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Seabird establishment during regional cooling drove a terrestrial ecosystem shift 5000 years ago.

ABSTRACT: The coastal tussac (Poa flabellata) grasslands of the Falkland Islands are a critical seabird breeding habitat but have been drastically reduced by grazing and erosion. Meanwhile, the sensitivity of seabirds and tussac to climate change is unknown because of a lack of long-term records in the South Atlantic. Our 14,000-year multiproxy record reveals an ecosystem state shift following seabird establishment 5000 years ago, as marine-derived nutrients from guano facilitated tussac establishment, peat productivity, and increased fire. Seabird arrival coincided with regional cooling, suggesting that the Falkland Islands are a cold-climate refugium. Conservation efforts focusing on tussac restoration should include this terrestrial-marine linkage, although a warming Southern Ocean calls into question the long-term viability of the Falkland Islands as habitat for low-latitude seabirds.

SUBMITTER: Groff DV

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7608832 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Seabird establishment during regional cooling drove a terrestrial ecosystem shift 5000 years ago.

Groff Dulcinea V DV Hamley Kit M KM Lessard Trevor J R TJR Greenawalt Kayla E KE Yasuhara Moriaki M Brickle Paul P Gill Jacquelyn L JL

Science advances 20201023 43

The coastal tussac (<i>Poa flabellata</i>) grasslands of the Falkland Islands are a critical seabird breeding habitat but have been drastically reduced by grazing and erosion. Meanwhile, the sensitivity of seabirds and tussac to climate change is unknown because of a lack of long-term records in the South Atlantic. Our 14,000-year multiproxy record reveals an ecosystem state shift following seabird establishment 5000 years ago, as marine-derived nutrients from guano facilitated tussac establishm ...[more]

PMID: 33097535

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