Process-explicit models reveal pathway to extinction for woolly mammoth using pattern-oriented validation

Damien A. Fordham*, Stuart C. Brown, H. Reşit Akçakaya, Barry W. Brook, Sean Haythorne, Andrea Manica, Kevin T. Shoemaker, Jeremy J. Austin, Benjamin Blonder, Julia Pilowsky, Carsten Rahbek, David Nogues-Bravo

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Pathways to extinction start long before the death of the last individual. However, causes of early stage population declines and the susceptibility of small residual populations to extirpation are typically studied in isolation. Using validated process-explicit models, we disentangle the ecological mechanisms and threats that were integral in the initial decline and later extinction of the woolly mammoth. We show that reconciling ancient DNA data on woolly mammoth population decline with fossil evidence of location and timing of extinction requires process-explicit models with specific demographic and niche constraints, and a constrained synergy of climatic change and human impacts. Validated models needed humans to hasten climate-driven population declines by many millennia, and to allow woolly mammoths to persist in mainland Arctic refugia until the mid-Holocene. Our results show that the role of humans in the extinction dynamics of woolly mammoth began well before the Holocene, exerting lasting effects on the spatial pattern and timing of its range-wide extinction.

Original languageEnglish
JournalEcology Letters
Volume25
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)125-137
Number of pages13
ISSN1461-023X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Keywords

  • climate change
  • ecological process
  • extinction dynamics
  • mechanistic model
  • megafauna
  • metapopulation
  • Pleistocene-Holocene transition
  • population model
  • range dynamics
  • synergistic threats

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