Biophysical feedbacks between the Pleistocene megafauna extinction and climate: The first human-induced global warming?

Details Biophysical feedbacks between the Pleistocene megafauna extinction and climate: The first human-induced global warming? Biophysical feedbacks between the Pleistocene megafauna extinction and climate: The first human-induced global warming?

Aug 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010georl..3715703d&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 37, Issue 15, CiteID L15703

Physics

Geophysics

Biogeosciences: Biogeochemical Cycles, Processes, And Modeling (0412, 0793, 1615, 4805, 4912), Biogeosciences: Carbon Cycling (4806), Biogeosciences: Modeling (1952), Biogeosciences: Climate Dynamics (1620), Biogeosciences: Biogeophysics

Scientific paper

A large increase in Betula during a narrow 1000 year window, ˜13,800 years before present (YBP) in Alaska and Yukon corresponded in time with the extinction of mammoths and the arrival of humans. Pollen data indicate the increase in Betula during this time was widespread across Siberia and Beringia. We hypothesize that Betula increased due to a combination of a warming climate and reduced herbivory following the extinction of the Pleistocene mega herbivores. The rapid increase in Betula modified land surface albedo which climate-model simulations indicate would cause an average net warming of ˜0.021°C per percent increase in high latitude (53-73°N) Betula cover. We hypothesize that the extinction of mammoths increased Betula cover, which would have warmed Siberia and Beringia by on average 0.2°C, but regionally by up to 1°C. If humans were partially responsible for the extinction of the mammoths, then human influences on global climate predate the origin of agriculture.

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