Climatic and megaherbivory controls on late-glacial vegetation dynamics: a new, high-resolution, multi-proxy record from Silver Lake, Ohio

Gill, Jacquelyn L.; Williams, John W.; Jackson, Stephen T.; Donnelly, Jeffrey P.; Schellinger, G. C.

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.12.008

Cited by 129 publications

(169 citation statements)

References 92 publications

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“…Effects may be profound, with environment assembly contingent on species interactions as well as the reverse (88). For example, the late-glacial megaherbivore decline may have been a proximal driver of vegetation changes that ultimately were a response to climatic changes that occurred centuries or more before (89).…”

Section: Interaction Assembly Neutral Assemblymentioning

confidence: 99%

Community ecology in a changing environment: Perspectives from the Quaternary

Jackson

Blois

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Community ecology and paleoecology are both concerned with the composition and structure of biotic assemblages but are largely disconnected. Community ecology focuses on existing species assemblages and recently has begun to integrate history (phylogeny and continental or intercontinental dispersal) to constrain community processes. This division has left a "missing middle": Ecological and environmental processes occurring on timescales from decades to millennia are not yet fully incorporated into community ecology. Quaternary paleoecology has a wealth of data documenting ecological dynamics at these timescales, and both fields can benefit from greater interaction and articulation. We discuss ecological insights revealed by Quaternary terrestrial records, suggest foundations for bridging between the disciplines, and identify topics where the disciplines can engage to mutual benefit. community ecology | Quaternary paleoecology | climate change Community ecology and Quaternary paleoecology are both concerned with the composition and structure of biotic assemblages, including patterns of spatial variation and dynamics in changing environments. Community ecology focuses on the here and now of existing species assemblages, emphasizing mechanistic understanding of local species interactions and their consequences. Quaternary paleoecology uses geohistorical evidence (1) to infer properties of past communities and how they have changed, at local to regional scales, during the past few thousand to the past 2.6 million years. Both fields are under increasing demand to inform scientists, resource managers, and policymakers of what might be in store for biodiversity and ecosystems services under ongoing and future global change (2-5). Despite their shared concerns, however, community ecology and Quaternary paleoecology are fundamentally disconnected, with relatively little engagement.

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Section: Interaction Assembly Neutral Assemblymentioning

confidence: 99%

Community ecology in a changing environment: Perspectives from the Quaternary

Jackson

Blois

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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151

125

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“…First, vegetation should change noticeably, consistent with ecological release from browsing, grazing, and trampling; such changes should be apparent in fossil-pollen time series (17,25,29) and possibly also in charcoal (fire-frequency) records (15)(16)(17)36). Second, surviving mammal communities should demonstrate changes in species composition, richness, and evenness (32).…”

Section: Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, we build on recent work of paleoecologists (17,25,28,29,32,36) and ecologists (1, 3-7, 9, 10, 15, 16, 37) …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With a few important exceptions (6,17,(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29), the major changes in vegetation and mammalian community structure that accompanied Quaternary extinctions have been interpreted as responses to changing climate (17-19, 21, 23, 25-27, 29-35). Here, we build on recent work of paleoecologists (17,25,28,29,32,36) and ecologists (1, 3-7, 9, 10, 15, 16, 37) who have been asking instead: Are the observed biotic responses consistent with megafauna loss, and if so, what does this loss imply for the future of ecosystems at risk for losing their megafauna today?…”

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confidence: 99%

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Variable impact of late-Quaternary megafaunal extinction in causing ecological state shifts in North and South America

Barnosky

Lindsey

Villavicencio

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

112

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Loss of megafauna, an aspect of defaunation, can precipitate many ecological changes over short time scales. We examine whether megafauna loss can also explain features of lasting ecological state shifts that occurred as the Pleistocene gave way to the Holocene. We compare ecological impacts of late-Quaternary megafauna extinction in five American regions: southwestern Patagonia, the Pampas, northeastern United States, northwestern United States, and Beringia. We find that major ecological state shifts were consistent with expectations of defaunation in North American sites but not in South American ones. The differential responses highlight two factors necessary for defaunation to trigger lasting ecological state shifts discernable in the fossil record: (i) lost megafauna need to have been effective ecosystem engineers, like proboscideans; and (ii) historical contingencies must have provided the ecosystem with plant species likely to respond to megafaunal loss. These findings help in identifying modern ecosystems that are most at risk for disappearing should current pressures on the ecosystems' large animals continue and highlight the critical role of both individual species ecologies and ecosystem context in predicting the lasting impacts of defaunation currently underway. megafauna | extinction | Quaternary | North America | South America D efaunation is occurring at a rapid pace presently (1-3).Losses are particularly severe for megafauna (1) (considered here as animals with an average body size ≥44 kg), whose removal can trigger the following: changes in vegetation structure and species composition; reductions in environmental heterogeneity, species richness, evenness, seed dispersal, nutrient cycling and distribution, and ecosystem services; coextinction of dependent species; and increases in disease-transmitting organisms (1, 4-14) and fire frequency and/or intensity (15-17).Most work on defaunation has been in contemporary ecosystems. Much less is known about how it manifests over millennial time scales. A natural experiment to assess lasting effects of megafauna loss is provided by the extinctions of late-Quaternary megafauna in the Americas, part of global-scale ecological state shift (18), during which about half of the world's large-bodied mammal species (19,20) disappeared. In North America, ∼60 megafaunal species died out, with the youngest occurrences of dated species typically falling between ∼13,000 and 11,000 y ago (19). In South America, ∼66 species were lost over a longer time span (21-23).With a few important exceptions (6, 17, 24-29), the major changes in vegetation and mammalian community structure that accompanied Quaternary extinctions have been interpreted as responses to changing climate (17-19, 21, 23, 25-27, 29-35). Here, we build on recent work of paleoecologists (17,25,28,29,32,36) and ecologists (1, 3-7, 9, 10, 15, 16, 37) ApproachThe late-Quaternary impact of losing 70-80% of the megafauna genera in the Americas (19) would be expected to trigger biotic transitions that would b...

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“…Megafauna are important herbivores and can have significant impacts on vegetation composition, fuel loads and the resulting fire regimes [69]. On the Channel Islands, the endemic pygmy mammoth (M. exilis) would have been an important component of the landscape.…”

Section: (C) Wider Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Fire history on the California Channel Islands spanning human arrival in the Americas

Hardiman

Scott

Pinter

et al. 2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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One contribution of 24 to a discussion meeting issue 'The interaction of fire and mankind'. Recent studies have suggested that the first arrival of humans in the Americas during the end of the last Ice Age is associated with marked anthropogenic influences on landscape; in particular, with the use of fire which, would have given even small populations the ability to have broad impacts on the landscape. Understanding the impact of these early people is complicated by the dramatic changes in climate occurring with the shift from glacial to interglacial conditions. Despite these difficulties, we here attempt to test the extent of anthropogenic influence using the California Channel Islands as a smaller, landscape-scale test bed. These islands are famous for the discovery of the 'Arlington Springs Man', which are some of the earliest human remains in the Americas. A unifying sedimentary charcoal record is presented from Arlington Canyon, Santa Rosa Island, based on over 20 detailed sedimentary sections from eight key localities. Radiocarbon dating was based on thin, fragile, long fragments of charcoal in order to avoid the 'inbuilt' age problem. Radiocarbon dating of 49 such fragments has allowed inferences regarding the fire and landscape history of the Canyon ca 19-11 ka BP. A significant period of charcoal deposition is identified approximately 14-12.5 ka BP and bears remarkable closeness to an estimated age range of the first human arrival on the islands.This article is part of the themed issue 'The interaction of fire and mankind'.

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Climatic and megaherbivory controls on late-glacial vegetation dynamics: a new, high-resolution, multi-proxy record from Silver Lake, Ohio

Cited by 129 publications

References 92 publications

Community ecology in a changing environment: Perspectives from the Quaternary

Community ecology in a changing environment: Perspectives from the Quaternary

Variable impact of late-Quaternary megafaunal extinction in causing ecological state shifts in North and South America

Fire history on the California Channel Islands spanning human arrival in the Americas

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