Life and extinction of megafauna in the ice-age Arctic
Understanding the population dynamics of megafauna that inhabited the mammoth steppe provides insights into the causes of extinctions during both the terminal Pleistocene and today. Our study area is Alaska's North Slope, a place where humans were rare when these extinctions occurred. After dev...
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt4r7174jf 2023-10-25T01:34:39+02:00 Life and extinction of megafauna in the ice-age Arctic Mann, Daniel H Groves, Pamela Reanier, Richard E Gaglioti, Benjamin V Kunz, Michael L Shapiro, Beth 14301 - 14306 2015-11-17 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4r7174jf unknown eScholarship, University of California qt4r7174jf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4r7174jf public Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol 112, iss 46 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience Biological Sciences Ecology Earth Sciences Climate Change Science Geology Climate Action Animals Arctic Regions Climate Change Extinction Biological Fossils ice age megafauna paleoecology mammoth steppe article 2015 ftcdlib 2023-09-25T18:04:28Z Understanding the population dynamics of megafauna that inhabited the mammoth steppe provides insights into the causes of extinctions during both the terminal Pleistocene and today. Our study area is Alaska's North Slope, a place where humans were rare when these extinctions occurred. After developing a statistical approach to remove the age artifacts caused by radiocarbon calibration from a large series of dated megafaunal bones, we compare the temporal patterns of bone abundance with climate records. Megafaunal abundance tracked ice age climate, peaking during transitions from cold to warm periods. These results suggest that a defining characteristic of the mammoth steppe was its temporal instability and imply that regional extinctions followed by population reestablishment from distant refugia were characteristic features of ice-age biogeography at high latitudes. It follows that long-distance dispersal was crucial for the long-term persistence of megafaunal species living in the Arctic. Such dispersal was only possible when their rapidly shifting range lands were geographically interconnected. The end of the last ice age was fatally unique because the geographic ranges of arctic megafauna became permanently fragmented after stable, interglacial climate engendered the spread of peatlands at the same time that rising sea level severed former dispersal routes. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change University of California: eScholarship Arctic |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience Biological Sciences Ecology Earth Sciences Climate Change Science Geology Climate Action Animals Arctic Regions Climate Change Extinction Biological Fossils ice age megafauna paleoecology mammoth steppe |
spellingShingle |
Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience Biological Sciences Ecology Earth Sciences Climate Change Science Geology Climate Action Animals Arctic Regions Climate Change Extinction Biological Fossils ice age megafauna paleoecology mammoth steppe Mann, Daniel H Groves, Pamela Reanier, Richard E Gaglioti, Benjamin V Kunz, Michael L Shapiro, Beth Life and extinction of megafauna in the ice-age Arctic |
topic_facet |
Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience Biological Sciences Ecology Earth Sciences Climate Change Science Geology Climate Action Animals Arctic Regions Climate Change Extinction Biological Fossils ice age megafauna paleoecology mammoth steppe |
description |
Understanding the population dynamics of megafauna that inhabited the mammoth steppe provides insights into the causes of extinctions during both the terminal Pleistocene and today. Our study area is Alaska's North Slope, a place where humans were rare when these extinctions occurred. After developing a statistical approach to remove the age artifacts caused by radiocarbon calibration from a large series of dated megafaunal bones, we compare the temporal patterns of bone abundance with climate records. Megafaunal abundance tracked ice age climate, peaking during transitions from cold to warm periods. These results suggest that a defining characteristic of the mammoth steppe was its temporal instability and imply that regional extinctions followed by population reestablishment from distant refugia were characteristic features of ice-age biogeography at high latitudes. It follows that long-distance dispersal was crucial for the long-term persistence of megafaunal species living in the Arctic. Such dispersal was only possible when their rapidly shifting range lands were geographically interconnected. The end of the last ice age was fatally unique because the geographic ranges of arctic megafauna became permanently fragmented after stable, interglacial climate engendered the spread of peatlands at the same time that rising sea level severed former dispersal routes. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mann, Daniel H Groves, Pamela Reanier, Richard E Gaglioti, Benjamin V Kunz, Michael L Shapiro, Beth |
author_facet |
Mann, Daniel H Groves, Pamela Reanier, Richard E Gaglioti, Benjamin V Kunz, Michael L Shapiro, Beth |
author_sort |
Mann, Daniel H |
title |
Life and extinction of megafauna in the ice-age Arctic |
title_short |
Life and extinction of megafauna in the ice-age Arctic |
title_full |
Life and extinction of megafauna in the ice-age Arctic |
title_fullStr |
Life and extinction of megafauna in the ice-age Arctic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Life and extinction of megafauna in the ice-age Arctic |
title_sort |
life and extinction of megafauna in the ice-age arctic |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4r7174jf |
op_coverage |
14301 - 14306 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Climate change |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change |
op_source |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol 112, iss 46 |
op_relation |
qt4r7174jf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4r7174jf |
op_rights |
public |
_version_ |
1780729897689284608 |