Habitat suitability and the genetic structure of human populations during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in Western Europe.

ABSTRACT: Human populations in Western Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum were geographically constrained to glacial refugia by the severity of the climate and ecological risk factors. In this research we use an agent-based model of human mobility and interaction, based on ethnographic and archaeological data, to explore the impact of ecological risk on human population structure via a reconstructed landscape of habitat suitability. The agent-based model allows us to evaluate the size and location of glacial refugia, the size of the populations occupying them and the degree of genetic relatedness between people occupying these areas. To do this, we model the probability of an agent foraging groups' survival as a function of habitat suitability. The model's simulated "genomes" (composed of region

SUBMITTER: Wren CD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6583941 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature