Consequences of the Megafauna Extinction: Changes in Food Web Networks on the Edwards Plateau Across the Pleistocene–Holocene Transition
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Wiley
2025
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| author | Quentin A. Smith Catalina P. Tomé William Gearty Felisa A. Smith Daizaburo Shizuka S. Kathleen Lyons |
| author_facet | Quentin A. Smith Catalina P. Tomé William Gearty Felisa A. Smith Daizaburo Shizuka S. Kathleen Lyons Quentin A. Smith Catalina P. Tomé William Gearty Felisa A. Smith Daizaburo Shizuka S. Kathleen Lyons |
| collection | Wiley Open Access |
| contents | Consequences of the Megafauna Extinction: Changes in Food Web Networks on the Edwards Plateau Across the Pleistocene–Holocene Transition Quentin A. Smith Catalina P. Tomé William Gearty Felisa A. Smith Daizaburo Shizuka S. Kathleen Lyons Global Ecology and Biogeography ABSTRACT Aims Today, we are experiencing rapid biodiversity loss due to climate change and human impacts. Such biodiversity loss is not only harmful to the environment but can also alter the composition of communities and the interactions of their members. The late Pleistocene experienced a drastic loss of large‐bodied mammals which resulted in significant changes in community structure due to changes in body size, diet, and species associations. However, the effect of climate change on species interactions and community structure across the Pleistocene–Holocene transition remains poorly understood. Location Edwards Plateau, Texas. Time Period Late Pleistocene–Holocene. Major Taxa Studied Terrestrial Mammals. Methods Using a robust data set on mammal species composition, stable isotopes, and body size, we constructed ecological networks for 16 time intervals across the last 22,000 years on the Edwards Plateau, Texas. We compared the structure and shifts in the food web over time using modularity and an index of node overlap and segregation. Results We found that node overlap and connectance increased while modularity decreased over time. Spearman‐Rank correlation analyses indicate that changes in all network metrics were not driven by changes in species richness across time, nor were they driven by climate change. The degree of node overlap and connectance also shifted dramatically across the Pleistocene–Holocene transition and was significantly different from null model expectations in the Holocene but not in the Pleistocene. Main Conclusions These results suggest that the transition from a diverse and compartmentalised network to a network of less complexity with an overlap of interacting species may have been driven by other factors that altered the food web. This implies that the change in mammal food web structure of the Edwards Plateau was mainly a consequence of the megafauna extinctions and not coupled with climate change. 10.1111/geb.70113 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| doi_str_mv | 10.1111/geb.70113 |
| format | Artículo Open Access |
| id | wiley_oa_10_1111_geb_70113 |
| institution | Wiley Open Access |
| license_str_mv | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | wiley_oa |
| spellingShingle | Consequences of the Megafauna Extinction: Changes in Food Web Networks on the Edwards Plateau Across the Pleistocene–Holocene Transition Quentin A. Smith Catalina P. Tomé William Gearty Felisa A. Smith Daizaburo Shizuka S. Kathleen Lyons Global Ecology and Biogeography Consequences of the Megafauna Extinction: Changes in Food Web Networks on the Edwards Plateau Across the Pleistocene–Holocene Transition Quentin A. Smith Catalina P. Tomé William Gearty Felisa A. Smith Daizaburo Shizuka S. Kathleen Lyons Global Ecology and Biogeography ABSTRACT Aims Today, we are experiencing rapid biodiversity loss due to climate change and human impacts. Such biodiversity loss is not only harmful to the environment but can also alter the composition of communities and the interactions of their members. The late Pleistocene experienced a drastic loss of large‐bodied mammals which resulted in significant changes in community structure due to changes in body size, diet, and species associations. However, the effect of climate change on species interactions and community structure across the Pleistocene–Holocene transition remains poorly understood. Location Edwards Plateau, Texas. Time Period Late Pleistocene–Holocene. Major Taxa Studied Terrestrial Mammals. Methods Using a robust data set on mammal species composition, stable isotopes, and body size, we constructed ecological networks for 16 time intervals across the last 22,000 years on the Edwards Plateau, Texas. We compared the structure and shifts in the food web over time using modularity and an index of node overlap and segregation. Results We found that node overlap and connectance increased while modularity decreased over time. Spearman‐Rank correlation analyses indicate that changes in all network metrics were not driven by changes in species richness across time, nor were they driven by climate change. The degree of node overlap and connectance also shifted dramatically across the Pleistocene–Holocene transition and was significantly different from null model expectations in the Holocene but not in the Pleistocene. Main Conclusions These results suggest that the transition from a diverse and compartmentalised network to a network of less complexity with an overlap of interacting species may have been driven by other factors that altered the food web. This implies that the change in mammal food web structure of the Edwards Plateau was mainly a consequence of the megafauna extinctions and not coupled with climate change. 10.1111/geb.70113 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| title | Consequences of the Megafauna Extinction: Changes in Food Web Networks on the Edwards Plateau Across the Pleistocene–Holocene Transition |
| topic | Global Ecology and Biogeography |
| url | https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/geb.70113 |