Paleoecology Flashcards
Modern extinction loss
-300 terrestrial vertebrates lost
- begin with guns, steel, traps
-Carnivores badly affected
Tasmanian tiger
Population in Aus declined to climate 4000 years ago
Left on Tasmania and hunted to extinction
Pleistocene extinctions
Extinctions concentrated where people settle late
Megafauna Africa
Largely survived
Cooper et al 2016
Rapid climate change associated with interstadial warming events linked to replacement or extinction of megafauna
Mammoth Eurasia
Coexisted with hunters for thousands of years
Couldn’t cope as tundra grassland warmed
Giantdeer megacerous
Goes extinct in Ireland with no homsapiens
Couldn’t adapt to new ecosystems
Miller et al 2005
Emus changed diet from C3-C4 plants to mainly C3, potentially due to aboriginal burning
Saltre et al 2016
Humans or climate?
Megafaunal extinctions broadly synchronous among genera and independent of climate in Aus.
Mainly around 13,500 years ago.
Van der kaarg et al 2017
Using MIS rule out climate change and implies humans
Hyperdisease rim
Travelling humans or/and animals carried diseases but hard to imagine could wipe out so many
Yellowstone issues
Wolves killed, elk population increase, ecological decline,
Reintro of wolves
Has helped but not much after 25 years as not enough by itself.
Elk numbers down and aspen and willow regenerated with habitats made
Pleistocene parks
Recreate pre-Anglian landscapes where mega-fauna were abundant - multiple top Carnivores
Zimov 2005
Leads Pleistocene parks idea
What has zimov done
Grazing trials using bison, ox, musk etc
Reasons for bringing it back
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
Biodiversity reasons for bringing it back
Hoof action needed to disturb snow which allows for less thawing of permafrost so it’s less waterlogged and unstable.
Promote nutrient cycle
Benefits for permafrost
Reduces melting thus release of methane and carbob
Feasibility of parks Gillson 2015
Vegetation change is reversible, valid targets.
Still effective to predator .
Lots of species to use
Flora usable in todays climate
Limits to it
High cost with moving megafauna
Uncertainties with what may happen - Frankenstein ecosystem
Large scale needed
