THE POWER OF PALEOECOLOGY FOR UNDERSTANDING DISTURBANCE REGIMES (Invited Presentation)

Disturbance processes are fundamental to ecological and evolutionary plant dynamics, and climate-driven disturbances such as fire are increasing in frequency and magnitude in many biomes in response to ongoing warming. Paleoecology can offer a window into how disturbance regimes change through time in response to climate, identify interactions and feedbacks between disturbance processes that occur on different timescales, and characterize the role of disturbance in the long-term trajectory of ecosystems. In this presentation, we highlight Late Quaternary paleoecological research and emerging research methodologies, with a particular focus on Arctic ecosystems where modern climate change is resulting in unprecedented fire and permafrost disturbance. Specifically, we will discuss examples of paleoecological reconstructions that extend the relatively short modern observations of fire activity in the Arctic, and how they are used to elucidate the drivers and spatiotemporal dynamics of wildfire in tundra ecosystems and provide insight into interactions between fire and permafrost disturbance. We will also discuss emerging frameworks in paleoecological research that can be leveraged to obtain deeper understanding of disturbance-driven plant dynamics. These opportunities include improving taxonomic resolution of vegetation reconstructions to fully understand climate-disturbance-vegetation interactions, integrating paleoecology and genetics to examine how disturbance acts a selective agent on plants, and assessing the interactions between climate, human land use, disturbance, and vegetation composition through time.