Environmental correlates of the Late Quaternary regional extinctions of large and small Palaearctic mammals

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60076658%3A12310%2F18%3A43897211" target="_blank" >RIV/60076658:12310/18:43897211 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/00216224:14310/18:00100876

Result on the web

<a href="https://kopernio.com/viewer?doi=10.1111/ecog.02851&route=6" target="_blank" >https://kopernio.com/viewer?doi=10.1111/ecog.02851&route=6</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecog.02851" target="_blank" >10.1111/ecog.02851</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Environmental correlates of the Late Quaternary regional extinctions of large and small Palaearctic mammals

Original language description

Most studies of mammal extinctions during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition explore the relative effects of climate change vs human impacts on these extinctions, but the relative importance of the different environmental factors involved remains poorly understood. Moreover, these studies are strongly biased towards megafauna, which may have been more influenced by human hunting than species of small body size. We examined the potential environmental causes of Pleistocene-Holocene mammal extinctions by linking regional environmental characteristics with the regional extinction rates of large and small mammals in 14 Palaearctic regions. We found that regional extinction rates were larger for megafauna, but extinction patterns across regions were similar for both size groups, emphasizing the importance of environmental change as an extinction factor as opposed to hunting. Still, the bias towards megafauna extinctions was larger in southern Europe and smaller in central Eurasia. The loss of suitable habitats, low macroclimatic heterogeneity within regions and an increase in precipitation were identified as the strongest predictors of regional extinction rates. Suitable habitats for many species of the Last Glacial fauna were grassland and desert, but not tundra or forest. The low-extinction regions identified in central Eurasia are characterized by the continuous presence of grasslands and deserts until the present. In contrast, forest expansion associated with an increase in precipitation and temperature was likely the main factor causing habitat loss in the high-extinction regions. The shift of grassland into tundra also contributed to the loss of suitable habitats in northern Eurasia. Habitat loss was more strongly related to the extinctions of megafauna than of small mammals. Ungulate species with low tolerance to deep snow were more likely to go regionally extinct. Thus, the increase in precipitation at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition may have also directly contributed to the extinctions by creating deep snow cover which decreases forage availability in winter.

Czech name

—

Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10619 - Biodiversity conservation

Project

<a href="/en/project/GAP504%2F11%2F0454" target="_blank" >GAP504/11/0454: Biodiversity change during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition: modern analogues in relict ecosystems of Siberia</a><br>

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2018

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Ecography

ISSN

0906-7590

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

41

Issue of the periodical within the volume

3

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

12

Pages from-to

516-527

UT code for WoS article

000426725400008

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85020130857