Impact of global environmental changes on the range contraction of Eurasian moose since the Late Pleistocene

Climatic oscillations are considered primary factors influencing the distribution of various life forms on Earth. Large species adapted to cold climates are particularly vulnerable to extinction due to climate changes. In our study, we investigated whether temperature increase since the Late Pleistocene and the contraction of environmental niche during the Holocene were the main factors contributing to the decreasing range of moose (Alces alces) in Europe. We also examined whether there were significant differences in environmental conditions between areas inhabited by moose in Europe and Asia, that could support the division of moose into western and eastern forms, as suggested by genetic and morphological data. We analysed environmental conditions in the locations of 655 subfossil and modern moose occurrences over the past 50,000 years in Eurasia. We found that the most limiting climatic factor for the moose distribution since the Late Pleistocene was July temperature. More than 90 % of moose records were found in areas where mean summer temperature was below 19 °C, with July temperatures showing over 3 times narrower interquartile range compared to January temperatures. We identified significant differences in environmental conditions between areas inhabited by the European and Asiatic moose. In Europe, the species occurred in regions with milder climates, higher primary productivity, and more frequently within forest biomes compared to Asiatic individuals. The moose range shifted more in the west-east than in the south-north direction during the Holocene climate warming in Europe. We conclude that although the area of suitable moose habitat has increased since 12-8 ka years BP, as demonstrated by environmental niche modeling, the retreat of A. alces in large areas of Europe was likely caused by anthropogenic landscape change (e.g., deforestation) and overhunting by humans during the late Holocene rather than by climate warming during the Pleistocene to Holocene transition.

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Publication Details

Journal
The Science of The Total Environment
Published
2024-11-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.177235
Citations
6
Primary Topic
Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
2.26

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article

Impact of global environmental changes on the range contraction of Eurasian moose since the Late Pleistocene

Paweł Mackiewicz, Danijela Popović, А. В. Протопопов, Rafał Kowalczyk et al.
6 citations
The Science of The Total Environment
Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
2.26
article

Impact of global environmental changes on the range contraction of Eurasian moose since the Late Pleistocene

Paweł Mackiewicz, Danijela Popović, А. В. Протопопов, Rafał Kowalczyk, A. V. Bondarev, Urmas Saarma, Magdalena Niedziałkowska, Ulrich Schmölcke, Grzegorz Lipecki, Aleksandr Dmitrievich Sorokin, И. М. Бердников, Emilia Hofman‐Kamińska, Adina Boroneanț, Oleksandr Kovalchuk, Г. Г. Боескоров, А.V. Shpansky, Sergey V. Leshchinskiy, Mateusz Baca, Małgorzata Suska‐Malawska, П. А. Косинцев, Urszula Ratajczak‐Skrzatek, Adam Nadachowski, Н. С. Москвитина, А. М. Klementiev, Krzysztof Stefaniak, Dmitriy G. Malikov, Jessie Woodbridge, Daniel Makowiecki, Maciej Sykut, Adrian Bălăşescu, Kamilla Pawłowska, Joanna Gornia, Jarosław Wilczyński, Marcin Górny, Gennady F. Baryshnikov, Ralph Fyfe, Roberto Zorzin, Maxim Czarniauski, Larisa Tataurova, Nadezhda Vorobiova
article en
6 citations

Abstract

Climatic oscillations are considered primary factors influencing the distribution of various life forms on Earth. Large species adapted to cold climates are particularly vulnerable to extinction due to climate changes. In our study, we investigated whether temperature increase since the Late Pleistocene and the contraction of environmental niche during the Holocene were the main factors contributing to the decreasing range of moose (Alces alces) in Europe. We also examined whether there were significant differences in environmental conditions between areas inhabited by moose in Europe and Asia, that could support the division of moose into western and eastern forms, as suggested by genetic and morphological data. We analysed environmental conditions in the locations of 655 subfossil and modern moose occurrences over the past 50,000 years in Eurasia. We found that the most limiting climatic factor for the moose distribution since the Late Pleistocene was July temperature. More than 90 % of moose records were found in areas where mean summer temperature was below 19 °C, with July temperatures showing over 3 times narrower interquartile range compared to January temperatures. We identified significant differences in environmental conditions between areas inhabited by the European and Asiatic moose. In Europe, the species occurred in regions with milder climates, higher primary productivity, and more frequently within forest biomes compared to Asiatic individuals. The moose range shifted more in the west-east than in the south-north direction during the Holocene climate warming in Europe. We conclude that although the area of suitable moose habitat has increased since 12-8 ka years BP, as demonstrated by environmental niche modeling, the retreat of A. alces in large areas of Europe was likely caused by anthropogenic landscape change (e.g., deforestation) and overhunting by humans during the late Holocene rather than by climate warming during the Pleistocene to Holocene transition.

The Science of The Total EnvironmentVol. 957
Ukhta State Technical University (RU), Ural Federal University (RU), National Research Tomsk State University (RU), University of Wrocław (PL), Omsk State University (RU), Zoological Institute (RU), Mammal Research Institute (PL), Institute of the Earth’s Crust (RU), Nicolaus Copernicus University (PL), Institute of Physiology National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (BY), Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha (RU), The Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (BY), V.S. Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy (RU), Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RU), Diamond and Precious Metal Geology Institute (RU), Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology (RU), Institute of Archeology and Ethnography (TM), Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen (DE), Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals (PL), University of Warsaw (PL), University of Tartu (EE), Romanian Academy (RO), Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (PL), University of Plymouth (GB), Irkutsk State University (RU), Polish Academy of Sciences (PL)
Narodowe Centrum Nauki
Climate action
Openalex Percentile: Top 12%
Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
2.26
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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