Nick Bennett Schafstall
@czu.cz
Forest Management
Czech University of Life Science
EDUCATION
Utrecht University: Bachelor Biology and Master Environmental Biology: Palaeoecology
Czech University of Life Science: PhD Quaternary entomology
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Forest Ecology, Quaternary entomology, Palaeoecology
Scopus Publications
Scholar Citations
Scholar h-index
Scholar i10-index
Scopus Publications
Nick Schafstall, Helena Svitavská-Svobodová, Martin Kadlec, Mariusz Gałka, Petr Kuneš, Přemysl Bobek, Viktor Goliáš, Pavel Pech, Daniel Nývlt, Pavel Hubený,et al.
Elsevier BV
Marion Lestienne, Eva Jamrichová, Niina Kuosmanen, Andrei‐Cosmin Diaconu, Nick Schafstall, Viktor Goliáš, Günther Kletetschka, Václav Šulc, and Petr Kuneš
Wiley
In recent decades, a surge in the number of significant and uncontrolled wildfires has occurred worldwide. Global warming may amplify this trend and threaten most ecosystems worldwide. Deciduous forests are characterized by high plant diversity, and understanding their long‐term dynamics is crucial to anticipate changes in these ecosystems during ongoing global warming. The aim of this study is to understand how European beech forests have colonized the inner Eastern Carpathians and how changes in fire regime and human activities have affected their biodiversity.
Nick Schafstall, Niina Kuosmanen, Petr Kuneš, Helena Svitavská Svobodová, Marek Svitok, Richard C. Chiverrell, Karen Halsall, Peter Fleischer, Miloš Knížek, and Jennifer L. Clear
Elsevier BV
Niina Kuosmanen, Vojtěch Čada, Karen Halsall, Richard C. Chiverrell, Nick Schafstall, Petr Kuneš, John F. Boyle, Miloš Knížek, Peter G. Appleby, Miroslav Svoboda,et al.
Elsevier BV
Nick Schafstall, Nicki Whitehouse, Niina Kuosmanen, Helena Svobodová-Svitavská, Mélanie Saulnier, Richard C. Chiverrell, Peter Fleischer, Petr Kuneš, and Jennifer L. Clear
Elsevier BV
Nick Schafstall, Niina Kuosmanen, Christopher J Fettig, Miloš Knižek, and Jennifer L Clear
SAGE Publications
Outbreaks of conifer bark beetles in Europe and North America have increased in scale and severity in recent decades. In this study, we identify existing fossil records containing bark beetle remains from the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (~14,000 cal. yr BP) to present day using the online databases Neotoma and BugsCEP and literature searches, and compare these data with modern distribution data of selected tree-killing species. Modern-day observational data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) database was used to map recorded distributions from AD 1750 to present day. A total of 53 fossil sites containing bark beetle remains, from both geological and archeological sites, were found during our searches. Fossil sites were fewer in Europe ( n = 21) than North America ( n = 32). In Europe, 29% of the samples in which remains were found were younger than 1000 cal. yr BP, while in North America, remains were mainly identified from late Glacial (~14,000–11,500 cal. yr BP) sites. In total, the fossil records contained only 8 of 20 species we consider important tree-killing bark beetles in Europe and North America based on their impacts during the last 100 years. In Europe, Ips sexdentatus was absent from the fossil record. In North America, Dendroctonus adjunctus, Dendroctonus frontalis, Dendroctonus jeffreyi, Dendroctonus pseudotsugae, Dryocoetes confusus, Ips calligraphus, Ips confusus, Ips grandicollis, Ips lecontei, Ips paraconfusus, and Scolytus ventralis were absent. Overall, preserved remains of tree-killing bark beetles are rare in the fossil record. However, by retrieving bulk material from new and existing sites and combining data from identified bark beetle remains with pollen, charcoal, tree rings, and geochemistry, the occurrence and dominance of bark beetles, their outbreaks, and other disturbance events can be reconstructed.
Daniel Vondrák, Nick B. Schafstall, Pavel Chvojka, Richard C. Chiverrell, Niina Kuosmanen, Jolana Tátosová, and Jennifer L. Clear
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
The Bohemian Forest lakes, situated along the Czech-German-Austrian border, were strongly affected by atmospheric acidification between the 1950s and the late 1980s. The subsequent chemical recovery of the lake water should precede and enable a biological recovery, including changes in caddisfly (Insecta: Trichoptera) assemblages. Nevertheless, local pre-acidification data and detailed knowledge of the lake district history are missing, making evaluation of lake recovery difficult. We performed high-resolution analysis of caddisfly remains in a 2.2 m long sediment profile from Prášilské Lake covering the complete history of the lake-catchment evolution. Caddisfly larvae are good indicators of environmental conditions and their subfossil remains are well preserved in unconsolidated waterlaid sediments. A total of 10 caddisfly morpho-taxa were found providing a record from 11,400 cal. yr. BP to the present. With the exception of Athripsodes aterrimus, all identified species are currently present in the Bohemian Forest glacial lakes or their inflow streams but not all of them are documented in Prášilské Lake. The caddisfly fauna consisted of acid-resistant, acid-tolerant and eurytopic species since the Early Holocene. Based on our results, the acid, dystrophic state of Prášilské Lake has been occurring since the lake formation. We conclude that the first signs of natural acidification appeared not later than during the Holocene onset in the Bohemian Forest region. Furthermore, we did not detect any abrupt changes in the species composition connected to the period of anthropogenic acidification during the twentieth century. This study provides for the first time a record of postglacial succession of caddisfly assemblages in a central European mountain lake.