Spatiotemporal influences of climate and humans on muskox range dynamics over multiple millennia.

ABSTRACT: Processes leading to range contractions and population declines of Arctic megafauna during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene are uncertain, with intense debate on the roles of human hunting, climatic change, and their synergy. Obstacles to a resolution have included an overreliance on correlative rather than process-explicit approaches for inferring drivers of distributional and demographic change. Here, we disentangle the ecological mechanisms and threats that were integral in the decline and extinction of the muskox (Ovibos moschatus) in Eurasia and in its expansion in North America using process-explicit macroecological models. The approach integrates modern and fossil occurrence records, ancient DNA, spatiotemporal reconstructions of past climatic change, species-specific populat

SUBMITTER: Canteri E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9804684 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature