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

摘要全球变暖和人类在更新世末期的狩猎活动导致了大部分体重超过44公斤的哺乳动物的灭绝。虽然物种灭绝事件的原因一直备受争议和关注，但随之而来的群落变化对在灭绝中幸存下来的物种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对于预测未来的生物多样性将是非常有价值的。因此，我们不是仅仅从物种灭绝的原因来研究更新世灭绝，而是热衷于调查幸存的物种是如何受到灭绝事件的影响的，或者实际上，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，研究在更新世-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群落、物种和幸存者对灭绝事件的反应，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。我们的研究重点是北加州，这是一个生物多样性和地方性的热点。显然，当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，而预测这种影响的一个有意义的方法是利用化石记录来加强我们对这种反应的理解。化石对公众的广泛吸引力使我们能够告知公众，从这个独特但关键的跨学科视角来理解未来环境变化的影响是有价值的。

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.