Linking African herbivore community enamel isotopes and environments: challenges, opportunities, and paleoecological implications

doi:10.1007/s00442-024-05532-z

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	Linking African herbivore community enamel isotopes and environments: challenges, opportunities, and paleoecological implications
	Norwood, Alexandra L.1; Wang, Bian 2; Kingston, John D.1
	2024-03-22
发表期刊	OECOLOGIA
ISSN	0029-8549
页码	23
通讯作者	Norwood, Alexandra L.([email protected])
摘要	Paleoenvironmental reconstructions of fossil sites based on isotopic analyses of enamel typically rely on data from multiple herbivore taxa, with the assumption that this dietary spectrum represents the community's isotopic range and provides insights into local or regional vegetation patterns. However, it remains unclear how representative the sampled taxa are of the broader herbivore community and how well these data correspond to specific ecosystems. Verifying these underlying assumptions is essential to refining the utility of enamel isotopic values for paleoenvironmental reconstructions. This study explores potential links between modern herbivore community carbon isotopic enamel spectra, biome types, and climate in sub-Saharan Africa. This region is one of the most comprehensively isotopically sampled areas globally and is of particular relevance to hominin evolution. Our extensive data compilation reveals that published enamel isotopic data from sub-Saharan Africa typically sample only a small percentage of the taxa documented at most localities and that some biome types (e.g., subtropical savannas) are dramatically overrepresented relative to others (e.g., forests) in these modern data sets. Multiple statistical analyses, including linear models and cluster analyses, revealed weak relationships of associated mammalian herbivore enamel isotopic values, biome type, and climate parameters. These results confound any simple assumptions about how community isotopic profiles map onto specific environments, highlighting the need for more precise strategic approaches in extending isotopic frameworks into the past for paleoecological reconstructions. Developing more refined modern analogs will ultimately allow us to more accurately characterize the isotopic spectra of paleo-communities and link isotopic dietary signatures to specific ecosystems.
关键词	Paleoecology Carbon isotopes Ungulate enamel Herbivore community Africa
DOI	10.1007/s00442-024-05532-z
关键词[WOS]	STABLE CARBON ; WOODY COVER ; ECOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS ; TOOTH ENAMEL ; C-4 GRASSES ; DISCRIMINATION ; DETERMINANTS ; VEGETATION ; RECONSTRUCTION ; RESOLUTION
收录类别	SCI
语种	英语
WOS研究方向	Environmental Sciences & Ecology
WOS类目	Ecology
WOS记录号	WOS:001190239300001
出版者	SPRINGER
引用统计
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.205/handle/311034/23491
专题	中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所
通讯作者	Norwood, Alexandra L.
作者单位	1.Univ Michigan, Dept Anthropol, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA 2.Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Vertebrate Paleontol & Paleoanthropol, Key Lab Vertebrate Evolut & Human Origins, Beijing, Peoples R China
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Norwood, Alexandra L.,Wang, Bian,Kingston, John D.. Linking African herbivore community enamel isotopes and environments: challenges, opportunities, and paleoecological implications[J]. OECOLOGIA,2024:23.
APA	Norwood, Alexandra L.,Wang, Bian,&Kingston, John D..(2024).Linking African herbivore community enamel isotopes and environments: challenges, opportunities, and paleoecological implications.OECOLOGIA,23.
MLA	Norwood, Alexandra L.,et al."Linking African herbivore community enamel isotopes and environments: challenges, opportunities, and paleoecological implications".OECOLOGIA (2024):23.