Constructing a temporally-constrained palaeoecological model of Quaternary faunal evolution and extinction in eastern Australia

气候多变性的增加和人类引起的环境退化对生物多样性、社会经济可持续性以及可能对我们自己未来的生存产生了严重影响，从而引起了全球的关注。这项研究将有助于解开澳大利亚大型动物（巨型动物）在末次冰期和最早的人类殖民澳大利亚期间灭绝的原因。调查巨型动物灭绝的原因，对于了解这些史前事件如何塑造现代生物群，以及在气候和环境变化和脆弱性增加的时代为我们的地方性动物群制定保护战略至关重要。

Increased climatic variability and human-induced environmental degradation have had severe impacts on biodiversity, socio-economic sustainability and possibly our own future survival, thus attracting global attention. This study will help unravel the causes of the extinctions of Australia's large-size animals (megafauna) during the periods of last glaciation and earliest human colonisation of Australia. Investigating the causes of megafauna extinction is essential for an understanding of how those prehistoric events shaped the modern biota, and for the development of conservation strategies for our endemic faunas in an era of increased climatic and environmental variability and vulnerability.