Reconstructing Late Pleistocene ecology, environment and climate using bulk and compound specific isotope measurements of megafauna

不列颠哥伦比亚省的晚更新世，确切地说是5万到2万年前，通常被定义为该省大部分地区（如果不是全部的话）被冰川覆盖的时期。最近对难民植物群落的研究，以及对动物遗骸（如猛犸象等巨型动物）的放射性碳年代测定表明，该省的冰川历史更为复杂。该项目将通过对全省大型动物（尤其是猛犸象）的同位素分析，更好地了解这一时期不列颠哥伦比亚省过去的生态和气候。在这个项目的初步研究中，我们已经确定了许多新的猛犸象标本，并有了一些初步的放射性碳年代测定，将猛犸象的年代定在35000到20000年前。在与全省许多博物馆以及皇家不列颠哥伦比亚博物馆和大学的合作下，我们将对新发现的（50多具）猛犸象遗骸进行取样，用放射性碳定年法确定它们的年龄。然后，我们将对遗骸进行深入分析，以确定他们生活在该省不同地区时的气候和生态条件。这项分析包括对遗骸的同位素测量，以观察这些猛犸象的饮食（碳、氮，包括单个氨基酸）和它们的迁徙模式（氧）。我们已经获得许可，从全省20多家博物馆和大学采集50多头猛犸象样本。所有的同位素分析都将在西蒙弗雷泽大学环境学院的同位素研究实验室进行。我们特别感兴趣的是饮食适应和迁徙模式在这段时间内是如何变化的。然后，我们将利用这些数据来帮助我们重建猛犸象生活的气候和生态，使用我们在实验室开发的动物遗骸气候和生态重建的多同位素方法，更好地帮助我们了解不列颠哥伦比亚省3万年来生态和气候的变化。

The Late Pleistocene of British Columbia, specifically dating from 50,000 to 20,000 years ago, has generally been defined as a period where much, if not all of the province was covered with glacial ice. Recent studies of refugia plant communities, and a number of radiocarbon dates on animal remains (megafauna such as mammoths) has suggested that the glacial history of the province is more complex. This project will seek to better understand the past ecology and climate of British Columbia during this period through the isotopic analysis of megafauna (especially mammoth) from throughout the province. We have identified many new mammoth specimens in our pilot study for this project and have some preliminary radiocarbon dates that places the mammoths at time clusters of 35,000 and 20,000 years ago. In collaborations with many museums throughout the province, as well as with the Royal British Columbia museum and universities, we will sample the newly identified (more than 50) mammoth remains to determine their ages with radiocarbon dating. Then we will apply an in-depth analysis of the remains to determine the climate and ecological conditions when they were living in different parts of the province. This analysis involves isotope measurements of the remains to look at the diets of these mammoths (carbon, nitrogen, including individual amino acids) and their migration patterns (oxygen). We have permission to sample over 50 mammoths from more than 20 museums and universities around the province. All of the isotope analysis will be undertaken in the isotope research lab at the Faculty of the Environment at Simon Fraser University. We are especially interested in how dietary adaptations and migration patterns changed throughout this time period. Then we will use this data to help us reconstruct the climate and ecology of where the mammoths were living, using a multi-isotope method of climate and ecological reconstruction of animal remains that we have developed in our laboratory, to better help us understand the changing ecology and climate of British Columbia over a 30,000 year time period.