Browsing by Author "Connor, Simon"
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- The human dimension of biodiversity changes on islandsPublication . Nogué, Sandra; Santos, Ana M. C.; Birks, H. John B.; Björck, Svante; Castilla-Beltrán, Alvaro; Connor, Simon; de Boer, Erik J.; Nascimento, Lea de; Felde, Vivian A.; Fernández-Palacios, José María; Froyd, Cynthia A.; Haberle, Simon G.; Hooghiemstra, Henry; Ljung, Karl; Norder, Sietze J.; Peñuelas, Josep; Prebble, Matthew; Stevenson, Janelle; Whittaker, Robert J.; Willis, Kathy J.; Wilmshurst, Janet M.; Steinbauer, Manuel J.Islands are among the last regions on Earth settled and transformed by human activities, and they provide replicated model systems for analysis of how people affect ecological functions. By analyzing 27 representative fossil pollen sequences encompassing the past 5000 years from islands globally, we quantified the rates of vegetation compositional change before and after human arrival. After human arrival, rates of turnover accelerate by a median factor of 11, with faster rates on islands colonized in the past 1500 years than for those colonized earlier. This global anthropogenic acceleration in turnover suggests that islands are on trajectories of continuing change. Strategies for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration must acknowledge the long duration of human impacts and the degree to which ecological changes today differ from prehuman dynamics.
- Is there solid evidence of widespread landscape disturbance in the Azores before the arrival of the Portuguese?Publication . Elias, Rui B.; Connor, Simon; Góis-Marques, Carlos A.; Schaefer, Hanno; Silva, Luís; Sequeira, Miguel M.; Moura, Mónica; Borges, Paulo A. V.; Gabriel, RosalinaRaposeiro et al. conclude that human occupation of the Azores islands began between 700 and 850 CE, causing widespread landscape disturbance and raising doubts about the islands’ presumed pristine nature when the Portuguese arrived. However, previous paleoecological studies from Flores, Pico, and Sao Miguel Islands (Table 1) show that permanent changes in the vegetation occurred only after the early 15th century. The authors’ work also shows the permanent decline, to the lowest levels, in arboreal pollen on Corvo and Flores occurring during Portuguese occupation, not before. […].