Ecological structure of recent and last glacial mammalian faunas in northern Eurasia: the case of Altai-Sayan refugium.
Pleistocene mammalian communities display unique features which differ from present-day faunas. The paleocommunities were characterized by the extraordinarily large body size of herbivores and predators and by their unique structure consisting of species now inhabiting geographically and ecologicall...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:ec14561eb9c348cfb33c6591e0447204 2023-05-15T18:30:52+02:00 Ecological structure of recent and last glacial mammalian faunas in northern Eurasia: the case of Altai-Sayan refugium. Věra Pavelková Řičánková Jan Robovský Jan Riegert 2014-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0085056 https://doaj.org/article/ec14561eb9c348cfb33c6591e0447204 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/24454791/pdf/?tool=EBI https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0085056 https://doaj.org/article/ec14561eb9c348cfb33c6591e0447204 PLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 1, p e85056 (2014) Medicine R Science Q article 2014 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0085056 2022-12-31T07:27:50Z Pleistocene mammalian communities display unique features which differ from present-day faunas. The paleocommunities were characterized by the extraordinarily large body size of herbivores and predators and by their unique structure consisting of species now inhabiting geographically and ecologically distinct natural zones. These features were probably the result of the unique environmental conditions of ice age ecosystems. To analyze the ecological structure of Last Glacial and Recent mammal communities we classified the species into biome and trophic-size categories, using Principal Component analysis. We found a marked similarity in ecological structure between Recent eastern Altai-Sayan mammalian assemblages and comparable Pleistocene faunas. The composition of Last Glacial and Recent eastern Altai-Sayan assemblages were characterized by the occurrence of large herbivore and predator species associated with steppe, desert and alpine biomes. These three modern biomes harbor most of the surviving Pleistocene mammals. None of the analyzed Palearctic Last Glacial faunas showed affinity to the temperate forest, taiga, or tundra biome. The Eastern part of the Altai-Sayan region could be considered a refugium of the Last Glacial-like mammalian assemblages. Glacial fauna seems to persist up to present in those areas where the forest belt does not separate alpine vegetation from the steppes and deserts. Article in Journal/Newspaper taiga Tundra Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles PLoS ONE 9 1 e85056 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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English |
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Medicine R Science Q |
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Medicine R Science Q Věra Pavelková Řičánková Jan Robovský Jan Riegert Ecological structure of recent and last glacial mammalian faunas in northern Eurasia: the case of Altai-Sayan refugium. |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
Pleistocene mammalian communities display unique features which differ from present-day faunas. The paleocommunities were characterized by the extraordinarily large body size of herbivores and predators and by their unique structure consisting of species now inhabiting geographically and ecologically distinct natural zones. These features were probably the result of the unique environmental conditions of ice age ecosystems. To analyze the ecological structure of Last Glacial and Recent mammal communities we classified the species into biome and trophic-size categories, using Principal Component analysis. We found a marked similarity in ecological structure between Recent eastern Altai-Sayan mammalian assemblages and comparable Pleistocene faunas. The composition of Last Glacial and Recent eastern Altai-Sayan assemblages were characterized by the occurrence of large herbivore and predator species associated with steppe, desert and alpine biomes. These three modern biomes harbor most of the surviving Pleistocene mammals. None of the analyzed Palearctic Last Glacial faunas showed affinity to the temperate forest, taiga, or tundra biome. The Eastern part of the Altai-Sayan region could be considered a refugium of the Last Glacial-like mammalian assemblages. Glacial fauna seems to persist up to present in those areas where the forest belt does not separate alpine vegetation from the steppes and deserts. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Věra Pavelková Řičánková Jan Robovský Jan Riegert |
author_facet |
Věra Pavelková Řičánková Jan Robovský Jan Riegert |
author_sort |
Věra Pavelková Řičánková |
title |
Ecological structure of recent and last glacial mammalian faunas in northern Eurasia: the case of Altai-Sayan refugium. |
title_short |
Ecological structure of recent and last glacial mammalian faunas in northern Eurasia: the case of Altai-Sayan refugium. |
title_full |
Ecological structure of recent and last glacial mammalian faunas in northern Eurasia: the case of Altai-Sayan refugium. |
title_fullStr |
Ecological structure of recent and last glacial mammalian faunas in northern Eurasia: the case of Altai-Sayan refugium. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Ecological structure of recent and last glacial mammalian faunas in northern Eurasia: the case of Altai-Sayan refugium. |
title_sort |
ecological structure of recent and last glacial mammalian faunas in northern eurasia: the case of altai-sayan refugium. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0085056 https://doaj.org/article/ec14561eb9c348cfb33c6591e0447204 |
genre |
taiga Tundra |
genre_facet |
taiga Tundra |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 1, p e85056 (2014) |
op_relation |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/24454791/pdf/?tool=EBI https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0085056 https://doaj.org/article/ec14561eb9c348cfb33c6591e0447204 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0085056 |
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PLoS ONE |
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9 |
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1 |
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e85056 |
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1766214476679348224 |