Author:
Boivin Nicole L.,Zeder Melinda A.,Fuller Dorian Q.,Crowther Alison,Larson Greger,Erlandson Jon M.,Denham Tim,Petraglia Michael D.
Abstract
The exhibition of increasingly intensive and complex niche construction behaviors through time is a key feature of human evolution, culminating in the advanced capacity for ecosystem engineering exhibited by Homo sapiens. A crucial outcome of such behaviors has been the dramatic reshaping of the global biosphere, a transformation whose early origins are increasingly apparent from cumulative archaeological and paleoecological datasets. Such data suggest that, by the Late Pleistocene, humans had begun to engage in activities that have led to alterations in the distributions of a vast array of species across most, if not all, taxonomic groups. Changes to biodiversity have included extinctions, extirpations, and shifts in species composition, diversity, and community structure. We outline key examples of these changes, highlighting findings from the study of new datasets, like ancient DNA (aDNA), stable isotopes, and microfossils, as well as the application of new statistical and computational methods to datasets that have accumulated significantly in recent decades. We focus on four major phases that witnessed broad anthropogenic alterations to biodiversity—the Late Pleistocene global human expansion, the Neolithic spread of agriculture, the era of island colonization, and the emergence of early urbanized societies and commercial networks. Archaeological evidence documents millennia of anthropogenic transformations that have created novel ecosystems around the world. This record has implications for ecological and evolutionary research, conservation strategies, and the maintenance of ecosystem services, pointing to a significant need for broader cross-disciplinary engagement between archaeology and the biological and environmental sciences.
Funder
EC | European Research Council
Publisher
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Reference148 articles.
1. Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived?
2. Global Biodiversity: Indicators of Recent Declines
3. Defaunation in the Anthropocene
4. Boivin N Crassard R Petraglia M , eds , Species Movements in Human History: From Prehistory to the Present (Cambridge Univ Press, Cambridge, UK) in press.
5. Used planet: A global history
Cited by
555 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献