Introduced herbivores restore Late Pleistocene ecological functions.

ABSTRACT: Large-bodied mammalian herbivores dominated Earth's terrestrial ecosystems for several million years before undergoing substantial extinctions and declines during the Late Pleistocene (LP) due to prehistoric human impacts. The decline of large herbivores led to widespread ecological changes due to the loss of their ecological functions, as driven by their unique combinations of traits. However, recently, humans have significantly increased herbivore species richness through introductions in many parts of the world, potentially counteracting LP losses. Here, we assessed the extent to which introduced herbivore species restore lost-or contribute novel-functions relative to preextinction LP assemblages. We constructed multidimensional trait spaces using a trait database for all extant and ext

SUBMITTER: Lundgren EJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7148574 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature