Prehistoric perspectives can help interpret the present: 14 000 years of moose (Alces alces) in the Western Arctic

Abstract

Rapidly changing climate at high latitudes has triggered a search for bellwethers of ecological change there. If the initial signs of change can be identified, perhaps we can predict where these changes will lead. Large-bodied, terrestrial herbivores are potential candidates for bellwether taxa because of the key roles they play in some ecological communities. Here, we assembled historical, archaeological, and paleontological records of moose ( Alces alces (Linnaeus, 1758)) from the western Arctic and subarctic. The results showed that rather than having recently invaded tundra regions in response to post Little Ice Age warming, moose have inhabited river corridors several hundred kilometres north of the closed, boreal forest since they first colonized North America across the Bering Land Bridge ca. 14 000 years ago. The combination of high mobility, fluctuation-prone metapopulations, and reliance on early successional vegetation makes changes in the northern range limits of moose undependable bellwethers for other biotic responses to changing climate. The history of moose at high latitudes illustrates how understanding what happened in prehistory is useful for correctly assigning significance and cause to present-day ecological changes.