Technical terms

the mid-latitude spring onset of photosynthesis

(Time period when plants are growing “green” parts due to seasons)

Refers to the longer green wave because herbivores stimulate plant growth and delay maturation

species distribution modelling (SDM)

• modeling species distributions (in the future) on maps through collected data on physiology and/or current and past distribution

• Pasture

• Biodiversity hotspot (2200 endemic species)

• Carbon storage (10 kg/m2)

• Water storage

• Groundwater protection

Ecometrics is the quantitative analysis of economic, environmental, and societal systems based on the concurrent development of empirical theory, related by appropriate methods of inference in attempts to create more sustainable systems. Broadly defined, Ecometrics is a way to evaluate if an activity is contributing to more sustainable systems of production and consumption. Ecometrics is a system of statistical extrapolation and interpolation that uses principles of resource management in economic and environmental studies to analyze trends in consumption.

-> more concrete: measures of ecosystem functioning that are taxon-free, such as nutrient cycling rate, biomass production, climate regulation, erosion control etc.

Palynology is the study of microorganisms and microscopic fragments of mega-organisms that are composed of acid-resistant organic material and occur in sediments, sedimentary rocks, and even some metasedimentary rocks.

Functions:

• herbivores, detritivory, nutrient cycle

• More turtles per space possible because heterotherm

• Tortoise turf made by trampeling

• Seed dispersers

Low risk:

• many eggs usually eaten by predators (not if incubated outside)

• Barely any fencing needed

• Manly eat non-native vegetation (without defenses)

• Easy to get them out again

Disadvantages:

• Slow growth, maybe include adults as well

An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environments and are an example of an ecotone.

reactivation of top-down trophic interactions. Close to Pleistocene rewilding but without historical benchmark. 3 main theoretical tenants:

• Megafaunal processes are important for ecosystem structure and functioning

• Rich megafaunas were typical worldwide on evolutionary timescales ->modern species assemblages are adapted to megafauna-rich ecosystems

• Losses of megafauna from recent to distant times -> ecosystem changes and biodiversity losses

• Kiwi (basically carnivore so no)

• Closest relatives not very similar

• Flightlessness inherited by flying bird

• Ostriches, Emus, Cassowaries: also eat insects

• De-extinction not as easy as mammals (cannot reach embryo through the shell)

• Non-native species are illegal on New Zealand (“new moa-chimera” would be illegal)

• De-extinct is also almost extinct

• critically endangered

• widely distributed until late 19th century

• 1988 small group found in Vietnam, killed by poachers

• Browsers but maybe grazing

• Distribution in late Pleistocene maintained until historical times

• values barely changed since Pleistocene: no refugee species (always forested species)

In between ex situ (offsite and fending for itself) and in situ (in wild habitat), the inter situ conservation collection has diverse genetic representation and supplemental care. The term was first used to refer to the restoration of declining species in areas that are outside their current range but within historical ranges, inferred from paleoecological studies, but is now used to describe a semi-wild setting for ensuring species’ survival.

• grazing, trampling

• seed dispersal

• fertilisation through feces

In paleontology, an Elvis taxon (plural Elvis taxa) is a taxon that has been misidentified as having re-emerged in the fossil record after a period of presumed extinction, but is not actually a descendant of the original taxon, instead having developed a similar morphology by convergent evolution. This implies that the extinction of the original taxon is real, and one taxon containing specimens from before and after the extinction would be polyphyletic.

• Vulnerable

• Much wider spread until recently

• Bamboo specialist in southern mountainous regions of China

• Adaptations to herbivory: larger teeth, strong jar, additional thumb-like bone

• Fossil-record: wider region than bamboo forests

• Historical record also much wider (maybe not the same panda, changed?)

• Diet: panda can and do eat meat as well (not 100% specialized)

  • Gut microbiota carnivore-like

  • Can only digest very small portion of bamboo (no fiber)

  • In captivity preference to other more protein rich food

  • Wider variety in  and  (temperature, aridity) values in PL.

• Climate change shifts vegetation-zones (bamboo) out of protected areas

• Maybe other habitats feasible as well

• Vulnerable

• Modern distribution: South-east Asia (3 species)

• Chinese Goral and Himalayan Goral: Grazers and mixed eaters

• Sumatran serow (Capricornis sumatraensis): Is a bit more browsers and mixed

• Shift of N. goral towards C3-dominated vegetation

• C. sumatraensis still C3 (wide range in PL.)

• N. griseus probably still C4 dominated

• Shift in altitude (towards highland)

• Species becoming more equal?

• Near threatened

• Restricted to central Asia (most northern Antilope)

• Quick repopulation

• Fenced herds (cannot move for grasing)

• Historical records: higher humidity range

• Originally wider spread of herd

• Some close to moderns saigas but others very different (two niche kinds)

• Extinction rates higher than the background rate for an extended period lasting the last 20-25 million years of the Devonian (380-360 Ma)

• During this period, 8 to 10 distinct events, of which two stand out as particularly severe

• oxygen crisis in the ocean (increased marine production: anoxic conditions, and some other stuff)

• reduction of temperature: glaciation, fall of sea level

• affected: reef builders, trilobites, ammonites

• mother of all mass extinctions

• 251.4 Myr ago

• 96% all marine species, 70% all terrestrial vertebrate species

• Recent research: different groups extinct at different times

• group with highes survival: Organisms with active control of circulation, elaborate gas exchange mechanisms, and light calcification

• Cause?: volcanic eruptions and heated salt deposits: release of gigatons of CO2

• is a large region of volcanic rock, known as a large igneous province, in Siberia, Russia. The massive eruptive event that formed the traps is one of the largest known volcanic events in the last 500 million years.

• The eruptions continued for roughly two million years and spanned the Permian–Triassic boundary, or P–T boundary, which occurred around 251.9 million years ago. The Siberian Traps are believed to be the primary cause of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the most severe extinction event in the geologic record.

• 55-55.5 Ma

• high CO2 and CH4 levels

• increase in plant diversity and origination rates, with a set of new taxa, mostly angiosperms

since the fossil record of organisms is never complete, neither the first nor the last organism in a given taxon will be recorded as a fossil.[1] The Signor–Lipps effect is often applied specifically to cases of the youngest-known fossils of a taxon failing to represent the last appearance of an organism.

• Life came close to complete annihilation 251 Mya

• 5% of species did survive and understanding how these few taxa recovered from the severest of evolutionary bottlenecks is crucial to understanding the subsequent evolution of the biosphere

• 100 My for global biodiversity at the family level to return to preextinctionlevels

• 20% of the marine Invertebrate Families become extinct (47% of genera, 76% of species)

• many giant reptiles lost

• combination of vulcanic outgassing and catastrophic dissociation of gas hydrate

• Among terrestrial vertebrates: Extinction of Dinosaurs and Pterosaurs, as well as different families of birds, marsupials, lizards and snakes

• Among marine vertebrates: Extinction of Plesiosaurs, Mosasaursand some families of chondrichthyansand osteichthyans

• Among terrestrial invertebrates: Massive extinction of bees

• Among marine invertebrates: many important Mesozoic groups, e.g. Ammonoideaand Belemnoidea, Rudistesand different groups of planctonicorganisms

• Many other groups, such as crocodiles, turtles, amphibians, many groups of fish and gastropods were little or not affected, as well as lice (bird and mammal ectoparasites)

• Cause: vulcanism and meteor and a lot of mean consequenes

• Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event (K-T extinction) -65 Ma at the Cretaceous-Paleogenetransition about 17% of all families and 50% of all genera went extinct (75% species). End of the reign of dinosaurs. In the seas, reduced the percentage of sessile animals to about 33%. Rather uneven —some groups of organisms became extinct, some suffered heavy losses and some appear to have been only minimally affected.

• Triassic–Jurassic extinction event -205 Ma at the Triassic-Jurassic transition about 20% of all marine families (55% genera) as well as most non-dinosaurian archosaurs, most therapsids, and most of the large amphibians were eliminated. 23% of all families and 48% of all genera went extinct.

• Permian–Triassic extinction event -251 Ma at the Permian-Triassic transition, Earth's largest extinction killed 53% of marine families, 84% of marine genera, about 96% of all marine species and an estimated 70% of land species (including plants, insects, and vertebrate animals). 57% of all families and 83% of all genera went extinct. The "Great Dying" had enormous evolutionary significance: on land it ended the dominance of mammal-like reptiles; the recovery of vertebrates took 30 million years but created the opportunity for archosaursand then dinosaurs to become the dominant land vertebrates; in the seas the percentage of animals that were sessile dropped from 67% to 50%. The whole late Permian was a difficult time for at least marine life —even before the "Great Dying".

• Late Devonian extinction 360-375 Ma near the Devonian-Carboniferous transition at the end of the FrasnianAge in the later part(s) of the Devonian Period. A prolonged series of extinctions eliminated about 70% of all species. This extinction event lasted perhaps as long as 20 Myr, and there is evidence for a series of extinction pulses within this period. 19% of all families of life and 50% of all genera went extinct.

• Ordovician–Silurian extinction event 440-450 Ma at the Ordovician-Silurian transition two events occurred, and together are ranked by many scientists as the second largest of the five major extinctions in Earth's history in terms of percentage of genera that went extinct. 27% of all families and 57% of all genera became extinct.

• Before the catastrophe, ocean fauna was differentiated into recognizably distinct biogeographical provinces

• After the event, a cosmopolitan, opportunistic fauna of thin shelled bivalves spread around the world

Paranthropus is a genus of extinct hominin. They are also referred to as the robust australopithecines. They lived between approximately 2.9 and 1.2 million years ago (mya) from the end of the Pliocene to the Middle Pleistocene. Paranthropus species were generalist feeders, but P. robustus was likely an omnivore, whereas P. boisei was likely herbivorous and mainly ate bulbotubers. They were bipeds.

Cranial capacity is the volume of the interior of the cranium of vertebrates that possess a cranium and a brain. Cranial volume is used to approximate the size of the brain.

• (ca. 538-485 mya)

• ca. 485-419 mya

• (419-359 mya)

• (359-299 mya)

• (299-252 mya)

• (252-201 mya)

• (201-145 mya)

• (145-66 mya)

• (66-23 mya)

• (23-2.6 mya)

• 440 Ma

• Third largest of the five major extinction events in Earth’s history in terms of percentage of genera that went extinct and second largest overall in the overall loss of life

• 60-80%

• marine species

• Causes: Gondwana moves Southward

  →Glaciation

• Ardipithecus group (~7-4 Ma)

• Australopithecuus group (~4-2 Ma)

• Paranthropus group (~3-1 Ma)

• Homo group (~2.5-0 Ma)

Cladistics is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry

• Atmospheric pCO2: ~1400 ppm (matches predictions for 2100 AD)

• Warmest sustained state of the Cenozoic, global average temperatures in the early Eocene (ca 50 mya) were ca. 13 °C higher than today

• Global sea level 40 to 100 m higher

• No permanent ice

• C4 photosynthesis = adaptation derived from C3 pathway ! higher productivity under warm temperature and low atmospheric CO2 concentration

• Multiple independent origin in grass (>17x)

• Biochemical mechanism “simple” following gene duplication and morphological adaptations

• C4 photosynthesis occurred in various grass lineages at different times since 35 Ma

• Became ecologically dominant in open tropical environments around 8 Ma

Traits that enable species to persist in ecological environments are often maintained over time, a phenomenon known as niche conservatism.

• the source (place, time, environmental conditions) that gives rise to an exceptional large number of species

• Fossils from Seymour Island (Antarctica) yielded evidence for Nothofagus forest with mammals and frog related to South American ones

• Modern analogs are the relictual Nothofagus forest of the Central Chilean Andes

• Possible scenarios for tree spreading across a large area in an interglacial stage (Birks 2019).

• 1. The moving-front or continuous wave hypothesis where trees ‘march’ across the landscape. (to isengard!)

• 2. Rare far-distance dispersal events form small outlying

populations.

• 3. Populations expand from the outlying populations into locally favourable sites or enclaves.

• 4. Merging of large and small populations. Small scattered populations expand (as in 3) and are a source for dispersal events, as are the large populations.

• also “Glacial legacy”

Ecological memory refers to the influence of past events on the response of an ecosystem to exogenous or endogenous changes. Memory has been widely recognized as a key contributor to the dynamics of ecosystems and other complex systems, yet quantitative community models often ignore memory and its implications.

plucking, mowing, breaking and disrupting structural plant tissues -> transform vegetation physiognomy and habitat composition extensively across landscapes

• change of albedo ->climate

• seed dispersers

• fertilizer

Evolutionary anachronism, also known as "ecological anachronism", is a term initially referring to attributes of native plant species (primarily fruit, but also thorns) that seemed best explained as having been favorably selected in the past due to their coevolution with plant-eating megafauna that are now extinct.

• In Neotropical forests, some plants produce very big fruits which seeds are not dispersed by modern fauna.

  Only very large herbivores could crack these fruits and disperse the seeds.

  It is assumed that extinct megaherbivores, such as gomphotheres, could perform this task, and that these plants coevolved with megaherbivores

Grazing the higher part of kelp

- growth of understory algae

- food for sea urchin instead of only kelp

- kelp remains even if sea otters missing and higher resilience (modelling of trophic links)

Crop substantial proportion of annual vegetation production, especially when aggregated in large herds

Can selectively nibble the more nutritious plant parts in localized habitats

• classification of species through: shared features, branching tree, evolutionary

Phenetics, also known as numerical taxonomy, was introduced in the 1950s. Phenetics attempts to group species into higher taxa based on overall similarity, usually in morphology or other observable traits, and regardless of their phylogeny or evolutionary relationships.

Pseudoextinction (or phyletic extinction) of a species occurs when all members of the species are extinct, but members of a daughter species remain alive. The term pseudoextinction refers to the evolution of a species into a new form, with the resultant disappearance of the ancestral form. Pseudoextinction results in the relationship between ancestor and descendant still existing even though the ancestor species no longer exists.

The classic example is that of the non-avian dinosaurs. While the non-avian dinosaurs of the Mesozoic died out, their descendants, birds, live on today. Many other families of bird-like dinosaurs also died out as the heirs of the dinosaurs continued to evolve, but because birds continue to thrive in the world today their ancestors are only pseudoextinct.

The ‘BAM diagram’ (= simplified framework for understanding where species will and will not be distributed). Distributions of species !responding to 3 sets of factors: the abiotic niche (A) and the biotic niche (B) (~ fundamental ecological niche) !realized ecological niche (A – B = potential distribution). Further modification to distributional potential = access (= M for ‘movement’)

In paleoecology and ecological forecasting, a no-analog community or climate is one that is compositionally different from a (typically modern) baseline for measurement. Alternative naming conventions to describe no-analog communities and climates may include novel, emerging, mosaic, disharmonious and intermingled

(< 2 Ma): geohistorical records

used to

(a) define baselines to compare conditions before and after disturbance,

(b) examine the response of species and ecosystems to recent natural and anthropogenic perturbations,

(c) develop a narrative of the historical range of variability,

(d) set realistic targets for restoration,

(e) differentiate between anthropogenic and nonanthropogenic change,

(f) recognize ecological legacies that can be explained only by events or conditions that are not present in the system today

suhlen

• Create diverse mosaic of habitats

• Impact spread on large areas

• Key to survival of endangered species (e.g. greater prairie chicken)

• Kill woody vegetation

• Fertilization through their waste !higher quality vegetation

• Stimulate plant growth and delay maturation !“green wave” more intense and longer (Geremia et al. 2019)

• Increase abundance and diversity of birds and insects in tall-grass prairies

• Wallowing !depressions increasing plant and insect diversity

Paradoxically, despite the growth in marine and terrestrial protected areas globally, many species remain threatened and continue to decline. Attempts to conserve species in suboptimal habitats may in part explain this Protected Areas Paradox. Species confined to suboptimal habitats are recognized as refugee species. They may be identified as (a) having suffered historical range contractions, such that (b) they now occur in limited, less diverse habitats (compared to previous ranges) at (c) low densities, and with (d) anomalous resource (diet, habitat) use compared to historical records and that of close relatives. Conservation efforts of refugee species yield poor outcomes as long as the species is confined to suboptimal habitats where they suffer lower densities and fitness. One possible explanation for the Protected Area Paradox lies in the bias of the location of protected areas to less productive habitats that are less attractive to humans. The global bias of conservation areas to “high and steep” habitats (Joppa & Pfaff, 2009) suggests this phenomenon is widespread. Mmany of the species in such protected areas are refugee species.

Überdachung

global wear of tooth, valley in tooth, sharp/blunt

• Gras will wear down tooth

Mesowear is a widely applied tooth wear technique that can be used to infer a herbivore’s diet by scoring the height and sharpness of molar tooth cusps with the naked eye. Established as a fast and efficient tool for paleodiet reconstruction, the technique has seen multiple adaptations, simplifications, and extensions since its establishment, which have become complex to follow. The present study reviews all successive changes and adaptations to the mesowear technique in detail, providing a template for the application of each technique to the research question at hand. In addition, the array of species to which mesowear has been applied, along with the equivalent recorded diets have been compiled here in a large dataset. This review provides an insight into the metrics related to mesowear publication since its establishment. The large dataset overviews whether the species to which the various techniques of mesowear are applied are extant or extinct, their phylogenetic classification, their assigned diets and diet stability between studies, as a resource for future research on the topic.

- Identification of taxa: DNA can help differentiate between (extinct) species that were originally thought to be the same (pseudo extinctions: or the other way around)

- Helps understand species dispersal over time

- If de-extinction/rebreeding is done: check, whether necessary adaptions are existing

o   Only possible if original DNA is known

- Sometimes DNA is found but no bones etc.

o   Maybe carcasses are defrosting and leak DNA

- DNA shows genetic diversity within a taxon (different likelihoods: extinction, repopulation with low genetic diversity)

- Shows hybridization (a lot of hybridization)

Re-breeding species to be genetically close to an extinct ancestor

- Mammoth-re-breeding-program

Cloning

o   Introduction of original DNA into reproductive cells

Genome editing

o   Trying to recreate original features by breeding

Why: restoration of ecological functions

-          Macrofossils: Bones/shells, leaves, seeds, wood, macro charcoal

-          Microfossils: Animal remnants (small teeth (types of food), small shells, hair), Leave remnants (trichoms, seeds, epidermis etc.), phytoliths, wood fragments (environmental conditions), pollen, spores

-          Molecular fossils: Isotopic signature biomarkers

-          Sedimentary

-          Geochemical

o   Alluvial sediments of the Ammer valley contain information about ecosystem dynamics

o   Pollen abundance over time (good indicator for climate conditions)

o   Barely ever decomposed

o   How to extract organic material from soil: mixing with high viscose fluid (or acid) lighter particles rise

§  Centrifuge

o   Classifying pollen: 1. size, 2. Shape, 3. Aperture (amount shape, size, arrangement), 4. surface structure

§  Spores usually bigger and thicker membranes

§  Polyades, vesiculate

o   some descendants and their common ancestor

§  Reptiles without birds

§  Lizards without snakes

one ancestor and its descendants (only natural structure)

Estimating divergence time of clades by looking at amino acid differences: neutral mutations crop up at random intervals, but if they are observed over a long time period the rate of change will appear to be approximately constant. Neutral drift will drive evolution at a fairly constant rate.

- New planktovores:

o Ammonites

o Teleostean fish (suspension feeder Pachycormid)

- New predators:

o Neogastropoda

o Cephalopoda

o Marine reptiles

- New: tetrapods (keystone species)

o Need to breathe air

o Bring nutrients back up by coming to the surface to breathe (Biological-nutrient pump)

Eine Kryptospezies oder auch kryptische Art ist in der Biologie eine morphologisch nicht unterscheidbare Gruppe von Lebewesen, bei der eine geschlechtliche Fortpflanzung mit anderen zur gleichen Art gerechneten Individuen jedoch nicht möglich ist oder nur nicht fortpflanzungsfähige Nachkommen erzeugt

In phylogenetics, an autapomorphy is a distinctive feature, known as a derived trait, that is unique to a given taxon. That is, it is found only in one taxon, but not found in any others or outgroup taxa, not even those most closely related to the focal taxon (which may be a species, family or in general any clade).[2] It can therefore be considered an apomorphy in relation to a single taxon.

In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to have evolved in their most recent common ancestor. In cladistics, synapomorphy implies homology.

In phylogenetics, a plesiomorphy ("near form") and symplesiomorphy are synonyms for an ancestral character shared by all members of a clade, which does not distinguish the clade from other clades.

Plesiomorphy, symplesiomorphy, apomorphy, and synapomorphy, all mean a trait shared between species because they share an ancestral species.

parsimony is defined as the principle that, out of all possible explanations for a phenomenon, the simplest of the set is most likely to be correct. Parsimony is an important idea in the discipline of phylogeny, the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among organisms.

not more existing individuals of the species

• Mechanistic: Models created using data of species physiology to develop of a model of the environmental conditions under which the species can exist: model of the fundamental niche

• modelling climate scenarios to understand change dispersal

o   A Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) is a greenhouse gas concentration (not emissions) trajectory adopted by the IPCC. Four pathways were used for climate modeling and research for the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) in 2014. The pathways describe different climate change scenarios, all of which are considered possible depending on the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted in the years to come. The RCPs – originally RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6, and RCP8.5 – are labelled after a possible range of radiative forcing values in the year 2100 (2.6, 4.5, 6, and 8.5 W/m2, respectively)

o   Low (RCP2.5) intermediate (RCP4.5 and RCP 6.0) and high (RCP8.5) emissions scenarios

• a statistical calculation determining probable past conditions (as of marine wave characteristics at a given place and time

• to test (a mathematical model) by observing whether it would have correctly predicted a historical event

A living fossil is an extant taxon that phenotypically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of origin of the extant clade. Living fossils commonly are of species-poor lineages, but they need not be. While the body plan of a living fossil remains superficially similar, it is never the same species as the remote relatives it resembles, because genetic drift would inevitably change its chromosomal structure.

Living fossils exhibit stasis (also called "bradytely") over geologically long time scales. Popular literature may wrongly claim that a "living fossil" has undergone no significant evolution since fossil times, with practically no molecular evolution or morphological changes. Scientific investigations have repeatedly discredited such claims

• Online databases Global Biodiversity Information Facility-GBIF

• Fossil records: Paleobiology Database

• Mapped on grid cells (e.g., 0.5 resolution ~55 × 55 km at the equator)

• Climate data: simulations from combined atmosphere ocean general circulation models AOGCMs

o   ecoclimate database:

§  pre-processed climate layers w/ 19 bioclimatic variables at 0.5° resolution

§  for important periods of past (Last Glacial Maximum—LGM and mid-Holocene), present (pre-industrial) and future

§  RCPs

• by comparing created models with dispersal of fossil find by overlapping

• Niche overlap analysis

-         ENM predictions + land use >plan large-scale corridors between fragmented suitable habitats

-         Hard to compare current climate change because it is faster than ever

-         Isolated protected areas prevent movement of species: need of corridors

o   Restriction of models

evolutionary development of species

o   Using DNA to estimate time difference between species and clades

o   Helps to figure out divergence dates

o   Fossil data are scarce

o   Fossil record often poorly dated

o   Paleontological databases are incomplete and inefficient

o   Niche shift/stability over time remains difficult due to test or data missing

o   Do fossil data include aspects of the niche that have been lost during the past OR being currently unoccupied?

o   Cryptic species:

• Almost unable to differ cryptic species as fossils

• May differ ecologically

A group of creatures that can not be morphologically differentiated and was previously thought to be the same species. sexual reproduction would result in no offspring or infertile ones.

theoretical construct of a number of vectors defining a niche in which a species is able to survive

“area presenting appropriate conditions of abiotic and biotic conditions (=potential distribution)”

a part of the fundamental niche where the species is actually distributed (abiotic and biotic conditions are fulfilled and accessible for dispersal)

fossilized feces

• Pollen and genetic material can be found within the poo

• Lot of pollen might indicate a pollination function

No-analog communities are defined by the existence of extant species in groupings that are not currently seen in modern biomes, or populations that have history of species assemblages that are no longer seen in the modern world. Formation of no-analog communities can be due to multiple factors, including climate conditions, environmental changes, human action, disease or species interactions. Migrations of species causes displacement and colonization into areas that may have been outside of what was known to be their fundamental niche, such as northern species moving south and mountain fauna being removed entirely or isolated to the peaks

refugee species are defined as those that can no longer access optimal habitat, but are confined to suboptimal habitats, with consequences of decreased fitness and density, and attendant conservation risks.

(= artifact of time averaging, postmortem mixture of species with different ecological requirements)

·         Sometimes hard to distinguish different times of fossils

Keystone species play a critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community, affecting many other organisms in an ecosystem and helping to determine the types and numbers of various other species in the community. Without keystone species, the ecosystem would be dramatically different or cease to exist altogether. Some keystone species, such as the wolf, are also apex predators.

Examples:

o   Animals as seed disperser

o   Plants change albedo by reflecting/absorbing sunlight

o   Methane changes climate

o   BBAAAAM everything is effected

replacement species, similar/same niche but other species

o   Risk of invasive species

species is extinct in the wild (not ex situ)

Maintnance of particular ecosystem states, species or population sizes (taxon-based, historical)

Maintnance of progress, functions, and resilience (taxon-free, novel)

Conservation Paleoecology is a rapidly developing socially relevant field that uses information from geohistorical records to adress current problems in the conservation and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

(> 2 Ma): archive or repeated

natural experiments

(a) Analysis of biotic responses to system perturbations of diverse kinds and magnitudes, some of which approximate present-day disturbances of those predicted for the near future (e.g. climate warming, ocean acidification)

(b) Also permits testing of biotic responses under a broader array of conditions than is available in the modern world or its recent past.

(c) In particular, observation of consistent patterns involving now-extinct species at remote periods in the past can strengthen the ecological theory underlying conservation practice

->short-term:

• change of geographic distribution

• Extinctions

• Shift of biomes

• Formation of no-analog biomes (“novel ecosystems”)

-> long-term:

• Evolutionary change, new species (if sufficient genetic diversity)

• CO2-Levels

• warming

• invasive species

• hybridization

• extinction

• human control of food webs

The maximum possible distribution of a species in the environment.

Climate envelope models describe the climate where a species currently lives (its climate "envelope"), and then map the geographic shift of that envelope under climate change. Because we can't know for certain how climate will change in the future, multiple climate change scenarios are used in these models.

Taphonomy is now most widely defined as the study of what happens to objects after they leave the biosphere (living contexts), enter the lithosphere (buried contexts), and are subsequently recovered and studied.

Chronocline, phylogenetische Reihe, bei der sich ein allmählicher Formenwandel nachweisen läßt.

predicting the geographical distribution of species across space and time.

• a) nucleus (nuclear DNA or nDNA)

• b) mitochondrion (mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA, inherited from the mother)

• (c) in chloroplast (in plants)

• DNA is the least stable biomarker :(

• Ancient DNA is heavily fragmented and massively contaminated :(

  • Paleogenetic analysis needs very strict protocols to remove ancient contamination and avoid modern contamination

  • The time depth of paleogenetic research is limited to < 1 Ma (no Jurassic Park)

• oldest DNA from mammoths 1.2 Ma in permafrost

• Comparison of the variety of DNA sequences available from sediment and coprolites versus bone

• allowes distinction of species distribution

• detecting pseudo extinctions

• tracking evolutionary processes (divergence of populations)

• detection of hybridization

dramatic decrease in genetic diversity through the extinction of many genetic lineages as a result of a significant reduction in the size of a population

• fossil and archaeological information

• ecoevolutionary information from body trace, and chemical fossils

• climate proxy records

• extremly long term Earth system information

model the observed distribution of a species as a function of environmental conditions. Model of the realized niche

• georeferenced primary occurrence data for species

• in combination with digital maps representing environmental parameters

• prediction of species distribution using modelled climate scenarios

• oral histories and other sources

• ecosystem baselines

• climate phenomena and information on natural cycles

• holistic ecosystem assessments and management information

• written and image records

• Qualitative information on climate cycles

• often focused on economically relevant natural resources

• sensor readings and other info

• direct seasonal-to-daily measurements of ecological and climate variables

demographic changes, by adding up 'gains' (births and immigration) and 'losses' (deaths and emigration)

De-extinction (also known as resurrection biology, or species revivalism) is the process of generating an organism that either resembles or is an extinct species. There are several ways to carry out the process of de-extinction.

How?

- Back breeding (only based on phenotype)

- Cloning (needs ancient DNA)

- Genome editing (needs ancient DNA)

Why?

- Restoration of ecological functions?

Example: Quagga, (Aurochs), Pinta Island Tortoise

• individuals are selected for breeding based on phenotype.

• After many generations of selective breeding, the extinct phenotype is resurrected.

• somatic cells are harvested from a living organism and cultured in vitro.

• Nuclei are removed from these cultured cells

• At the same time, egg cells are harvested from a closely related species and enucleated.

• The nucleus from the somatic cell is fused to the enucleated egg

• the cell begins to divide

• The embryo is implanted into a surrogate maternal host, which

• gives birth to a genetic copy of the somatic cell harvested in 1 individual

• DNA is extracted from the remains of an extinct species and used to sequence and assemble a genome, which is used to identify sequence differences between a closely related living species.

• Cells are harvested from that close living relative

• cultured in vitro.

• Genome editing is used to change the genome sequence of that living cell so that it more closely resembles that of the extinct species. (v–xi) are the same as cloning

• can be sampled from biological archives, such as sediment cores within lake and marine sediments.

• providing continuous data on biodiversity patterns between the present day and the past

mitochondriale DNA

Als Haplotyp, eine Abkürzung von „haploider Genotyp“, wird eine Variante einer Nukleotidsequenz auf ein und demselben Chromosom im Genom eines Lebewesens bezeichnet. Ein bestimmter Haplotyp kann individuen-, populations- oder auch artspezifisch sein.

While Genetics tend to investigate individual genes and their function, Genomics studies the whole DNA-seqeumces of an organism. The entire DNA is being recorded and investigated.

Proxy data is data that paleoclimatologists gather from natural recorders of climate variability, e.g., tree rings, ice cores, fossil pollen, ocean sediments, coral and historical data. By analyzing records taken from these and other proxy sources, scientists can extend our understanding of climate far beyond the 140-year instrumental record. Proxies are natural records of past climate variations, such as tree rings, ice cores, sediment layers, and coral reefs, which can provide valuable insights into historical climate patterns and fluctuations. These proxy records are essential for understanding natural climate variability, identifying long-term trends, and contextualizing the current climate change.

the higher the density, the cooler the climate (less amtosheric CO2)

made up of sand and earth left by rivers, floods

• Occur in almost all sediments in high quantities

• Even small sample volumes contain microfossils in such an abundance that dating and paleoenvironmental studies are possible

• Microfossils often are adequate proxies and leading fossils ( Leitfossil

• Far reaching distribution > Parallelizing is possible

• Occurrence in high abundances

• High preservation potential

• Easy to identify

• Small stratigraphic range

Cellular units for reproduction and dispersion of land plants

• spores evolved before pollen

• Pollen and spores have an exine out of sporopollenin, which makes them resistant against decomposition

• Preserved in many sediments since the Precambrian. Present in all plant groups!

Pollen

• Apertures

• Thin walled

Spores

• fissures, no apertures

• thick walled

little balloons on pollen

often found on Gymnosperm-pollen

multiple pollen packed together

• holes (pores) or furrows (colpi) in pollen

• pollen with one “hole” found on Poaceae

• pollen with three holes (pores)

• for example betula

• pollen with three furrows

• for example Quercus

• Positive: pollen with little strings on the surface (for example Fraxinus)

• negative: pollen with little holes on the surface (not pores)

• pollen with a rough, rock-like texture on the surface

• for example hedera helix

• pollen with rough, sharp/spiky surface

• for example Fagus

• pollen that look like those spiky massage-balls

• for example Asteraceae

• pollen with multiple holes (3+ pores)

• for example Alnus

• pollen with multiple (3+) furrows/colpi

• for example Galium

are rigid, microscopic structures made of silica, found in some plant tissues and persisting after the decay of the plant. These plants take up silica from the soil, whereupon it is deposited within different intracellular and extracellular structures of the plant.

A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of convergent evolution.

Monophyletic groups one ancestor and its descendants (only natural structure)

In phylogenetics, a plesiomorphy ("near form") and symplesiomorphy are synonyms for an ancestral character shared by all members of a clade, which does not distinguish the clade from other clades. Plesiomorphy, symplesiomorphy, apomorphy, and synapomorphy, all mean a trait shared between species because they share an ancestral species

• Warmer and more humid

• Angiosperms (flowering plants) evolved

• Hgher density of stomata and

  • Higher growth potential

  • More veins (More space for water)

  • Closer to stomata (higher efficiency)

• Flowers not too evolutionarily interesting

• Fungi, other plants, pollinating insects (mutualism niches created)

• Litherworts: epiphytic, cannot grow tall, but high

• Ferns also epiphytic radiation

• Already mycorrhiza

• Large radiation of pollinators

• Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event

• mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth,[2][3] approximately 66 million years ago. The event caused the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs

Mesozoic Marine Revolution (MMR): 200-80 Ma, increasing marine biomass due to new planktonic producers

Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution (KTR): 125–80 Myr ago -> rapid expansion of flowering plants, herbivorous and social insects, squamates, birds and mammals

Suspension feeding is the capture and ingestion of food particles that are suspended in water. These particles can include phytoplankton, zooplankton, bacteria, and detritus.

The Pliocene is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58 million years ago. It is the second and most recent epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era.

• Atmospheric pCO2: ~400 ppm

• Global average temperature in the mid-Pliocene (3.3–3 mya) was 2 – 3 oC higher than today,

• Global sea level 16 to 25 m higher

• Northern hemisphere ice sheet was ephemeral before the onset of extensive glaciation over Greenland that occurred in the late Pliocene around 3 Ma.