Thresholds for the presence of glacial megafauna in central Europe during the last 60,000 years

Abstract

Lake sediment records from Holzmaar and the infilled maar of Auel (Eifel, Germany) are used to reconstruct landscape changes and megafauna abundances. Our data document a forested landscape from 60,000 to 48,000 yr b2k and a stepwise vegetation change towards a glacial desert after 26,000 yr b2k. The Eifel landscape was continuously inhabited from 48,000 to 9000 yr b2k by large mammals, documented by the presence of spores of coprophilous fungi from Sordaria and Sporormiella fungi that grow on fecal remains of the megafauna. Megafauna reached higher numbers during cold stadial climates but was present also during the warmer interstadials. Highest abundance was at 56,500/48,500/38,500/33,000/27,000/21,000/16,200/14,000 yr b2k, i.e. under different climate regimes. Some of these dates were associated with clear human presence, which indicates that megafauna was not overkilled by humans. In contrast, human presence could quite likely have been stimulated by the abundant food supply. Megafauna presence decreased significantly when tree abundance increased during interstadials. The Megafauna disappeared finally at 11,400 yr b2k with the development of the early Holocene forest cover, which appears to be the most important threshold for megafauna presence.

Figure 1

Maps, (a) Digital Elevation of Europe with potential corridors for MF migration, (b) Maar lakes during the MIS3, (c) catchment of the infilled maar lake at Auel, (d) catchment of the Holzmaar lake. The maps were made with QGIS 3.16 (https://qgis.org) from ETOPO1 1 Arc-Minute Global Relief Model (NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, 2009), a model of Earth's surface that integrates land topography and ocean bathymetry.

Figure 2

Ascospores of coprophilous fungi, (a) photos of spores in textbook and in the ELSA-Stack samples, (b) fossil mammoth dung.

Figure 3

Selected global climate records in comparison to sedimentological and tephra records of the ELSA-20-Stack. Insolation, sea level, North Atlantic Sea surface temperatures, NGRIP δ¹⁸O, Eifel Tephra.

Figure 4

Selected pollen and spores during the last 60,000 years. The plots are based on all samples with countable pollen grains. The curves are smoothed with a three-point running mean. Values for all taxa counted see Supplementary Figs. S8, S9. Landscape Evolution Zones (LEZ).

Figure 5

Selected pollen, botanical macroremains, and spores from 38,000 to 24,000 yr b2k. The plots are based on those samples with more than 20 countable pollen grains. The curves are smoothed with a five-point running mean. Values for all taxa counted see Supplementary Figs. S8, S9. Brownish bars indicate the times of high Megafauna presence.

Figure 6

Selected pollen and spores from 18,000 to 8000 yr b2k. The plots are based on those samples with more than 20 countable pollen grains. Values for all taxa counted see Supplementary Figs. S8, S9. Brownish bars indicate the times of high Megafauna presence.

Figure 7

Synthesis of environmental change to explain the presence/absence of Megafauna during the last 60,000 years. The plots are based on all samples with countable pollen grains. All curves are smoothed, C_org and Si excess with a 100 year resolution, the pollen and spores to a resolution of 200–500 years.