Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 365, Issue 6459, Pages 1305-+Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw1605
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History Program
- NSF [DEB 1257625]
- MQRES scholarship from Macquarie University
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Large mammals are at high risk of extinction globally. To understand the consequences of their demise for community assembly, we tracked community structure through the end-Pleistocene megafaunal extinction in North America. We decomposed the effects of biotic and abiotic factors by analyzing co-occurrence within the mutual ranges of species pairs. Although shifting climate drove an increase in niche overlap, co-occurrence decreased, signaling shifts in biotic interactions. Furthermore, the effect of abiotic factors on co-occurrence remained constant over time while the effect of biotic factors decreased. Biotic factors apparently played a key role in continental-scale community assembly before the extinctions. Specifically, large mammals likely promoted co-occurrence in the Pleistocene, and their loss contributed to the modern assembly pattern in which co-occurrence frequently falls below random expectations.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available