Climate-human interaction associated with southeast Australian megafauna extinction patterns
| Autor: | Frédérik Saltré, Sean Ulm, Axel Timmermann, Matthew C. McDowell, Tobias Friedrich, Katharina J. Peters, Joël Chadoeuf, Corey J. A. Bradshaw |
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| Přispěvatelé: | Flinders University [Adelaide, Australia], Biostatistique et Processus Spatiaux (BioSP), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, Newcastle University [Newcastle], University of Tasmania [Hobart, Australia] (UTAS), Hasso Plattner Institut, University of Hawaii, 2525 Correa Road, Honolulu, HI 96822, United States, Aging Research Center [Karolinska Institutet] (ARC ), Stockholm University-Karolinska Institutet [Stockholm], Global Ecology, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CE170100015) to S.U. and C.J.A.B. A.T. was supported by the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) under IBS-R028-D1. |
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
010506 paleontology
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences Pleistocene Science [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes Climate Change Human Migration Biodiversity General Physics and Astronomy Climate change mégafaune Extinction Biological 01 natural sciences General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology Article Megafauna Animals Humans Pleistocene megafauna lcsh:Science Macroecology Ecosystem 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Changement climatique Spatial Analysis Multidisciplinary Extinction Ecology Australian megafauna Drinking Water Australia Palaeoecology Paleontology General Chemistry 15. Life on land Archéologiques analyse chronologique Geography Archaeology 13. Climate action Paleoecology paléontologique lcsh:Q |
| Zdroj: | Nature Communications Nature Communications, Nature Publishing Group, 2019, 10 (1), ⟨10.1038/s41467-019-13277-0⟩ Nature Communications, Vol 10, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2019) |
| ISSN: | 2041-1723 |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41467-019-13277-0⟩ |
| Popis: | The mechanisms leading to megafauna (>44 kg) extinctions in Late Pleistocene (126,000—12,000 years ago) Australia are highly contested because standard chronological analyses rely on scarce data of varying quality and ignore spatial complexity. Relevant archaeological and palaeontological records are most often also biased by differential preservation resulting in under-representated older events. Chronological analyses have attributed megafaunal extinctions to climate change, humans, or a combination of the two, but rarely consider spatial variation in extinction patterns, initial human appearance trajectories, and palaeoclimate change together. Here we develop a statistical approach to infer spatio-temporal trajectories of megafauna extirpations (local extinctions) and initial human appearance in south-eastern Australia. We identify a combined climate-human effect on regional extirpation patterns suggesting that small, mobile Aboriginal populations potentially needed access to drinkable water to survive arid ecosystems, but were simultaneously constrained by climate-dependent net landscape primary productivity. Thus, the co-drivers of megafauna extirpations were themselves constrained by the spatial distribution of climate-dependent water sources. Whether Australia’s Pleistocene megafauna extinctions were caused by climate change, humans, or both is debated. Here, the authors infer the spatio-temporal trajectories of regional extinctions and find that water availability mediates the relationship among climate, human migration and megafauna extinctions. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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