Investigating the influence of climate changes on rodent communities at a regional-scale (MIS 1-3, southwestern France)
Résumé
Terrestrial ecosystems have continuously evolved throughout the Late Pleistocene and the
Holocene, deeply affected by both progressive environmental and climatic modifications, as
well as by abrupt and large climatic changes such as the Heinrich or Dansgaard-Oeschger
events. Yet, the impacts of these different events on terrestrial mammalian communities are
poorly known, as is the role played by potential refugia on geographical species distributions.
This study examines community changes in rodents of southwestern France between
50 and 10 ky BP by integrating 94 dated faunal assemblages coming from 37 archaeological
sites. This work reveals that faunal distributions were modified in response to abrupt
and brief climatic events, such as Heinrich events, without actually modifying the rodent
community on a regional scale. However, the succession of events which operated between
the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene gradually led to establishing a new rodent community
at the regional scale, with intermediate communities occurring between the Bølling and
the Allerød.
Origine : Publication financée par une institution
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