Simultaneous extinction of Madagascar's megaherbivores correlates with late Holocene human-caused landscape transformation
Simultaneous extinction of Madagascar's megaherbivores correlates with late Holocene human-caused landscape transformation
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DOI：
10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106996
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发表时间：
2021-06-08
影响因子：
4
通讯作者：
Turvey, Samuel T.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hansford, James P.;Lister, Adrian M.;Turvey, Samuel T.
重建晚第四纪巨型动物灭绝的动力学和驱动因素需要在概率统计框架内评估的直接辐射数据系列。许多热带地区的灭绝年表知之甚少，包括马达加斯加，那里有一个多样的，现已灭绝的全新世大型脊椎动物群，包括一个“巨型食草动物”的地方性的和象鸟。马达加斯加的大型食草动物可能在调节生态系统结构和营养循环方面发挥了重要作用，但很少有直接日期可用于确定物种水平的大型食草动物标本，不确定何时以及为什么这个行业的不同代表消失。在这里，我们对马达加斯加巨型食草动物灭绝动态进行了新的调查，包括30个新的AMS日期和63个经审计的公布日期。我们使用高斯重采样逆加权Mcnerny（GRIWM）分析来估计三种象鸟（Aepyornis hildebrandti，Mullerornis modestus，Vorombe titan），蛋壳代表Aepyornis或Vorombe，和两种河马（Hippopotamus lemerlei，H.马达加斯加），并估计灭绝日期的巨型草食动物群落在不同的生物群系。巨型食草动物在第一次人类到来后持续了数千年。灭绝日期估计在生物群落之间存在显着差异，干燥落叶林的消失比其他生物群落早了一千多年，这可能反映了大型食草动物种群密度或人类压力的局部差异。然而，包括所有象鸟和河马物种在内的巨型食草动物群落在马达加斯加的其他地方持续存在，直到类似于1200-900 BP时突然崩溃。物种灭绝在时间上与1100-1000 BP的森林向草原的密集转化密切相关，这可能与向农牧业的转变有关，代表了史前人类与生物多样性相互作用的可持续性的根本变化。皇冠版权所有（C）2021由爱思唯尔有限公司发布。保留所有权利。
Reconstructing the dynamics and drivers of late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions requires direct radiometric date series that are assessed within probabilistic statistical frameworks. Extinction chronologies are poorly understood for many tropical regions, including Madagascar, which had a diverse, now-extinct Holocene large vertebrate fauna including a "megaherbivore" guild of endemic hippopotami and elephant birds. Madagascar's megaherbivores likely played vital roles in regulating ecosystem structure and nutrient cycling, but few direct dates are available for megaherbivore specimens identified to species level, with uncertainty over when and why different representatives of this guild disappeared. Here, we conduct a new investigation into Malagasy megaherbivore extinction dynamics, including 30 new AMS dates and 63 audited published dates. We use Gaussian-resampled inverse-weighted Mclnerny (GRIWM) analysis to estimate species-specific extinction dates for three elephant bird species (Aepyornis hildebrandti, Mullerornis modestus, Vorombe titan), eggshell representing Aepyornis or Vorombe, and two hippo species (Hippopotamus lemerlei, H. madagascariensis), and to estimate extinction dates for megaherbivore communities in different biomes. Megaherbivores persisted for millennia after first human arrival. Extinction date estimates vary significantly between biomes, with disappearance from dry deciduous forest over a millennium earlier than other biomes, possibly reflecting local variation in megaherbivore population densities or human pressures. However, megaherbivore communities including all elephant bird and hippo species persisted elsewhere across Madagascar until similar to 1200-900 BP, when they collapsed suddenly. Extinctions are closely correlated in time with intensive conversion of forests to grassland at similar to 1100-1000 BP, probably associated with a shift to agro-pastoralism and representing a radical change in sustainability of prehistoric human interactions with biodiversity. Crown Copyright (C) 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.