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Real World Ecology pp 161–208Cite as

The Role of Paleoecology in Whole-Ecosystem Science

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Abstract

Paleoecological analyses provide exceptionally long time series of population abundance, community composition, environmental variability, ecosystem subsidies, and temporal variability that can uniquely inform and guide ecosystem managers and scientists conducting whole-ecosystem experiments. This chapter illustrates the potential of retrospective studies to inform, guide, and refine ecosystem experimentation and management using case studies derived from paleoecological studies of freshwater lakes. First, we illustrate how synchrony (temporal correlation) and variance partitioning analysis may be used to quantify the natural mechanisms underlying lake ontogeny in the absence of human effects in lakes from Southwest Greenland. Second, we show how a combination of biogeochemical (15N isotopes, pigments), time series and correlation analyses of sediment cores can be used to both reconstruct and characterise historical variance in sockeye salmon fisheries, and to elucidate the relationship between sockeye salmon and lake primary production in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska. Finally, we show how a combination of paleoecological analysis and long-term ecological monitoring programs can both identify the main causes of water quality change during the twentieth century and quantify the role of N in regulating primary production in lakes of the Canadian Prairies.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by an EU Marie Curie Fellowship (SMcG), NSERC Canada, the Canada Research Chair program, Saskatchewan Learning, the National Science Foundation (grant DEB-0553766 to the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis during P.R.L. sabbatical), the Betty and Gordon Moore Foundation, the University of Notttingham (UK) and University of Regina (Canada). The authors also gratefully acknowledge the diverse contributions of past and present members of the University of Regina Limnology Laboratory, as well as our colleagues at University of Washington (D. E. Schindler), University of Loughborough (N. J. Anderson), Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (R. K. Juhler), Queen’s University (J. P. Smol, S. Dixit, A. Dixit), York University (R. Quinlan), McGill University (I. Gregory-Eaves) and University of Alaska Fairbanks (B. Finney). We thank the four anonymous reviewers for their insights in improving earlier versions of this chapter.

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  1. School of Geography, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK

    Suzanne McGowan

  2. Department of Biology, University of Regina, S4S 0A2, Regina, SK, Canada

    Peter R. Leavitt

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  2. Hawai’i Pacific University, Kaneohe, HI, USA

    Susan Carstenn Dr

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McGowan, S., Leavitt, P.R. (2009). The Role of Paleoecology in Whole-Ecosystem Science. In: Miao, S., Carstenn, S., Nungesser, M. (eds) Real World Ecology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-77942-3_7

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