The postglacial recolonisation of temperate forest biota is a key process shaping modern European biodiversity, but its tempo is difficult to reconstruct because most palaeoecological records lack sufficient temporal resolution. This limitation applies to most Western Carpathian palaeomalacological sequences, despite the region being a key refugial source for recolonisation. Here, we document the mid-Holocene assembly of forest mollusc communities at the Valca tufa-wetland site in the Mala Fatra Mts. (Slovakia) using a high-resolution multiproxy record combining molluscs with plant macrofossils, stable isotopes, and geochemistry. Although mixed forest vegetation was already established at the site prior to the studied interval (ca 7800 cal yr BP), forest mollusc communities remained species-poor for several centuries, indicating a pronounced lag between forest development and the build-up of forest specialist fauna. The most abrupt rise in forest mollusc diversity occurred around 7150 cal yr BP, when most strictly forest species appeared within approximately 150 years. This rapid community expansion immediately followed an episodic local habitat disturbance recorded consistently across proxies, whereas independent downscaled climate simulations indicate no significant climatic shift during the same interval. Compared with other Western Carpathian records, Valca thus shows a markedly delayed yet unusually abrupt establishment of forest mollusc communities. We interpret this pattern as evidence that local habitat dynamics, topographic setting, and landscape connectivity can dominate the timing and rate of postglacial community assembly under a broadly stable regional climate. These results highlight the value of finely resolved multiproxy sequences for disentangling local versus regional drivers of postglacial recolonisation.

Small temperate fens rank among the most endangered habitats in temperate Europe. In agricultural landscapes, they are highly vulnerable to eutrophication and desiccation, which accelerate biodiversity loss and shifts in the carbon balance due to peat mineralization. The initial signs of habitat change are commonly manifested by shifts in vegetation structure and dominance, accompanied by increasing productivity, which precede major qualitative changes in species composition. The in-time monitoring of vegetation productivity and site wetness at large areas is essential for guiding conservation management strategies for fens to slow down or reverse undesired changes. Here, we evaluated the ability of satellite (Sentinel-2) and high-resolution aerial imagery to detect early, structure- and productivity-related signals of fen deterioration. We compared multispectral and optical imagery with ground-based data, including both direct measurements and indicators derived from the species composition of the vegetation plots. At the landscape scale where both the acidic poor fens and the base-rich fens occurred, MSAVI and NGRDI indices performed best, indicating primarily the vascular plant cover, species richness and representation of nutrient-demanding species. At the within-site scale, where the differences among plots were largely driven by habitat deterioration, NDVI, NDWI and RENDVI well captured differences in vascular plant productivity estimates and moss biomass measurements. Our results indicate that remote sensing is applicable for the identification of individual fen habitats and their nutrient status at the landscape scale and is even effective in detecting incipient habitat deterioration associated with increasing productivity. We demonstrate that remote sensing also performs well for small, island-like fen patches. Its wider integration into the mire research would improve monitoring and enhance the amount of available ecological data.

Abstract Revisiting and resurveying historical vegetation plots has become a central tool for documenting changes in plant communities. However, theoretical studies suggest that reliable detection of long‐term trends from a single resurvey is nearly impossible for species with high stochastic population fluctuations, though it may be relatively informative in more stable plant communities dominated by perennial species. To empirically test how well data from a single resurvey align with estimated long‐term trends in species richness and community turnover in European grasslands, we compiled permanent‐plot time series from dry to wet grasslands that were sampled multiple times (most often annually) during the monitoring period. We then extracted pairs of surveys (baseline survey and one resurvey) from the individual time series and compared changes inferred from these pairs with trends inferred from the full time series using Bayesian multilevel regressions. We found that in studied grasslands, data from a single resurvey can reliably reflect long‐term trends in community turnover but deliver less reliable inferences of trends in species richness. Synthesis . Despite limitations, single resurveys remain a useful tool for describing and understanding changes in plant diversity, at least in perennial grasslands. However, they should be used cautiously, especially regarding changes in species richness. In general, trend inference becomes more accurate as the number of resurveys increases and the monitoring period lengthens. Unfortunately, such long‐term, multiple‐resurvey schemes still remain scarce.

The aquatic moss Sarmentypnum trichophyllum (Warnst.) Hedenas, nowadays occurring most frequently in the northern parts of Eurasia and North America, with only disjunct occurrences in the high altitudes of the more southern areas, has been discovered in the late glacial minerogenic sediments of the present-day Koton landslide fen (Beskid Makowski Mountains, the Outer Western Carpathians, S Poland, 739 m a.s.l.). As inferred from the sediment type (organic silt) and the presence of accompanying macrofossils of vascular plants, Sarmentypnum trichophyllum grew in the clear-water oligo- to mesotrophic waterbody surrounded by arctic steppe-tundra. These conditions probably reflected the cold and dry climate of the short GI-1d/Older Dryas climatic cooling 14,070 +/- 72 to ca. 13,900 +/- 56 cal BP (ca. 170 years). The glacial occurrence of this species in lower latitudes suggests the relict character of todays populations with disjunct southern occurrences. It seems that S. trichophyllum might be more distributed in Central Europe during the late glacial period.

Biodiversity of subalpine grasslands in European mountain ranges is threatened by land-use changes, forest encroachment and climate warming, raising questions about which ecosystem states should be maintained or restored. Addressing biodiversity loss requires long-term evidence on the past dynamic and drivers of treeless vegetation above the timberline. Using a high-resolution, multi-proxy record from the peat bog in Eastern Sudetes, this study reconstructs Late-Holocene dynamics of subalpine vegetation, fire regimes and peat bog development from 800 BC to the present, and relates them to historical land use and climate. The results show that extensive subalpine grasslands already existed in the Iron Age, before significant human influence, indicating a long-term persistence of natural alpine vegetation. A major charcoal layer around 730 AD marks an extensive fire that triggered the onset of peat accumulation distinct after evapotranspiration decrease. From the High Middle Ages, repeated burning and grazing above the timberline drove the expansion of grasslands and a peak in exceptional fire frequency in the 16th–17th centuries. Peat bog vegetation and geochemical proxies indicate a generally stable environment with distinct wet phases aligned with cool, pluvial episodes of the Little Ice Age and recent drying coupled with dwarf-shrub expansion. The findings demonstrate that long-term development of subalpine grasslands in the Eastern Sudetes results from interactions among climate, fire and pastoralism, and suggest that prescribed burning combined with other types of active management may be needed to sustain these communities under ongoing climate change.

Pedicularis palustris, a hemiparasitic plant, can act as an ecosystem engineer by suppressing dominant vegetation and facilitating fen restoration. As fen deterioration continues due to human activities and climate change, conservation interest in this species is increasing. In temperate Europe, where P. palustris is endangered and regionally fragmented, concerns are rising over future commercial cultivation and uncontrolled seed transfer. In this study, we used Restriction Site Associated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq) to assess the genetic structure and differentiation of 18 P. palustris populations across four regions in temperate Europe, and to provide guidance for seed sourcing in restoration practice. In the spatial autocorrelation analysis, populations within approximately 30 km showed the highest genetic similarity, followed by a steep decline up to about 50 km, suggesting limited gene flow beyond this range. Weak but significant positive autocorrelation persisted up to about 240 km, indicating regional-scale lineage cohesion. Bayesian clustering and Neighbor-Net analyses supported the existence of distinct regional gene pools, while also revealing the genetic uniqueness of certain populations. At the broadest scale, genetic affinities did not follow geographic distance, as the Alpine populations clustered with those from the Bohemian Massif, whereas the Western Carpathian populations clustered with those from the Baltic region. Our results demonstrate strong genetic differentiation both within and among regions, and suggest that meaningful provenance of P. palustris extends only over several tens of kilometres. For restoration, we recommend prioritising local seed sources whenever possible. Seed transfers from populations within approximately 30 km can be considered, although further experimental work is needed to confirm this threshold. Where local seed sources are unavailable, seed transfer should remain confined within the same phytogeographical region, with strict avoidance of translocation between the Carpathian and Hercynian units. Uncontrolled translocation or the use of commercial seeds of unknown origin should be avoided.

Previous research on ecosystem and climate dynamics using fossil data has mainly focused on tracking shifts at the species or biome levels or relied exclusively on abiotic proxies. We argue there is a critical need to identify individual habitats in the fossil record. First, the palaeoclimatological reconstructions based on geochemical proxies are frequently habitat-dependent. Second, changes at the habitat level integrate not only climate, but also edaphic factors and disturbances, providing a more complex insight into succession and resilience drivers. Here, we present a novel method to identify past habitats by interconnecting plant macrofossil and vegetation databases. We utilised the recently developed FEVER index, aimed for indicating vegetation types or habitats using fossil assemblages, and calibrated it with recent cross-climate European vegetation data. When applied to the extensive supra-regional macrofossil database, the method succeeded in reconstructing changes in habitat proportion in Central European wetlands over the past 15,000 years. The reconstruction is ecologically well interpretable, with aquatic and most fen habitats dominating in the oldest periods, while waterlogged forests and bogs expanded since the Middle Holocene due to macroclimatic reasons. Treeless fens reappeared and wet grasslands initiated in the last two millennia due to anthropogenic disturbances and landscape deforestation. The method further allows for quantifying the analogism between past and recent communities of the same habitat. Most habitats, except for calcareous quaking mires and wet shrub tundra, increased analogism in the latter half of the Holocene. We share an R script and a European-scale calibration dataset for wide use.

The glacial/interglacial cycles have shaped the landscape of temperate Europe for the past 2.5 million years, with open landscapes prevailing during the glacial and forested landscapes during the interglacial periods. However, the survival and recolonization strategies of temperate forest species during glacial phases remain poorly understood and hotly debated. This study investigates the persistence and postglacial dispersal of forest molluscs in the Western Carpathians by analysing molluscs from 126 Last Glacial and Early Holocene sites. Radiocarbon dating was applied to directly date shells of the target forest species, minimizing the risk of contamination from colluvial sediments. Our results confirm the presence of 15 forest snails in 33 sites in the region for the last 44 ka, with evidence of five species surviving the MIS 2. These findings support the hypothesis of localized microrefugia in the Western Carpathians, which allowed forest species to persist during unfavourable climatic conditions and facilitated their recolonization in the Holocene. In addition, our study highlights considerable temporal variation in mollusc successional patterns, with a sharp increase in forest species during the post‐Last Glacial Maximum period. Despite these advances, the exact location of glacial (micro)refugia remains unclear for many species, highlighting the need for further research. This study provides new insights into the complex biogeographical history of forest molluscs in temperate Europe, emphasizing the need for high‐resolution dating techniques and extensive sampling to accurately reconstruct past environmental changes.

Knowledge about climate changes is crucial for understanding past and current anthropogenic ecosystem changes, but individual palaeoclimate proxies involve different habitat-dependent confounding factors. Continuously ombrotrophic bogs are an excellent system for palaeoclimate reconstructions because their functioning depends tightly on water table depth (WTD), which varies exclusively with the balance between precipitation and temperature. Here, we investigate a 7000-year-long record from the Puscizna Wielka bog (Poland). We focused on developing the first palaeoclimatological reconstruction for the Western Carpathians, which together includes testate amoebae (TA), the isotopic signal in Sphagnum stems (513C and 518O), and plant macrofossils (PM), the latter enabling to trace micro-topographical changes and assess if the consistent ombrotrophic conditions needed for unbiased reconstruction were met. Both the regional (TAREG, PM) and continental (TAEU) calibration training sets were used for quantitative WTD reconstructions. Our WTD reconstructions were compared with the downscaled CCSM3 simulations. Pollen data provided information on the surrounding vegetation. Reconstructed pH and species composition of PM confirmed continual ombrotrophy. At the Middle-Late Holocene boundary (ca 4300-4200 cal yr BP), the TA-rich lawn phase with Sphagnum magellanicum and Eriophorum vaginatum replaced the initial hollow-like phase with Scheuchzeria, Sphagnum sec. Cuspidata and Archerella flavum. The climate driver of this change (decreased humidity) is also suggested by a 100-200 years delayed increase in fir pollen at the expense of spruce. For the last ca 230 years, 513C and TA suggest that the bog had experienced unprecedented drought. The bog was dominated by Sphagnum rubellumdwarf shrub hummocks with Alabasta militaris, Assulina muscorum and Hyalosphenia elegans at this time. Apart from these major changes, we identified several other events that are otherwise documented only by individual studies across Europe for the Late Holocene, especially for the Little Ice Age. Six distinctly wet and five distinctly dry periods were consistent among at least two proxies, with a conspicuously warm and dry climate at the beginning of the Bronze Age, allowing human colonisation of previously harsh mountain areas. The consistency with CCSM3 was the highest for TAREG-inferred WTD and lowest for 518O. The temperature and precipitation of the warmest quarter were the most influential explanatory variables in multiple regression. Additively to CCSM3, isotopes in Sphagnum stems explained some WTD variation reconstructed by TAEU and PM, suggesting a more critical role of the microtopographic position for these proxies. Our results suggest that TA reconcile multiple equivocal reconstructions, reveal subtle fluctuations only occasionally reported by other proxies, and are less affected by climate-independent microtopography. However, the inclusion of PM in palaeoclimatic studies is essential to verify the continuous ombrotrophy of recent bogs.

Along with the historical decline of fens due to anthropogenic impact, climate change is expected to jeopardise fen biodiversity by reducing their geographic extent and altering species composition. Yet, the impact of climate change on fen distribution and biodiversity in the future remains unclear. We used 27,555 vegetation plots representing eight fen habitat types widely distributed in Europe to compute Ecosystem Distributional Models. For each fen habitat type, we projected their future potential occupancy area and range shift and evaluated the influence of different climate scenarios and groundwater pH on distribution and biodiversity. Our findings could be helpful for the nature protection authorities across Europe to assess conservational and restoration measures to mitigate potential future biodiversity loss in European fen habitats.

Fossil molluscs serve as a valuable palaeoecological proxy for reconstructing past environmental conditions due to their high indication value and excellent preservation in calcareous sediments. This study explores the potential of mollusc assemblages to provide quantitative reconstructions of forest proximity and local hydrology, using a continental-scale dataset of contemporary mineral-rich fens from southern to arctic Europe. By classifying mollusc species into ecological groups, we developed simple regression models for palaeoecological application. Forest proximity can be reconstructed using the ratio of forest land snails to all land snails in a quantile regression. Moisture, expressed on the scale of Ellenberg-like Plant Indicator Values, can be reconstructed using the ratio of aquatic and hygrophilous species to the total number of mollusc species in a linear regression. To test the resulting models, we applied them on two Holocene fossil profiles from the Western Carpathians (Slovakia), spanning from present to the Late Glacial period. The models yielded a quantification of local moisture and forest proximity, consistent with records of independent proxies from the same sediment layers, offering novel insights into Holocene landscape dynamics. Our approach demonstrates that molluscs can be effectively utilized for finescale palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, complementing multi-proxy studies but also providing uniquely detailed evidence that is difficult or impossible to obtain using other biotic and abiotic proxies, chiefly in calcium-rich sediments. These findings underscore the potential of molluscs in deciphering past hydrological regimes and forest dynamics, and facilitate the understanding of long-term ecosystem changes in response to climatic and anthropogenic influences.

In recent decades, global change and local anthropogenic pressures have severely affected natural ecosystems and their biodiversity. Although disentangling the effects of these factors is difficult, they are reflected in changes in the functional composition of plant communities. We present a comprehensive, large-scale analysis of long-term changes in plant communities of various non-forest habitat types in the Czech Republic based on 1154 vegetation-plot time series from 53 resurvey studies comprising 3909 vegetation-plot records. We focused not only on taxonomic diversity but also on the functional characteristics of communities. Species richness of most habitat types increased over time, and taxonomic and functional community composition shifted significantly. Habitat specialists and threatened species became less represented in plant communities, indicating a decline in habitat quality. The spread of trees, shrubs, tall herbaceous plants, strong competitors, and nutrient-demanding species in all non-forest habitats, coupled with the decline of light-demanding species, suggests an effect of eutrophication and natural succession following the abandonment of traditional management. Moreover, we identified specific trends in certain habitats. In wetlands, springs, and mires, moisture-demanding species decreased, probably due to drainage, river regulations, and increasing drought resulting from climate change. Dry grasslands, ruderal, weed, sand, and shallow-soil vegetation became more mesic, and successional processes were most pronounced in these communities, suggesting a stronger effect of abandonment of traditional management and eutrophication. In alpine and subalpine vegetation, meadows and mesic pastures, and heathlands, insect-pollinated species declined, and the proportion of grasses increased. Overall, these functional changes provide deep insights into the underlying drivers and help conservationists take appropriate countermeasures.

Alien plant invasions have been systematically studied for more than half a century and we already have extensive scientific evidence of their negative role in the current biodiversity decline. Here we aim to draw attention to expansive plants, i.e. native plant species that exhibit similar ecological behaviour to invasive alien plants, being promoted by recent environmental changes. Some of them can also have various negative impacts on native plant communities and ecosystems. However, they have been much less studied than alien species. Our goal was to create an up-to-date catalogue of expansive species (including aggregates or subspecies where needed) in the Czech Republic, compare their functional traits and ecological strategies with non-expansive native species and provide a list of regions and habitats where they spread. We conducted a questionnaire survey, asking local experts to evaluate the expansive character of preselected species in 17 regions and 27 broadly defined habitat types (66 regional assessments). We critically revised these data and verified the distribution patterns. In total, we identified 126 expansive taxa (116 species, eight species aggregates and two subspecies, for simplicity referred to as species) from 43 families. The most represented were Poaceae (27 species, i.e. 21%, while only 7% in the native flora), Asteraceae (10 species; 8%) and Rosaceae (10; 8%). Our list comprises a heterogeneous group of plants, which tend to be taller and are more frequently polycarpic perennials than the non-expansive native species of the Czech flora. The highest numbers of expansive species were reported at middle elevations. Thirteen species were considered expansive in all regions: Aegopodium podagraria, Alopecurus pratensis, Anthriscus sylvestris, Artemisia vulgaris, Betula pendula, Calamagrostis epigejos, Dactylis glomerata, Elymus repens, Phalaris arundinacea, Poa trivialis, Rumex obtusifolius, Trifolium pratense and Urtica dioica. Expansive species were most frequently found in anthropogenic habitats, both non-forest (99 species) and woodlands (including plantations and clearings; 73), as well as in mesophilic meadows and pastures (64) and wet meadows (60). We hope that the presented list of expansive plants will trigger further research on them and their potential impacts on plant communities and other biota.

Quantitative paleoecological reconstructions using biological proxies, such as diatoms, Cladocera, and chironomids, have revolutionized paleolimnology and have greatly contributed to the understanding of the past local and regional environmental changes, as well as to nature conservation. While macrophytes are good ecological indicators, they have rarely been used to reconstruct past lake-water chemistry. The present study investigates which environmental variable best explains aquatic plant community composition in Finnish, Polish, and Swedish lakes for its further use in quantitative paleoenvironmental reconstructions. The method involved the creation of a modern macrophyte-environment calibration dataset, calculation of modern calibration functions using simple averaging regression, and final reconstruction of past environmental conditions in Lake Linowek (NE Poland) from a fossil assemblage using weighted averaging calibration. The data demonstrate that conductivity and alkalinity best explained macrophyte community composition in our dataset. Species "optima" for alkalinity were influenced by the presence/absence of carbon concentrating mechanisms (CCMs), enabling the utilization of HCO3- as a carbon source. Quantitative paleoenvironmental reconstruction indicates that past water conductivity and alkalinity fluctuated depending on internal lake processes and the supply of basic ions to the lake from the catchment related to climate and soil development in the watershed during the late Glacial (similar to 14,500-11,700 calibrated years before the present; cal BP) and the Holocene (11,700 cal BP-recent). We conclude that macrophytes can be successfully used for past lake-water chemistry reconstruction. Furthermore, calculated modern calibration functions for conductivity and alkalinity can be used in nature conservation for determining habitat requirements of numerous endangered macrophyte species as a basis for successful (re) introductions.

Northern glacial refugia are a hotly debated concept. The idea that many temperate organisms survived the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; ~26.5 to 19 thousand years) in several sites across central and northern Europe stems from phylogeographic analyses, yet direct fossil evidence has thus far been missing. Here, we present the first unequivocal proof that thermophilous trees such as oak ( Quercus ), linden ( Tilia ), and common ash ( Fraxinus excelsior ) survived the LGM in Central Europe. The persistence of the refugium was promoted by a steady influx of hydrothermal waters that locally maintained a humid and warm microclimate. We reconstructed the geological and palaeohydrological factors responsible for the emergence of hot springs during the LGM and argue that refugia of this type, allowing the long-term survival and rapid post-LGM dispersal of temperate elements, were not exceptional in the European periglacial zone.

Plant macro-remains provide valuable environmental information of the past, but reconstruction of past vegetation is challenging, because a macrofossil sample may include material from various habitats and also because its species composition is biased and incomplete. Therefore, we aimed to propose, test and evaluate an objective tool for data reconstruction in archaeobotany and palaeoecology. Our Fossil assEmblage VEgetation Reconstruction Index (FEVER Index) indicates relative probabilities that particular taxa in a fossil assemblage come from respective vegetation types. In contrast to the Frequency Positive Fidelity Index (FPFI) used for modern vegetation classification, the FEVER Index emphasises the importance of diagnostic species. The comparison between the FEVER and FPFI indices, when they are applied to a large dataset of modern vegetation plots, has shown that the FEVER Index has greater classification accuracy. In the case where taxonomic data were reduced to genera only, the efficiency of the FEVER Index was even higher than FPFI. This shows that the FEVER Index is more accurate when applied to incomplete fossil data, but only when there are some diagnostic species still present. We also examined the similarity between modern vegetation and corresponding seed bank data. Wetland habitats, such as calcareous fens and periodically exposed riverbeds showed high similarity between the vegetation and the seed banks because of the local origin of the seed bank material. Lower similarity was, however, detected in the case of small pools in the upper reaches of the river Lužnice, the seed bank of which included not only aquatic vegetation but also plants from terrestrial habitats nearby, transported by flowing water. Finally, we provide two examples of applying the FEVER Index to fossil data.

According to the International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature, a younger name of a syntaxon may be conserved against its older name to improve the stability of the nomenclature and avoid misunderstandings in scientific communication. Here, we propose conserving the name Philonotidion seriataeHinterlang 1992 for arctic-alpine, bryophyte-dominated, non-calcareous spring vegetation against the names Cardamino-MontionBraun-Blanquet 1925, Cardamino-MontionBraun-Blanquet 1926, and MontionMaas 1959. In current vegetation classification systems, the two name-giving taxa of Cardamino-Montion no longer indicate the character of the vegetation corresponding to the nomenclatural type of this alliance and are instead characteristic of other currently distinguished alliances. Maintaining the oldest name Cardamino-Montion in strict adherence to the Code would be a source of errors. In the current vegetation classification systems, two similar but counter-intuitive names would then have to be used: Cardamino-Montion for arctic-alpine springs (although the name-giving taxa are more indicative of montane springs) and Epilobio nutantis-Montion for montane springs (although the name-giving taxon Epilobium nutans is indicative of arctic-alpine vegetation). Hence, there is a risk that the name Cardamino-Montion may gradually become ambiguous. We also propose conserving the name Philonotidion seriatae against Mniobryo-Epilobion hornemanniiNordhagen 1943 to prevent confusion in case of a merger of these alliances. (36) Philonotidion seriataeHinterlang 1992 Typus: Cratoneuro-PhilonotidetumGeissler 1976 (holotypus) (=) Cardamino-MontionBraun-Blanquet 1925 Typus: Bryetum schleicheriBraun-Blanquet 1925 [≡ Montio fontanae-Bryetum schleicheriBraun-Blanquet 1925 nom. corr. et invers. (alternative name)] (holotypus) (=) Cardamino-MontionBraun-Blanquet 1926 nom. superfl. [≡ Cardamino-MontionBraun-Blanquet 1925] (=) Mniobryo-Epilobion hornemanniiNordhagen 1943 Typus: Mniobryo-Epilobietum hornemanniiNordhagen 1943 (lectotypus selected by Zechmeister & Mucina 1994) (=) MontionMaas 1959 nom. superfl. [≡ Cardamino-MontionBraun-Blanquet 1925] Taxonomic reference: Euro+Med PlantBase (http://europlusmed.org; accessed 4 January 2024)

The historical development of the vegetation of semi-dry grasslands in Central Europe is not satisfactorily understood. Long-term continuity of open vegetation or, conversely, deep-past forest phases are considered possible sources of the current extreme species diversity of these ecosystems. We aimed to reveal the trajectory of paleovegetation development in these ecosystems through detailed analysis of terrestrial in-situ soil geoarchives. We measured the bulk soil carbon and nitrogen contents, lipid molecular distribution, and compound-specific stable carbon and hydrogen isotopic signatures of mid- and long-chain n-alkanes extracted from soil and modern plant material tissues (i.e., deciduous and Pinus leaves and grass/herbaceous species). The C23-C33 n-alkane homologues were identified in soils with different abundances. Normally, C27 and C29 n-alkanes were the most abundant homologues in tree-leaf samples, while grass-derived n-alkanes were mostly C31 and C33 homologues. Soils were largely dominated by C29 and C31 n-alkanes. Odd-numbered C27-C33 soil n-alkane S13C values ranged from -36.2%o to -23.2%o, whereas their S2H values showed a wider range of variability that fluctuated from -224%o to -172%o. Molecular distribution in combination with radiocarbon analysis of soil organic matter (SOM) and S13C and S2H values of n-alkanes revealed a large contribution of C3 trees (both deciduous and coniferous trees/pine trees) as the main source of n-alkanes between the late Pleistocene and early Holocene (ca 15,000-8200 calibrated year before present/cal year BP). A clear shift toward more grassy/herbaceous vegetation was observed from the early Holocene (ca 11,700-8200 cal year BP) onwards. Distribution patterns of lipids and soil geochemical parameters showed that plants are the main source of SOM and that biodegradation and kinetic isotope fractionation are not the main reasons for 13C enrichment in soil profiles. Past C3 vegetation shifts as well as paleoclimate changes (i.e., aridity) can have played a role in the observed 13C depth profiles.