Changes in New Zealand forest plant communities following the prehistoric extinction of avian megaherbivores

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Jamie R. Wood and Janet M. Wilmshurst
• 刊名：Journal of Vegetation Science
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：January 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：28
• 期：1
• 页码：160-171
• 全文大小：1267K
• ISSN：1654-1103

文摘

Following the mid 15th century AD extinction of moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) there was a ~400-yr period when large herbivores were absent from New Zealand's terrestrial ecosystems. This ended with the introduction of mammalian herbivores by European settlers in the 19th century. For at least 40 yr researchers have speculated about how New Zealand's vegetation communities might have responded to the ‘herbivore gap’. Did plant taxa once consumed by moa flourish in forest understoreys without large herbivores to browse them? Did forest understoreys become denser, preventing regeneration of long-lived conifers and altering forest composition? Such questions remain to be tested using palaeoecological records.