TY  - JOUR
A1  - Huntley, Brian
A1  - Allen, Judy R. M.
A1  - Collingham, Yvonne C.
A1  - Hickler, Thomas
A1  - Lister, Adrian M.
A1  - Singarayer, Joy
A1  - Stuart, Anthony J.
A1  - Sykes, Martin T.
A1  - Valdes, Paul J.
T1  - Millennial climatic fluctuations are key to the structure of last glacial ecosystems
T2  - PLoS One
N2  - Whereas fossil evidence indicates extensive treeless vegetation and diverse grazing megafauna in Europe and northern Asia during the last glacial, experiments combining vegetation models and climate models have to-date simulated widespread persistence of trees. Resolving this conflict is key to understanding both last glacial ecosystems and extinction of most of the mega-herbivores. Using a dynamic vegetation model (DVM) we explored the implications of the differing climatic conditions generated by a general circulation model (GCM) in “normal” and “hosing” experiments. Whilst the former approximate interstadial conditions, the latter, designed to mimic Heinrich Events, approximate stadial conditions. The “hosing” experiments gave simulated European vegetation much closer in composition to that inferred from fossil evidence than did the “normal” experiments. Given the short duration of interstadials, and the rate at which forest cover expanded during the late-glacial and early Holocene, our results demonstrate the importance of millennial variability in determining the character of last glacial ecosystems.
Y1  - 2013
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/29805
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-298054
SN  - 1932-6203
N1  - Copyright: © 2013 Huntley et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
VL  - 8
IS  - (4): e61963
PB  - PLoS
CY  - Lawrence, Kan.
ER  -