 |
| Titel |
Evolution of habitat and environment of deer during the Late-glacial and early Holocene: the case of red deer in French Jura. |
| VerfasserIn |
Dorothée Drucker, Anne Bridault, Alisa Hujic, Herve Bocherens |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2010
|
| Medientyp |
Artikel
|
| Sprache |
Englisch
|
| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 12 (2010) |
| Datensatznummer |
250035551
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Zusammenfassung |
| The Late-glacial and early Holocene transition is a key period of environmental changes in a
context of to a global warming. In northwestern Europe, extensive studies have
documented the vegetation and faunal recomposition with the replacement of the
cold steppe-tundra ecosystem by the forested temperate ecosystem we can still
observe. Paleoecological interest focused on the extinct large mammals species
like the Mammoth. In comparison, little has been done to decipher the ecological
adaptation of the surviving species, especially those that are still present in the
very same region than in the past. A better knowledge of the impact of changing
environmental conditions on the ecology would be useful to define the degree of selective
pressure.
Thus, we have studied the habitat and environment evolution of red deer (Cervus elaphus)
during the Late-glacial and early Holocene using stable isotopes and radiocarbon
investigations. The analyzed bone material was selected from archaeological sites in French
Jura. Performing direct radiocarbon dating on the bone collagen of the selected remains
solved the problem of possible chronological uncertainties of the stratigraphical record of the
sites. The same bone collagen samples were used for stable isotope measurements. We
investigated the relative abundances in 13C to examine changes in habitat closure (canopy
effect), in 15N to decipher changes in pedogenic activities (soil maturation) of the animals
dwelling, and in 18O to track changes in altitude and/or local temperatures of the
occupied territories. The results demonstrate that the stable isotopic composition of red
deer bone collagen can be a valuable and sensitive indicator of habitat use and
environmental conditions. The associated direct dating allows us to reconstruct the
chronology of ecological changes. The combined chronological and ecological results
evidence local differences in red deer adaptation at a small geographical scale. |
|
|
|
|
|
|