A conservation palaeobiological approach to assess faunal response of threatened biota under natural and anthropogenic environmental change

Biogeosciences Discussions

Neubauer, Thomas A.^3²  Radan, Silviu^4⁶  Popa, Luis^7^1,10  Krijgsman, Wout^10^1,11  Abels, Hemmo A.^9^1,13  Martínez Gándara, Alberto^7^1,14  Stoica, Marius^5^2,20  Jorissen, Elisabeth L.^2^2,24  Baak, Christiaan G. C. Van^6^2,25  Pavel, Ana Bianca^4^2,27  Velde, Sabrina van de^1^3,35  Stigter, Henko de^8^3,39  Wesselingh, Frank P.^11^4,40 

[1] Aerodyne Research Inc, Billerica, MA 01821, USA^23;Beilun Bureau of Meteorology, Ningbo 315800, China^3;Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA^18;CAS Center for Excellence in Regional Atmospheric Environment, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, 361000, Fujian, China^29;CASP, West Building, Madingley Rise, Madingley Road, CB3 0UD, Cambridge, UK^38;Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China^4;College of Pharmacy, Anhui Medical University, 81 Meishan Road, Hefei 230032, China^30;Department of Animal Ecology & Systematics, Justus Liebig University, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26–32 IFZ, 35392 Giessen, Germany^35;Department of Atmospheric Sciences and Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA^21;Department of Chemistry and Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA^9;Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA^12;Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA^20;Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA^11;Department of Environmental Sciences, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Diadema, São Paulo, Brazil^8;Department of Geology, Faculty of Geology and Geophysics, University of Bucharest, Bălcescu Bd. 1, 010041 Bucharest, Romania^37;Department of Geosciences and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Stevinweg 1, 2628 CN Delft, the Netherlands^41;Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA^25;Environment Research Institute, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China^24;Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA^19;Environmental and Climate Sciences Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973-5000, USA^6;Grigore Antipa National Museum of Natural History, Sos. Kiseleff Nr. 1, 011341 Bucharest, Romania^39;Guangzhou Key Laboratory Environmental Catalysis and Pollution Control, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Environmental Catalysis and Health Risk Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Institute of Environmental Health and Pollution Control, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China^22;Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil^14;Institute of Urban Meteorology, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100089, China^2;John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA^7;Key Lab. of Environmental Optics and Technology, Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China^26;Key Laboratory for Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation of China Meteorological Administration, School of Atmospheric Physics, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China^5;NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department of Ocean Systems, 1790 AB Den Burg, the Netherlands^40;National Institute of Marine Geology and Geoecology (GeoEcoMar), 23–25 Dimitrie Onciul St., 024053 Bucharest, Romania^36;Naturalis Biodiversity Center, P.O. Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands^32;Palaeomagnetic Laboratory “Fort Hoofddijk”, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 17, 3584 CD Utrecht, the Netherlands^34;School of Environmental Science and Optoelectronic Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China^28;School of Mathematics and Physics, Anhui University of Technology, Ma'anshan 243032, China^31;Science Island Branch of Graduate School, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China^27;State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Urban Ambient Air Particulate Matter Pollution Prevention and Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China^1;These authors contributed equally to this work^33;now at: Agrarian Sciences Institute, Federal University of Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil^16;now at: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China^17;now at: Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA^10;now at: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA^13;now at: IMT Lille Douai, Université Lille, SAGE, Lille, France^15

DOI  :  10.5194/bg-16-2423-2019

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Copernicus Publications

【 摘 要 】

Palaeoecological records are required to test ecological hypotheses necessary for conservation strategies as short-term observations can insufficiently capture natural variability and identify drivers of biotic change. Here, we demonstrate the importance of an integrated conservation palaeobiology approach when making validated decisions for conservation and mitigating action. Our model system is the Razim–Sinoie lake complex (RSL) in the Danube Delta (Black Sea coast, Romania), a dynamic coastal lake system hosting unique Pontocaspian mollusc species that are now severely under threat. The Pontocaspians refer to an endemic species group that evolved in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea basins under reduced salinity settings over the past few million years. The natural, pre-industrial RSL contained a salinity gradient from fresh to mesohaline (18 ppm) until human intervention reduced the inflow of mesohaline Black Sea water into the lake system. We reconstruct the evolution of the RSL over the past 2000 years from integrated sedimentary facies and faunal analyses based on 11 age-dated sediment cores and investigate the response of mollusc species and communities to those past environmental changes. Three species associations (“marine”, “Pontocaspian” and “freshwater”) exist and their spatio-temporal shifts through the system are documented. Variable salinity gradients developed, with marine settings (and faunas) dominating in the southern part of the system and freshwater conditions (and faunas) in the northern and western parts. Pontocaspian species have mostly occurred in the centre of the RSL within the marine–freshwater salinity gradient. Today, freshwater species dominate the entire system, and only a single Pontocaspian species (Monodacna colorata) is found alive. We show that the human-induced reduced marine influence in the system has been a major driver of the decline of the endemic Pontocaspian biota. It urges improved conservation action by re-establishing a salinity gradient in the lake system to preserve these unique species.

【 授权许可】

CC BY