Disruption of trait-environment relationships in African megafauna occurred in the middle Pleistocene
Abstract Mammalian megafauna have been critical to the functioning of Earth’s biosphere for millions of years. However, since the Plio-Pleistocene, their biodiversity has declined concurrently with dramatic environmental change and hominin evolution. While these biodiversity declines are well-docume...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2023-07-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39480-8 |
| _version_ | 1797774096949313536 |
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| author | Daniel A. Lauer A. Michelle Lawing Rachel A. Short Fredrick K. Manthi Johannes Müller Jason J. Head Jenny L. McGuire |
| author_facet | Daniel A. Lauer A. Michelle Lawing Rachel A. Short Fredrick K. Manthi Johannes Müller Jason J. Head Jenny L. McGuire |
| author_sort | Daniel A. Lauer |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Mammalian megafauna have been critical to the functioning of Earth’s biosphere for millions of years. However, since the Plio-Pleistocene, their biodiversity has declined concurrently with dramatic environmental change and hominin evolution. While these biodiversity declines are well-documented, their implications for the ecological function of megafaunal communities remain uncertain. Here, we adapt ecometric methods to evaluate whether the functional link between communities of herbivorous, eastern African megafauna and their environments (i.e., functional trait-environment relationships) was disrupted as biodiversity losses occurred over the past 7.4 Ma. Herbivore taxonomic and functional diversity began to decline during the Pliocene as open grassland habitats emerged, persisted, and expanded. In the mid-Pleistocene, grassland expansion intensified, and climates became more variable and arid. It was then that phylogenetic diversity declined, and the trait-environment relationships of herbivore communities shifted significantly. Our results divulge the varying implications of different losses in megafaunal biodiversity. Only the losses that occurred since the mid-Pleistocene were coincident with a disturbance to community ecological function. Prior diversity losses, conversely, occurred as the megafaunal species and trait pool narrowed towards those adapted to grassland environments. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T22:16:04Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8ec4650235274ee8afef607fac72a9e4 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T22:16:04Z |
| publishDate | 2023-07-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj.art-8ec4650235274ee8afef607fac72a9e42023-07-23T11:18:45ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232023-07-0114111510.1038/s41467-023-39480-8Disruption of trait-environment relationships in African megafauna occurred in the middle PleistoceneDaniel A. Lauer0A. Michelle Lawing1Rachel A. Short2Fredrick K. Manthi3Johannes Müller4Jason J. Head5Jenny L. McGuire6Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Quantitative Biosciences, Georgia Institute of TechnologyDepartment of Ecology and Conservation Biology, Texas A&M UniversityDepartment of Natural Resource Management, South Dakota State UniversityDepartment of Earth Sciences, National Museums of KenyaLeibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Museum für Naturkunde BerlinDepartment of Zoology and University Museum of Zoology, University of CambridgeInterdisciplinary Graduate Program in Quantitative Biosciences, Georgia Institute of TechnologyAbstract Mammalian megafauna have been critical to the functioning of Earth’s biosphere for millions of years. However, since the Plio-Pleistocene, their biodiversity has declined concurrently with dramatic environmental change and hominin evolution. While these biodiversity declines are well-documented, their implications for the ecological function of megafaunal communities remain uncertain. Here, we adapt ecometric methods to evaluate whether the functional link between communities of herbivorous, eastern African megafauna and their environments (i.e., functional trait-environment relationships) was disrupted as biodiversity losses occurred over the past 7.4 Ma. Herbivore taxonomic and functional diversity began to decline during the Pliocene as open grassland habitats emerged, persisted, and expanded. In the mid-Pleistocene, grassland expansion intensified, and climates became more variable and arid. It was then that phylogenetic diversity declined, and the trait-environment relationships of herbivore communities shifted significantly. Our results divulge the varying implications of different losses in megafaunal biodiversity. Only the losses that occurred since the mid-Pleistocene were coincident with a disturbance to community ecological function. Prior diversity losses, conversely, occurred as the megafaunal species and trait pool narrowed towards those adapted to grassland environments.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39480-8 |
| spellingShingle | Daniel A. Lauer A. Michelle Lawing Rachel A. Short Fredrick K. Manthi Johannes Müller Jason J. Head Jenny L. McGuire Disruption of trait-environment relationships in African megafauna occurred in the middle Pleistocene Nature Communications |
| title | Disruption of trait-environment relationships in African megafauna occurred in the middle Pleistocene |
| title_full | Disruption of trait-environment relationships in African megafauna occurred in the middle Pleistocene |
| title_fullStr | Disruption of trait-environment relationships in African megafauna occurred in the middle Pleistocene |
| title_full_unstemmed | Disruption of trait-environment relationships in African megafauna occurred in the middle Pleistocene |
| title_short | Disruption of trait-environment relationships in African megafauna occurred in the middle Pleistocene |
| title_sort | disruption of trait environment relationships in african megafauna occurred in the middle pleistocene |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39480-8 |
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