TY - JOUR
T1 - Late Quaternary dynamics of Arctic biota from ancient environmental genomics
T2 - [+ Correction]
AU - Wang, Yucheng
AU - Pedersen, Mikkel Winther
AU - Alsos, Inger Greve
AU - De Sanctis, Bianca
AU - Racimo, Fernando
AU - Prohaska, Ana
AU - Coissac, Eric
AU - Owens, Hannah Lois
AU - Merkel, Marie Kristine Føreid
AU - Fernandez-Guerra, Antonio
AU - Rouillard, Alexandra
AU - Lammers, Youri
AU - Alberti, Adriana
AU - Denoeud, France
AU - Money, Daniel
AU - Ruter, Anthony H.
AU - McColl, Hugh
AU - Larsen, Nicolaj Krog
AU - Cherezova, Anna A.
AU - Edwards, Mary E.
AU - Fedorov, Grigory B.
AU - Haile, James
AU - Orlando, Ludovic
AU - Vinner, Lasse
AU - Korneliussen, Thorfinn Sand
AU - Beilman, David W.
AU - Bjørk, Anders A.
AU - Cao, Jialu
AU - Dockter, Christoph
AU - Esdale, Julie
AU - Gusarova, Galina
AU - Kjeldsen, Kristian K.
AU - Mangerud, Jan
AU - Rasic, Jeffrey T.
AU - Skadhauge, Birgitte
AU - Svendsen, John Inge
AU - Tikhonov, Alexei
AU - Wincker, Patrick
AU - Xing, Yingchun
AU - Zhang, Yubin
AU - Froese, Duane G.
AU - Rahbek, Carsten
AU - Nogues, David Bravo
AU - Holden, Philip B.
AU - Edwards, Neil R.
AU - Durbin, Richard
AU - Meltzer, David J.
AU - Kjær, Kurt H.
AU - Möller, Per
AU - Willerslev, Eske
N1 - Wang, Y., Pedersen, M.W., Alsos, I.G. et al. Author Correction: Late Quaternary dynamics of Arctic biota from ancient environmental genomics. Nature (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04628-x
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - During the last glacial–interglacial cycle, Arctic biotas experienced substantial climatic changes, yet the nature, extent and rate of their responses are not fully understood1–8. Here we report a large-scale environmental DNA metagenomic study of ancient plant and mammal communities, analysing 535 permafrost and lake sediment samples from across the Arctic spanning the past 50,000 years. Furthermore, we present 1,541 contemporary plant genome assemblies that were generated as reference sequences. Our study provides several insights into the long-term dynamics of the Arctic biota at the circumpolar and regional scales. Our key findings include: (1) a relatively homogeneous steppe–tundra flora dominated the Arctic during the Last Glacial Maximum, followed by regional divergence of vegetation during the Holocene epoch; (2) certain grazing animals consistently co-occurred in space and time; (3) humans appear to have been a minor factor in driving animal distributions; (4) higher effective precipitation, as well as an increase in the proportion of wetland plants, show negative effects on animal diversity; (5) the persistence of the steppe–tundra vegetation in northern Siberia enabled the late survival of several now-extinct megafauna species, including the woolly mammoth until 3.9 ± 0.2 thousand years ago (ka) and the woolly rhinoceros until 9.8 ± 0.2 ka; and (6) phylogenetic analysis of mammoth environmental DNA reveals a previously unsampled mitochondrial lineage. Our findings highlight the power of ancient environmental metagenomics analyses to advance understanding of population histories and long-term ecological dynamics.
AB - During the last glacial–interglacial cycle, Arctic biotas experienced substantial climatic changes, yet the nature, extent and rate of their responses are not fully understood1–8. Here we report a large-scale environmental DNA metagenomic study of ancient plant and mammal communities, analysing 535 permafrost and lake sediment samples from across the Arctic spanning the past 50,000 years. Furthermore, we present 1,541 contemporary plant genome assemblies that were generated as reference sequences. Our study provides several insights into the long-term dynamics of the Arctic biota at the circumpolar and regional scales. Our key findings include: (1) a relatively homogeneous steppe–tundra flora dominated the Arctic during the Last Glacial Maximum, followed by regional divergence of vegetation during the Holocene epoch; (2) certain grazing animals consistently co-occurred in space and time; (3) humans appear to have been a minor factor in driving animal distributions; (4) higher effective precipitation, as well as an increase in the proportion of wetland plants, show negative effects on animal diversity; (5) the persistence of the steppe–tundra vegetation in northern Siberia enabled the late survival of several now-extinct megafauna species, including the woolly mammoth until 3.9 ± 0.2 thousand years ago (ka) and the woolly rhinoceros until 9.8 ± 0.2 ka; and (6) phylogenetic analysis of mammoth environmental DNA reveals a previously unsampled mitochondrial lineage. Our findings highlight the power of ancient environmental metagenomics analyses to advance understanding of population histories and long-term ecological dynamics.
UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04628-x
U2 - 10.1038/s41586-021-04016-x
DO - 10.1038/s41586-021-04016-x
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 34671161
AN - SCOPUS:85117398172
VL - 600
SP - 86
EP - 92
JO - Nature
JF - Nature
SN - 0028-0836
IS - 7887
ER -