Estimating past floristic diversity in montane regions from macrofossil assemblages

Summary The relationship between the diversity of higher plant macrofossils in surface sediments of lakes and the surrounding vegetation is examined in two mountain regions; Grødalen in central Norway and the south‐east Cairngorms in Scotland. Two lake sediment cores from each area were also analysed to examine vegetation history and to estimate changes in biodiversity through the Holocene. The diversity of present day vegetation in each region was estimated using both quadrat data and classified satellite images of the study areas. The mean surface sample macrofossil representation of species recorded in quadrats collected within 250 m of the lakes was c . 17%. This figure drops to only c . 2% when the satellite imagery of the same area is used to provide a maximal species list. The macrofossil data from the Norwegian cores show that deglaciation in this region occurred earlier on the mountain summit than in the valley and that the maximum tree line elevation was during the interval 9100–4400 14 C yr BP . In the Cairngorms the maximum tree line elevation was prior to c . 4500 14 C yr BP . The changes in higher plant diversity recorded at these sites through the Holocene show that c . 4000 14 C yr BP the reduction in the tree line resulted in decreased β‐diversity at higher altitudes but an increase at the lower altitude as the forest cover opened up. Under conditions of climatic warming it is likely areas that come to lie below the tree line will experience reduced diversity and that a permanent loss of biodiversity would result from a severe reduction in the area above the tree line.