Wälder in der Zeitmaschine – Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Paläoökologie

Forests in a time machine – possibilities and limits of paleoecology Paleoecology allows the reconstruction of ecological processes that take place on long timescales – for example the vegetation dynamics since the last Ice Age or changes in the species composition of forests due to anthropogenic land use. This can be achieved by analyzing plant remains like pollen, spores, leaves, seeds or charcoal that have been conserved over millennia under low oxygen conditions in the sediment of lakes and mires. In this article, we outline the principals, the limits and the potential of paleoecology. It becomes clear that nowadays, this discipline is more than just a descriptive science. Thanks to quantitative methods, it can be used to test ecological hypothesis and identify causal relationships. Paleoecology can therefore contribute to assess the resilience of vegetation communities to external disturbances, and provides important information on how our forests will react to past, current and future climate change.