A study explores the influence of prehistoric climate and anthropogenic impacts on present-day mammal communities. Studies of biodiversity drivers have typically focused on recent climate and human impacts. However, there is evidence that paleoclimatic change and ancient human activities may influence the structure of present-day plant and animal communities. John Rowan and colleagues compiled a dataset of more than 500 tropical and subtropical mammal communities and examined the extent to which climate and human activities, past and present, could explain aspects of community phylogenetic and ecological structure. The authors found that temperature and precipitation change since the Last Glacial Maximum, around 22,000 years ago, and mid-Holocene warm period, around 6,000 years ago, are significant predictors of community structure in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, whereas communities in South and Central America are more strongly predicted by past and present anthropogenic impacts than communities elsewhere. Lemur-dominated communities of Madagascar are poorly predicted by any single factor, likely due to the complex history of the island. Thus, the effects of climatic and anthropogenic factors on community structure vary markedly across geographic regions. The results suggest that the relative importance of ancient and recent climate and human impacts reflects the unique evolutionary and ecological histories of a particular region, according to the authors.
Article #19-10489: "Geographically divergent evolutionary and ecological legacies shape mammal biodiversity in the global tropics and subtropics," by John Rowan et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: John Rowan, University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA; tel: 609-238-7372; e-mail: < jjrowan@umass.edu >
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences