Holocene reconstruction of terrestrial habitats and dispersal pathways in the Antarctic Peninsula and sub-Antarctic Islands

南极半岛和亚南极群岛陆地栖息地和扩散途径的全新世重建

• 批准号: 2403304
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Southampton
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2403304
• 关键词: Holocene; reconstruction; terrestrial; habitats; dispersal

Terrestrial environments of the sub-Antarctic and Antarctic present extreme challenges for life. However, during the last glacial period (and previous periods), Antarctic terrestrial life faced even more extreme environmental conditions, in particular with a drastic reduction in available terrestrial habitats (1). However, our current understanding of terrestrial biological range changes and dispersal processes in Antarctica as a consequence of changing environmental conditions throughout glacial cycles remains unclear. A combination of peat cores, monoliths, and pollen traps obtained in recent years in BAS, SOGES, and collaborating projects along the length of the Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Arc provide a unique opportunity to advance this field. This project will use them to reconstruct vegetation dispersal and distribution (pollen, spores) and other biological proxies (e.g. guano-derived geochemistry) (2), contained invertebrate and microbial community elements (3)) across the latitudinal range from South Georgia (53S) to northern Alexander Island (69S). We will analyse, over short- and long-term, dispersal processes and the impacts of major drivers of change (e.g. climate) on life on land across this paradigmatic region for studies of climate change. The use of moss/peat cores allows, in particular, inference of biological processes occurring in summer, increasing the biological relevance of our reconstructions.

亚南极和南极的陆地环境对生命提出了极端挑战。然而，在末次冰期（和以前的时期），南极陆地生物面临着更加极端的环境条件，特别是可用的陆地栖息地急剧减少。然而，我们目前对南极洲陆地生物分布范围变化和扩散过程的理解仍然不清楚，这是整个冰川周期环境条件变化的结果。近年来在BAS、SOGES和沿着南极半岛和斯科舍弧的合作项目中获得的泥炭芯、整料和花粉陷阱的组合为推进这一领域提供了独特的机会。该项目将利用这些数据重建从南格鲁吉亚（53 S）到北方亚历山大岛（69 S）的纬度范围内的植被扩散和分布（花粉、孢子）以及其他生物代用品（例如鸟粪衍生地球化学）（2），包含无脊椎动物和微生物群落元素（3））。我们将分析，在短期和长期，扩散过程和变化的主要驱动因素（如气候）对整个气候变化研究的典范区域的土地上的生命的影响。特别是，使用苔藓/泥炭芯可以推断夏季发生的生物过程，增加我们重建的生物相关性。