Paleoecology

Question 1

Modern extinction loss

Answer 1

-300 terrestrial vertebrates lost
- begin with guns, steel, traps
-Carnivores badly affected

Question 2

Tasmanian tiger

Answer 2

Population in Aus declined to climate 4000 years ago
Left on Tasmania and hunted to extinction

Question 3

Pleistocene extinctions

Answer 3

Extinctions concentrated where people settle late

Question 4

Megafauna Africa

Answer 4

Largely survived

Question 5

Cooper et al 2016

Answer 5

Rapid climate change associated with interstadial warming events linked to replacement or extinction of megafauna

Question 6

Mammoth Eurasia

Answer 6

Coexisted with hunters for thousands of years
Couldn’t cope as tundra grassland warmed

Question 7

Giantdeer megacerous

Answer 7

Goes extinct in Ireland with no homsapiens
Couldn’t adapt to new ecosystems

Question 8

Miller et al 2005

Answer 8

Emus changed diet from C3-C4 plants to mainly C3, potentially due to aboriginal burning

Question 9

Saltre et al 2016

Answer 9

Humans or climate?
Megafaunal extinctions broadly synchronous among genera and independent of climate in Aus.
Mainly around 13,500 years ago.

Question 10

Van der kaarg et al 2017

Answer 10

Using MIS rule out climate change and implies humans

Question 11

Hyperdisease rim

Answer 11

Travelling humans or/and animals carried diseases but hard to imagine could wipe out so many

Question 12

Yellowstone issues

Answer 12

Wolves killed, elk population increase, ecological decline,

Question 13

Reintro of wolves

Answer 13

Has helped but not much after 25 years as not enough by itself.
Elk numbers down and aspen and willow regenerated with habitats made

Question 14

Pleistocene parks

Answer 14

Recreate pre-Anglian landscapes where mega-fauna were abundant - multiple top Carnivores

Question 15

Zimov 2005

Answer 15

Leads Pleistocene parks idea

Question 16

What has zimov done

Answer 16

Grazing trials using bison, ox, musk etc

Question 17

Reasons for bringing it back

Answer 17

Argues extinctions human induced and herbivores central for ecology cycle.
Says paleo data shows mammoth steppe persisted through last interglacial and land animals had climate tolerances

Question 18

Biodiversity reasons for bringing it back

Answer 18

Hoof action needed to disturb snow which allows for less thawing of permafrost so it’s less waterlogged and unstable.
Promote nutrient cycle

Question 19

Benefits for permafrost

Answer 19

Reduces melting thus release of methane and carbob

Question 20

Feasibility of parks Gillson 2015

Answer 20

Vegetation change is reversible, valid targets.
Still effective to predator .
Lots of species to use
Flora usable in todays climate

Question 21

Limits to it

Answer 21

High cost with moving megafauna
Uncertainties with what may happen - Frankenstein ecosystem
Large scale needed