Abstract:
Ecological records from before and after the creation of natural parks are valuable for informing conservation and management but are often unavailable. High-resolution paleoecological studies may bridge the gap and provide the required information. This paper presents a 20th-century subdecadal reconstruction of vegetation and landscape dynamics in a national park of the Pyrenean highlands. The park lands had traditionally been used for cultivation, extensive grazing, forest exploitation, and hydroelectricity generation following the damming of numerous glacial lakes. A significant finding is that forests have dominated the landscape, with negligible changes in composition, and only experienced fluctuations in forest cover, influenced by both climatic and anthropogenic factors. The creation of the park (1955) and the initial restrictions on forest exploitation did not significantly affect vegetation cover or composition. Major forest expansion did not occur until several decades later, 1980, when the park was enlarged and forest exploitation was further restricted. This expansion peaked in the 1990s, coinciding with a warming trend and a decrease in fire incidence, before declining due to warmer and drier climates. This decline was coeval with the ongoing global forest dieback and may be exacerbated by the predicted global warming in this century, which could also increase fire incidence due to dead-wood accumulation. Currently, the main threats are global warming/drying, fire, and tourism intensification. Similar high-resolution paleoecological records in protected areas are globally scarce and would be capable in providing the long-term ecological scope required to properly understand forest dynamics and optimize conservation measures.
摘要:
自然公园创建前后的生态记录对于提供保护和管理信息很有价值,但通常无法使用。高分辨率的古生态研究可以弥补这一差距并提供所需的信息。本文介绍了比利牛斯高地国家公园中20世纪的植被和景观动态的年代亚重建。公园的土地传统上被用来耕种,广泛的放牧,森林开发,以及众多冰川湖筑坝后的水力发电。一个重要的发现是森林主导了景观,成分的变化可以忽略不计,只经历了森林覆盖率的波动,受气候和人为因素的影响。公园的建立(1955年)和对森林开发的最初限制并未显着影响植被覆盖或组成。主要的森林扩张直到几十年后才发生,1980年,公园扩大,森林开发受到进一步限制。这种扩张在1990年代达到顶峰,与变暖趋势和火灾发生率下降相吻合,在由于温暖和干燥的气候而下降之前。这种下降与正在进行的全球森林枯萎并存,并可能因本世纪预测的全球变暖而加剧,这也可能增加由于枯木堆积引起的火灾发生率。目前,主要威胁是全球变暖/干燥,火,旅游集约化。保护区中类似的高分辨率古生态记录在全球范围内很少,并且能够提供适当了解森林动态和优化保护措施所需的长期生态范围。