Isotopic paleoecology of Northern Great Plains bison during the Holocene

Abstract Bison (Bison bison) are one of the few terrestrial megafauna to survive the transition into the Holocene and provide a unique opportunity to study a species on a broad spatiotemporal scale. Today, bison are primarily managed in small and isolated herds with little known about their ancestral ecology. We studied the carbon and nitrogen isotopes of Northern Great Plains bison from the terminal Pleistocene and throughout the Holocene to gain insight into their paleoecology. This time span is contemporary with the first population bottleneck experienced by bison at the end of the Pleistocene and includes the second bottleneck which occurred in the late 19th century. Results were compared with modern bison herd isotopic values from Theodore Roosevelt National Park (TRNP). Patterns of isotopic variation found in bison over time indicate significant (δ13C p = 0.0008, δ15N p = 0.002) differences in diet composition and correlate with climate throughout the Holocene. Isotopic relationships described here reveal the plasticity of ancient bison in unrestricted rangelands during periods of climatic fluctuations. Managers at TRNP and elsewhere should pursue opportunities to expand bison range to maximize forage opportunities for the species in the face of future environmental change.

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The sensitivity of Neotoma to climate change and biodiversity loss over the late Quaternary

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1017/qua.2021.29 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-15

Author(s):

Catalina P. Tomé ◽

S. Kathleen Lyons ◽

Seth D. Newsome ◽

Felisa A. Smith

Keyword(s):

Body Size ◽

Late Quaternary ◽

Climatic Variability ◽

Isotope Analysis ◽

Biodiversity Loss ◽

Bone Collagen ◽

Cam Plants ◽

The Holocene ◽

Carbon And Nitrogen ◽

Terminal Pleistocene

Abstract The late Quaternary in North America was marked by highly variable climate and considerable biodiversity loss including a megafaunal extinction event at the terminal Pleistocene. Here, we focus on changes in body size and diet in Neotoma (woodrats) in response to these ecological perturbations using the fossil record from the Edwards Plateau (Texas) across the past 20,000 years. Body mass was estimated using measurements of fossil teeth and diet was quantified using stable isotope analysis of carbon and nitrogen from fossil bone collagen. Prior to ca. 7000 cal yr BP, maximum mass was positively correlated to precipitation and negatively correlated to temperature. Independently, mass was negatively correlated to community composition, becoming more similar to modern over time. Neotoma diet in the Pleistocene was primarily sourced from C3 plants, but became progressively more reliant on C4 (and potentially CAM) plants through the Holocene. Decreasing population mass and higher C4/CAM consumption was associated with a transition from a mesic to xeric landscape. Our results suggest that Neotoma responded to climatic variability during the terminal Pleistocene through changes in body size, while changes in resource availability during the Holocene likely led to shifts in the relative abundance of different Neotoma species in the community.

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Soil Carbon and Nitrogen of Northern Great Plains Grasslands as Influenced by Long-Term Grazing

Journal of Range Management ◽

10.2307/4002255 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 48 (5) ◽

pp. 470 ◽

Cited By ~ 146

Author(s):

A. B. Frank ◽

D. L. Tanaka ◽

L. Hofmann ◽

R. F. Follett

Keyword(s):

Soil Carbon ◽

Great Plains ◽

Northern Great Plains ◽

Carbon And Nitrogen ◽

Soil Carbon And Nitrogen

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12,000–11,700 cal BP

10.1093/oso/9780199329199.003.0002 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ofer Bar-Yosef ◽

Miryam Bar-Matthews ◽

Avner Ayalon

Keyword(s):

Spatial Organization ◽

Younger Dryas ◽

Late Glacial ◽

Glacial Maximum ◽

Food Sources ◽

Climatic Fluctuations ◽

The Holocene ◽

Fertile Crescent ◽

First Millennium ◽

Terminal Pleistocene

We take up the question of “why” cultivation was adopted by the end of the Younger Dryas by reviewing evidence in the Levant, a sub-region of southwestern Asia, from the Late Glacial Maximum through the first millennium of the Holocene. Based on the evidence, we argue that the demographic increase of foraging societies in the Levant at the Terminal Pleistocene formed the backdrop for the collapse of foraging adaptations, compelling several groups within a particular “core area” of the Fertile Crescent to become fully sedentary and introduce cultivation alongside intensified gathering in the Late Glacial Maximum, ca. 12,000–11,700 cal BP. In addition to traditional hunting and gathering, the adoption of stable food sources became the norm. The systematic cultivation of wild cereals begun in the northern Levant resulted in the emergence of complex societies across the entire Fertile Crescent within several millennia. Results of archaeobotanical and archaeozoological investigations provide a basis for reconstructing economic strategies, spatial organization of sites, labor division, and demographic shifts over the first millennium of the Holocene. We draw our conclusion from two kinds of data from the Levant, a sub-region of southwestern Asia, during the Terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene: climatic fluctuations and the variable human reactions to natural and social calamities. The evidence in the Levant for the Younger Dryas, a widely recognized cold period across the northern hemisphere, is recorded in speleothems and other climatic proxies, such as Dead Sea levels and marine pollen records.

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Great Plains vegetation dynamics in response to fire and climatic fluctuations during the Holocene at Fox Lake, Minnesota (USA)

The Holocene ◽

10.1177/0959683615608691 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 302-313 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Julie L Commerford ◽

Bérangère Leys ◽

Joshua R Mueller ◽

Kendra K McLauchlan

Keyword(s):

Great Plains ◽

Vegetation Dynamics ◽

Climatic Fluctuations ◽

The Holocene

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A reconstruction of Holocene geomorphology and climate, western Cypress Hills, Alberta and Saskatchewan

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences ◽

10.1139/e90-160 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 27 (11) ◽

pp. 1504-1510 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

David J. Sauchyn

Keyword(s):

Organic Matter ◽

Great Plains ◽

Coniferous Forest ◽

Plant Macrofossils ◽

Northern Great Plains ◽

The Holocene ◽

Holocene Paleoclimate ◽

Soils And Sediments ◽

Aeolian Erosion ◽

Climatic History

The Cypress Hills of southwestern Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta are a key area for Quaternary research because the permanent lakes and coniferous forest are sources of proxy paleoenvironmental data generally not available on the surrounding northern Great Plains. In this paper, the Holocene paleoclimate of the western Cypress Hills is reconstructed from the pollen and organic matter contents of a 9.6 m sediment core from Harris Lake, Saskatchewan. This climatic history is considerably longer than others from the semiarid Interior Plains of Canada. Chronological control consists of a basal conventional radiocarbon date of 9120 ± 250 BP, Mazama tephra, and three accelerator mass spectrometry dates from plant macrofossils. The data from Harris Lake indicate significant climatic change from the warm, dry altithermal, 7700–5100 BP, to cooler and moister conditions of the late Holocene. Low lake sediment organic matter from 3000 to 2400 BP is attributed to lower temperatures and coincides with a well-documented global neoglacial advance. Correlations among the proposed climatic history, sedimentation rates in Harris Lake, and dated soils and sediments described in the literature are the basis for a reconstruction of the Holocene geomorphology. This information suggests a transition in dominant geomorphic processes from fluvial and aeolian erosion before 5100 BP to rotational landsliding after 4500 BP.

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Response of soil carbon and nitrogen to transplanted alfalfa in North Dakota rangeland

Canadian Journal of Soil Science ◽

10.4141/cjss09072 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 90 (3) ◽

pp. 527-542 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

M A Liebig ◽

J R Hendrickson ◽

J D Berdahl

Keyword(s):

Carbon Sequestration ◽

Great Plains ◽

Control Treatment ◽

Northern Great Plains ◽

Forage Production ◽

Soil Resource ◽

Soil C ◽

Carbon And Nitrogen ◽

Soil C And N ◽

C And N

Incorporation of alfalfa (Medicago spp.) into rangelands can increase forage production and quality and may improve the soil resource. A study was conducted to quantify the effects of alfalfa transplanted into native rangeland on soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN). Results from this study suggest both grazing- and hay-type alfalfa can increase stocks of soil C and N in native rangeland. However, concurrent increases in SOC and TN in a non-alfalfa control treatment underscore the importance of applying caution when interpreting results.Key words: Northern Great Plains, carbon sequestration, Medicago falcata, Medicago sativa

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Paleohydrology, Sedimentology, and Geochemistry of Two Meromictic Saline Lakes in Southern Saskatchewan

Géographie physique et Quaternaire ◽

10.7202/032618ar ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 5-15 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

William M. Last ◽

Laurie A. Slezak

Keyword(s):

Great Plains ◽

Saline Lakes ◽

Sediment Cores ◽

Water Levels ◽

Northern Great Plains ◽

Climatic Fluctuations ◽

South Central ◽

Basin Morphology ◽

Organic Productivity ◽

Inorganic Carbonate

ABSTRACT The Northern Great Plains of western Canada contain numerous saline and hypersaline lakes. Most of these lakes are shallow (< 3 m) and exhibit playa characteristics. Some, however, are relatively deep, permanent water bodies. The sediment records of these deep perennial saline lakes offer an excellent opportunity to evaluate key paleohydrologic and hydrochemical parameters. Variations in these parameters may, in turn, be interpreted with respect to climatic fluctuations in the region. Waldsea and Deadmoose lakes, located in south-central Saskatchewan, are both presently meromictic, with saline Mg-Na-SO4-CI waters overlying denser hypersaline brines of similar composition. The modern sediments of the lakes consist of a mixture of organic matter, finegrained detrital elastics (mainly clay minerals, carbonate minerals, quartz, and feldspars), and finely crystalline endogenic/authigenic precipitates (aragonite, gypsum, calcite, pyrite, and mirabilite). Variations in mineralogy and chemistry of sediment cores from the morphologically simple Waldsea basin show that the lake was much shallower and more saline about 4000 years ago. Although water levels have since generally increased in the basin giving rise to higher organic productivity and greater inorganic carbonate precipitation, there is also evidence of several hydrologie reversals during the last 2000 years. The stratigraphy preserved in nearby Deadmoose Lake is much more complex because of the irregular basin morphology. Lower water levels about 1000 years ago created several isolated but still relatively deep lakes in the Deadmoose basin.

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Maya Marine Subsistence: Isotopic Evidence from Marco Gonzalez and San Pedro, Belize

Latin American Antiquity ◽

10.1017/s1045663500002509 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 37-56 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Jocelyn S. Williams ◽

Christine D. White ◽

Fred J. Longstaffe

Keyword(s):

Coral Reef ◽

Nitrogen Isotopes ◽

Marine Resources ◽

Ancient Maya ◽

Stable Carbon ◽

Subsistence Economy ◽

Carbon And Nitrogen ◽

San Pedro ◽

The People ◽

Insight Into

AbstractThis article presents stable nitrogen and carbon isotopie analyses of diet at the Maya sites of Marco Gonzalez and San Pedro, Belize. This study, which provides important insight into social organization, trade, and subsistence economy for the Postclassic and Historic periods (ca. A.D. 900–1650), also expands our understanding of the distribution of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes within coral reef food webs off coastal Belize. Marco Gonzalez and San Pedro represent the first documented ancient Maya populations whose diet consisted mostly of marine resources with a minimal reliance upon maize. Although these sites do not appear highly stratified, and there are no dietary differences between sexes or status, the inhabitants of Marco Gonzalez incorporated more mainland-terrestrial animals and maize into their diet than the people of San Pedro. This finding supports the postulated roles of these two settlements, where Marco Gonzalez had trade ties to the mainland site of Lamanai and San Pedro was a small fishing village.

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