title: Emergence patterns of novelty in European vegetation assemblages over the past 15 000 years.
abstract: Plant communities are not stable over time and biological novelty is predicted to emerge due to climate change, the introduction of exotic species and land-use change. However, the rate at which this novelty may arise over longer time periods has so far received little attention. We reconstruct the emergence of novelty in Europe for a set of baseline conditions over the past 15 000 years to assess past rates of emergence and investigate underlying causes. The emergence of novelty is baseline specific and, during the early-Holocene, was mitigated by the rapid spread of plant taxa. Although novelty generally increases as a function of time, climate and human-induced landscape changes contributed to a non-linear post-glacial trajectory of novelty with jumps corresponding to periods of rapid changes. Emergence of novelty accelerated during the past 1000 years. Historical cultural landscapes experienced a faster novelty development due to the contribution from anthropogenic land-cover changes.
authors.affiliation: Palaeoecology, ISE-M (UMR 5554 CNRS/UM/EPHE), Place E. Bataillon, 34095, Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Walter
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8297-0574
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Finsinger
authors.affiliation: Department of Palynology and Climate Dynamics, Albrecht-von-Haller-Institute for Plant Sciences, University of Göttingen, Untere Karspüle 2, 37073, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Giesecke
authors.affiliation: Geography Department, University of Utah, 260 S. Central Campus Drive, Salt Lake City, UT, 84119, USA.
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brewer
authors.affiliation: IMBE-CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université, IRD, Avignon Université, Technopôle Arbois-Méditerranée, Bât. Villemin - BP 80, F-13545, Aix-en-Provence Cedex 04, France.
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Leydet
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D058448:Biota; D057231:Climate Change; D005060:Europe; D063148:Plant Dispersal; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: 
  EPD
  ; Biological novelty; Europe; pollen; post-glacial