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DC Field | Value | Language |
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dc.contributor.author | Stewart, Mathew | - |
dc.contributor.author | Carleton, W. Christopher | - |
dc.contributor.author | Groucutt, Huw S. | - |
dc.date.accessioned | 2022-05-27T07:43:19Z | - |
dc.date.available | 2022-05-27T07:43:19Z | - |
dc.date.issued | 2021 | - |
dc.identifier.citation | Stewart, M., Carleton, W. C., Groucutt, H. S. (2021). Climate change, not human population growth, correlates with Late Quaternary megafauna declines in North America. Nature Communications 12, 965. | en_GB |
dc.identifier.uri | https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/96555 | - |
dc.description.abstract | The disappearance of many North American megafauna at the end of the Pleistocene is a contentious topic. While the proposed causes for megafaunal extinction are varied, most researchers fall into three broad camps emphasizing human overhunting, climate change, or some combination of the two. Understanding the cause of megafaunal extinctions requires the analysis of through-time relationships between climate change and megafauna and human population dynamics. To do so, many researchers have used summed probability density functions (SPDFs) as a proxy for through-time fluctuations in human and megafauna population sizes. SPDFs, however, conflate process variation with the chronological uncertainty inherent in radiocarbon dates. Recently, a new Bayesian regression technique was developed that overcomes this problem—Radiocarbon-dated Event-Count (REC) Modelling. Here we employ REC models to test whether declines in North American megafauna species could be best explained by climate changes, increases in human population densities, or both, using the largest available database of megafauna and human radiocarbon dates. Our results suggest that there is currently no evidence for a persistent through-time relationship between human and megafauna population levels in North America. There is, however, evidence that decreases in global temperature correlated with megafauna population declines. | en_GB |
dc.language.iso | en | en_GB |
dc.publisher | Nature Publishing Group | en_GB |
dc.rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess | en_GB |
dc.subject | Radiocarbon dating | en_GB |
dc.subject | Paleoecology -- Quaternary | en_GB |
dc.subject | Bayesian statistical decision theory | en_GB |
dc.subject | Regression analysis | en_GB |
dc.subject | Paleoecology -- North America | en_GB |
dc.title | Climate change, not human population growth, correlates with Late Quaternary megafauna declines in North America | en_GB |
dc.type | article | en_GB |
dc.rights.holder | The copyright of this work belongs to the author(s)/publisher. The rights of this work are as defined by the appropriate Copyright Legislation or as modified by any successive legislation. Users may access this work and can make use of the information contained in accordance with the Copyright Legislation provided that the author must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the prior permission of the copyright holder. | en_GB |
dc.description.reviewed | peer-reviewed | en_GB |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1038/s41467-021-21201-8 | - |
dc.publication.title | Nature Communications | en_GB |
Appears in Collections: | Scholarly Works - FacArtCA |
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Climate_change,_not_human_population_growth,_correlates_with_Late_Quaternary_megafauna_declines_in_North_America(2021).pdf | 3.99 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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