Millennial Climatic Fluctuations Are Key to the Structure of Last Glacial Ecosystems
(2013) In PLoS ONE 8(4).- Abstract
- Whereas fossil evidence indicates extensive treeless vegetation and diverse grazing megafauna in Europe and northern Asia during the last glacial, experiments combining vegetation models and climate models have to-date simulated widespread persistence of trees. Resolving this conflict is key to understanding both last glacial ecosystems and extinction of most of the mega-herbivores. Using a dynamic vegetation model (DVM) we explored the implications of the differing climatic conditions generated by a general circulation model (GCM) in "normal" and "hosing" experiments. Whilst the former approximate interstadial conditions, the latter, designed to mimic Heinrich Events, approximate stadial conditions. The "hosing" experiments gave simulated... (More)
- Whereas fossil evidence indicates extensive treeless vegetation and diverse grazing megafauna in Europe and northern Asia during the last glacial, experiments combining vegetation models and climate models have to-date simulated widespread persistence of trees. Resolving this conflict is key to understanding both last glacial ecosystems and extinction of most of the mega-herbivores. Using a dynamic vegetation model (DVM) we explored the implications of the differing climatic conditions generated by a general circulation model (GCM) in "normal" and "hosing" experiments. Whilst the former approximate interstadial conditions, the latter, designed to mimic Heinrich Events, approximate stadial conditions. The "hosing" experiments gave simulated European vegetation much closer in composition to that inferred from fossil evidence than did the "normal" experiments. Given the short duration of interstadials, and the rate at which forest cover expanded during the late-glacial and early Holocene, our results demonstrate the importance of millennial variability in determining the character of last glacial ecosystems. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/3853715
- author
- Huntley, Brian ; Allen, Judy R. M. ; Collingham, Yvonne C. ; Hickler, Thomas ; Lister, Adrian M. ; Singarayer, Joy ; Stuart, Anthony J. ; Sykes, Martin LU and Valdes, Paul J.
- organization
- publishing date
- 2013
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- PLoS ONE
- volume
- 8
- issue
- 4
- article number
- e61963
- publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000317893400134
- scopus:84876167016
- pmid:23613985
- ISSN
- 1932-6203
- DOI
- 10.1371/journal.pone.0061963
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- a685faef-d67b-4d23-9a1e-a6b762da24f8 (old id 3853715)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 14:30:56
- date last changed
- 2022-04-14 18:12:00
@article{a685faef-d67b-4d23-9a1e-a6b762da24f8,
abstract = {{Whereas fossil evidence indicates extensive treeless vegetation and diverse grazing megafauna in Europe and northern Asia during the last glacial, experiments combining vegetation models and climate models have to-date simulated widespread persistence of trees. Resolving this conflict is key to understanding both last glacial ecosystems and extinction of most of the mega-herbivores. Using a dynamic vegetation model (DVM) we explored the implications of the differing climatic conditions generated by a general circulation model (GCM) in "normal" and "hosing" experiments. Whilst the former approximate interstadial conditions, the latter, designed to mimic Heinrich Events, approximate stadial conditions. The "hosing" experiments gave simulated European vegetation much closer in composition to that inferred from fossil evidence than did the "normal" experiments. Given the short duration of interstadials, and the rate at which forest cover expanded during the late-glacial and early Holocene, our results demonstrate the importance of millennial variability in determining the character of last glacial ecosystems.}},
author = {{Huntley, Brian and Allen, Judy R. M. and Collingham, Yvonne C. and Hickler, Thomas and Lister, Adrian M. and Singarayer, Joy and Stuart, Anthony J. and Sykes, Martin and Valdes, Paul J.}},
issn = {{1932-6203}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{4}},
publisher = {{Public Library of Science (PLoS)}},
series = {{PLoS ONE}},
title = {{Millennial Climatic Fluctuations Are Key to the Structure of Last Glacial Ecosystems}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0061963}},
doi = {{10.1371/journal.pone.0061963}},
volume = {{8}},
year = {{2013}},
}