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      A test of Sporormiella representation as a predictor of megaherbivore presence and abundance

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      Quaternary Research
      Elsevier BV

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          Abstract

          Spores of the dung fungus Sporormiella have been suggested to indicate the presence, perhaps also the abundance of past megaherbivore populations. Nonetheless, basic studies demonstrating a correlation between Sporormiella concentration in lacustrine sediments and modern herbivore abundance are lacking. This study of Sporormiella representation in grazed and ungrazed landscapes provides supporting evidence for the application of Sporormiella as an indicator of megaherbivore presence and abundance in ancient landscapes. However, Sporormiella representation is spatially sensitive to the distance from the dung source. In lakes where Sporomiella are abundant in shoreline sediments, they decline sharply with increasing distance from the lake edge. Although this study provides supporting evidence for the application of Sporormiella as a proxy for herbivore presence and abundance, independent proxies should be applied in conjunction with Sporormiella to control for changes in lake size.

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          Most cited references14

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          Assessing the causes of late Pleistocene extinctions on the continents.

          One of the great debates about extinction is whether humans or climatic change caused the demise of the Pleistocene megafauna. Evidence from paleontology, climatology, archaeology, and ecology now supports the idea that humans contributed to extinction on some continents, but human hunting was not solely responsible for the pattern of extinction everywhere. Instead, evidence suggests that the intersection of human impacts with pronounced climatic change drove the precise timing and geography of extinction in the Northern Hemisphere. The story from the Southern Hemisphere is still unfolding. New evidence from Australia supports the view that humans helped cause extinctions there, but the correlation with climate is weak or contested. Firmer chronologies, more realistic ecological models, and regional paleoecological insights still are needed to understand details of the worldwide extinction pattern and the population dynamics of the species involved.
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            Sporormiella and the late Holocene extinctions in Madagascar.

            Fossil spores of the dung fungus Sporormiella spp. in sediment cores from throughout Madagascar provide new information concerning megafaunal extinction and the introduction of livestock. Sporormiella percentages are very high in prehuman southwest Madagascar, but at the site with best stratigraphic resolution the spore declines sharply by approximately 1,720 yr B.P. (radiocarbon years ago). Within a few centuries there is a concomitant rise in microscopic charcoal that probably represents human transformation of the local environment. Reduced megaherbivore biomass in wooded savannas may have resulted in increased plant biomass and more severe fires. Some now-extinct taxa persisted locally for a millennium or more after the inferred megafaunal decline. Sites in closed humid forests of northwest Madagascar and a montane ericoid formation of the central highlands show only low to moderate Sporormiella percentages before humans. A subsequent rise in spore concentrations, thought to be evidence for livestock proliferation, occurs earliest at Amparihibe in the northwest at approximately 1,130 yr B.P.
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              Sporormiella fungal spores, a palynological means of detecting herbivore density

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                applab
                Quaternary Research
                Quat. res.
                Elsevier BV
                0033-5894
                1096-0287
                May 2009
                January 2017
                : 71
                : 03
                : 490-496
                Article
                10.1016/j.yqres.2009.01.010
                c855ef01-86cd-4e7c-9f5a-508dbc3f1fcd
                © 2009

                http://www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/

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