Megafauna extinctions led to more grassland fires worldwide

Continents that mislaid the astir ample grazing herbivores implicit the past 50,000 years person seen the biggest increases successful grassland and savannah fires

Life 25 November 2021

By Michael Le Page

Illustration of Bison latifrons, an extinct taxon of bison that lived successful North America during the Pleistocene epoch

Stocktrek Images, Inc. / Alamy

From the elephantine armadillo to the elephantine bison, galore ample works eaters person been wiped retired successful the past 50,000 years. Now a survey has recovered that the continents that mislaid the astir of these grazing megafauna had the biggest increases successful wildfires successful grasslands and savannahs.

“There’s grounds contiguous that herbivores tin bounds occurrence by reducing substance load,” says Allison Karp astatine Yale University. In fact, immoderate advocates of rewilding reason that restoring ample herbivores tin assistance reduce wildfires.

A fewer studies person already recovered that determination were more fires successful circumstantial regions aft the nonaccomplishment of megafauna during the past 50,000 years. Karp and her colleagues decided to look astatine the planetary representation by analysing 2 existing databases.

One, called HerbiTraits, has accusation connected each herbivores larger than 10 kilograms lived that person lived successful the past 130,000 years.

The other, called the Global Paleofire Database, has records of charcoal deposited successful lakes from 160 sites worldwide, which uncover changes successful occurrence enactment nearby.

The squad recovered that the biggest increases successful occurrence enactment were successful the continents, specified arsenic South America, that mislaid the astir large herbivores, with little increases wherever determination were less extinctions, specified arsenic successful Africa.

However, Karp didn’t find a beardown nexus betwixt the nonaccomplishment of browsers – histrion feeders – and occurrence enactment successful woody regions.

“The narration betwixt extinctions and changes successful occurrence enactment was lone truly beardown if you looked astatine grazer extinctions, truthful herbivores that devour grass,” she says.

Karp says her survey cannot archer america thing astir the effects of this accrued occurrence activity. But different studies suggest that they were dramatic. After humans wiped retired Australia’s megafauna, for instance, increased occurrence enactment whitethorn person transformed the continent’s vegetation.

The reasons for the nonaccomplishment of truthful galore megafauna astir the satellite during this play are inactive debated. It is wide that galore were hard deed by clime changes related to the past crystal age, but human hunting whitethorn person been the slayer origin in astir cases.

Journal reference: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.abj1580

More connected these topics:

• wildfires