Landscape, climate and mammoth food resources in the East European Plain during the Late Paleolithic epoch
Landscape, climate and mammoth food resources in the East European Plain during the Late Paleolithic epoch
复制标题
旧石器时代晚期东欧平原的景观、气候和庞大的食物资源
DOI：
10.1016/j.quaint.2004.04.019
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发表时间：
2005
影响因子：
2.2
通讯作者：
E. Zelikson
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
A. Velichko;E. Zelikson
典型的猛犸生活在晚更新世冰期后半期的东欧平原。在极端干旱的气候条件下，冰缘，大部分是开放的景观形成了一个巨大的超带（cryohyperzone），占据了现代苔原，森林和草原地带的位置。为了评估猛犸提供的可用食物，可以使用关于现代草本植物和草植被的生产力和营养价值的数据，这些草本植物和草植被可以被认为是或多或少与冰缘群落相似的植物。晚更新世冰缘超带的中部是猛犸象的最佳栖息地。这些地区水资源丰富（大河以及冰雪），是最丰富的饲料基地，因为山谷中有树木和灌木丛，而较高的流域则被冰缘草原占据。气候变暖和随之而来的永久冻土退化导致地表不稳定、热岩溶和湿地扩张。由于冬季降雪量更大，积雪厚度增加，使猛犸象难以放牧。第一个阶段间的变暖影响了较不强壮的哈代早期猛犸象，而接近全新世的逐渐变暖对典型的猛犸来说似乎是致命的。
Typical mammoth inhabited the East European Plain during the second half of the Late Pleistocene glaciation. Under conditions of extremely arid climate, periglacial, mostly open landscapes formed a vast hyperzone (cryohyperzone) that occupied the place of the modern tundra, forest and steppe zones. To assess the available foodstuffs for mammoth provision, data concerning productivity and nutritive value of modern herb and grass vegetation that may be considered as more or less close analogues of periglacial communities can be used. The central part of the Late Pleistocene periglacial hyperzone was most favorable for mammoths. Those regions were well endowed with water (in large rivers, as well as snow and ice) and presented the richest fodder base, because trees and bushes persisted in valleys, while higher watersheds were occupied by periglacial steppe. Climate warming and consequent degradation of permafrost resulted in instability of the land surface, thermokarst, and expansion of wetlands. The snow thickness increased due to more abundant snowfall in winter and made grazing difficult for mammoths. The first interstadial warming affected the less hardy early mammoths, while the progressive warming towards the Holocene appeared fatal to the typical mammoth.