Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Late Quaternary Dynamics of Arctic Biota from Ancient Environmental Genomics

Wang, Yucheng ; Winther Pedersen, Mikkel ; Alsos, Inger Greve ; De Sanctis, Bianca ; Racimo, Fernando ; Prohaska, Ana ; Coissac, Eric ; Owens, Hannah Lois ; Merkel, Marie Kristine Føreid and Fernandez-Guerra, Antonio , et al. (2021) In Nature 600(7887). p.86-92
Abstract
During the last glacial–interglacial cycle, Arctic biotas experienced substantial
climatic changes, yet the nature, extent and rate of their responses are not fully
understood1–8. Here we report a large-scale environmental DNA metagenomic study of ancient plant and mammal communities, analysing 535 permafrost and lake sediment samples from across the Arctic spanning the past 50,000 years.
Furthermore, we present 1,541 contemporary plant genome assemblies that were
generated as reference sequences. Our study provides several insights into the
long-term dynamics of the Arctic biota at the circumpolar and regional scales. Our key fndings include: (1) a relatively homogeneous steppe–tundra fora dominated the Arctic... (More)
During the last glacial–interglacial cycle, Arctic biotas experienced substantial
climatic changes, yet the nature, extent and rate of their responses are not fully
understood1–8. Here we report a large-scale environmental DNA metagenomic study of ancient plant and mammal communities, analysing 535 permafrost and lake sediment samples from across the Arctic spanning the past 50,000 years.
Furthermore, we present 1,541 contemporary plant genome assemblies that were
generated as reference sequences. Our study provides several insights into the
long-term dynamics of the Arctic biota at the circumpolar and regional scales. Our key fndings include: (1) a relatively homogeneous steppe–tundra fora dominated the Arctic during the Last Glacial Maximum, followed by regional divergence of vegetation during the Holocene epoch; (2) certain grazing animals consistently co-occurred in space and time; (3) humans appear to have been a minor factor in driving animal distributions; (4) higher efective precipitation, as well as an increase in the proportion of wetland plants, show negative efects on animal diversity; (5) the persistence of the steppe–tundra vegetation in northern Siberia enabled the late survival of several now-extinct megafauna species, including the woolly mammoth until 3.9 ± 0.2 thousand years ago (ka) and the woolly rhinoceros until 9.8 ± 0.2 ka; and (6) phylogenetic analysis of mammoth environmental DNA reveals a previously unsampled mitochondrial lineage. Our fndings highlight the power of ancient environmental metagenomics analyses to advance understanding of population histories and long-term ecological dynamics (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and , et al. (More)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and (Less)
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
climate-change ecology, Ecological networks, Metagenomics, Next-generation sequencing, Palaeoecology
in
Nature
volume
600
issue
7887
pages
19 pages
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • scopus:85117398172
  • pmid:34671161
ISSN
0028-0836
DOI
10.1038/s41586-021-04016-x
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
1152e11f-b886-4d1c-a706-283c10e470d5
date added to LUP
2021-08-19 11:24:34
date last changed
2023-02-21 09:36:08
@article{1152e11f-b886-4d1c-a706-283c10e470d5,
  abstract     = {{During the last glacial–interglacial cycle, Arctic biotas experienced substantial <br/>climatic changes, yet the nature, extent and rate of their responses are not fully <br/>understood1–8. Here we report a large-scale environmental DNA metagenomic study of ancient plant and mammal communities, analysing 535 permafrost and lake sediment samples from across the Arctic spanning the past 50,000 years. <br/>Furthermore, we present 1,541 contemporary plant genome assemblies that were <br/>generated as reference sequences. Our study provides several insights into the <br/>long-term dynamics of the Arctic biota at the circumpolar and regional scales. Our key fndings include: (1) a relatively homogeneous steppe–tundra fora dominated the Arctic during the Last Glacial Maximum, followed by regional divergence of vegetation during the Holocene epoch; (2) certain grazing animals consistently co-occurred in space and time; (3) humans appear to have been a minor factor in driving animal distributions; (4) higher efective precipitation, as well as an increase in the proportion of wetland plants, show negative efects on animal diversity; (5) the persistence of the steppe–tundra vegetation in northern Siberia enabled the late survival of several now-extinct megafauna species, including the woolly mammoth until 3.9 ± 0.2 thousand years ago (ka) and the woolly rhinoceros until 9.8 ± 0.2 ka; and (6) phylogenetic analysis of mammoth environmental DNA reveals a previously unsampled mitochondrial lineage. Our fndings highlight the power of ancient environmental metagenomics analyses to advance understanding of population histories and long-term ecological dynamics}},
  author       = {{Wang, Yucheng and Winther Pedersen, Mikkel and Alsos, Inger Greve and De Sanctis, Bianca and Racimo, Fernando and Prohaska, Ana and Coissac, Eric and Owens, Hannah Lois and Merkel, Marie Kristine Føreid and Fernandez-Guerra, Antonio and Rouillard, Alexandra and Lammers, Youri and Alberti, Adriana and Denoeud, France and Money, Daniel and Ruter, Anthony H. and McColl, Hugh and Larsen, Nicolaj Krog and Cherezova, Anna A. and Edwards, Mary E. and Fedorov, Grigory B. and Haile, James and Orlando, Ludovic and Vinner, Lasse and Korneliussen, Thorfinn Sand and Beilman, David W. and Bjørk, Anders A. and Cao, Jialu and Dockter, Christoph and Esdale, Julie and Gusarova, Galina and K. Kjeldsen, Kristian and Mangerud, Jan and Rasic, Jeffrey T. and Skadhauge, Birgitte and Svendsen, John-Inge and Tikhonov, Alexei and Wincker, Patrick and Xing, Yingchun and Zhang, Yubin and Froese, Duane G. and Rahbek, Carsten and Nogues, David Bravo and Holden, Philip B. and Edwards, Neil R. and Durbin, Richard and Meltzer, David J. and Kjær, Kurt H. and Möller, Per and Willerslev, Eske}},
  issn         = {{0028-0836}},
  keywords     = {{climate-change ecology; Ecological networks; Metagenomics; Next-generation sequencing; Palaeoecology}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{10}},
  number       = {{7887}},
  pages        = {{86--92}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Nature}},
  title        = {{Late Quaternary Dynamics of Arctic Biota from Ancient Environmental Genomics}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04016-x}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41586-021-04016-x}},
  volume       = {{600}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}