Adapt or die—Response of large herbivores to environmental changes in Europe during the Holocene

作者：Emilia Hofman‐Kamińska, Hervé Bocherens, Dorothée G. Drucker, Ralph Fyfe, Witold Gumiński, Daniel Makowiecki, Martina Pacher, Giedrė Piličiauskienė, Tomasz Samojlik, Jessie Woodbridge, Rafał Kowalczyk · 发表于：Global Change Biology · 年份：2019 · DOI：10.1111/gcb.14733 · 被引用次数：72 · 研究领域：Geology and Paleoclimatology Research、Archaeology and ancient environmental studies、Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

Abstract Climate warming and human landscape transformation during the Holocene resulted in environmental changes for wild animals. The last remnants of the European Pleistocene megafauna that survived into the Holocene were particularly vulnerable to changes in habitat. To track the response of habitat use and foraging of large herbivores to natural and anthropogenic changes in environmental conditions during the Holocene, we investigated carbon ( δ 13 C) and nitrogen ( δ 15 N) stable isotope composition in bone collagen of moose ( Alces alces ), European bison ( Bison bonasus ) and aurochs ( Bos primigenius ) in Central and Eastern Europe. We found strong variations in isotope compositions in the studied species throughout the Holocene and diverse responses to changing environmental conditions. All three species showed significant changes in their δ 13 C values reflecting a shift of foraging habitats from more open in the Early and pre‐Neolithic Holocene to more forest during the Neolithic and Late Holocene. This shift was strongest in European bison, suggesting higher plasticity, more limited in moose, and the least in aurochs. Significant increases of δ 15 N values in European bison and moose are evidence of a diet change towards more grazing, but may also reflect increased nitrogen in soils following deglaciation and global temperature increases. Among the factors explaining the observed isotope variations were time (age of samples), longitude and elevation in European b...