Collaborative Research: Response of Mammalian Survivors to the Late Pleistocene Extinction Event

哺乳动物幸存者对晚更新世灭绝事件的反应。更新世末期的全球变暖和人类的狩猎导致了大多数大于44公斤的哺乳动物群的灭绝。 虽然灭绝事件的原因是有争议的和强烈的兴趣，随后的社区变化对物种生存的灭绝的影响还没有得到很好的调查。 然而，关于对幸存者的影响的知识将对未来生物多样性的预测非常有价值。 因此，我们不是仅仅从物种灭绝的角度来研究更新世灭绝，而是热衷于调查幸存的物种是如何或实际上是否受到灭绝事件的影响。 我们建议利用加州沙斯塔县丰富但尚未开发的第四纪化石资源，调查在更新世-全新世过渡事件中幸存下来的哺乳动物的反应。 我们的主要目标是确定幸存者对灭绝事件的群落、物种和种群反应，并弄清楚这种反应是由于巨型动物的消失、气候变化还是两者兼而有之。 我们的研究集中在北方加州，这是一个生物多样性和特有性的热点。显然，目前的气候变化和其他人类影响可能会以灭绝以外的方式影响生物多样性，预测这种影响的一个有意义的方法是调用化石记录来提高我们对这种反应的理解。 化石的广泛公众吸引力使我们能够告知公众从这种独特但关键的跨学科角度理解未来环境变化的影响的价值。

RESPONSE OF MAMMALIAN SURVIVORS TO THE LATE PLEISTOCENE EXTINCTION EVENTElizabeth A. Hadly, Stanford UniversityEAR-0545648AbstractGlobal warming and human hunting at the end of the Pleistocene led to the extinction of most of the mammalian fauna larger than 44 kg. While the causes of the extinction event are debated and of intense interest, the effect of the ensuing community changes on species that survived the extinction has not been well investigated. However, knowledge about effects on survivors will be immensely valuable to predictions of future biodiversity. Thus, instead of studying the Pleistocene extinction solely from the perspective of why species went extinct, we are keen to investigate how, or in fact, whether, surviving species were affected by the extinction event. We propose to use the rich but untapped Quaternary fossil resources of Shasta County, California, to investigate the response of the mammals that survived the Pleistocene-Holocene transition event. Our primary goal is to determine community, species, and population response of survivors to the extinction event and to sort out whether the response was due to loss of the megafauna, climatic change or both. Our study focuses on northern California, which is a hotspot of biodiversity and endemism. Clearly, current climatic changes and other human impacts may influence biodiversity in ways other than extinction, and a meaningful way to forecast such influences is by calling upon the fossil record to enhance our understanding of such responses. The broad public appeal of fossils allows us to inform the public of the value of understanding the impacts of future environmental change from this unique, but critical, interdisciplinary perspective.