aquatic microfossils. Our findings pave the way for disentangling climatic and volcanic forcing of natural environmental disturbances.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85159680680&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s43247-023-00827-0
DO - 10.1038/s43247-023-00827-0
M3 - Article
SN - 2662-4435
VL - 4
SP - 1
EP - 12
JO - Communications Earth and Environment
JF - Communications Earth and Environment
IS - 1
M1 - 167
ER -