Paleoecology of Beringia

1st Edition - January 28, 1982
Editors: David M. Hopkins, John V. Matthews, Charles E. Schweger
Language: English
eBook ISBN:
9 7 8 - 1 - 4 8 3 2 - 7 3 4 0 - 2

Paleoecology of Beringia is the product of a symposium organized by its editors, sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and held at the foundation's… Read more

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Paleoecology of Beringia is the product of a symposium organized by its editors, sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and held at the foundation's conference center in Burg Wartenstein, Austria, 8-17 June 1979. The focus of this volume is on the paradox central to all studies of the unglaciated Arctic during the last Ice Age: that vertebrate fossils indicate that from 45,000 to 11,000 years BP an environment considerably more diverse and productive than the present one existed, whereas the botanical record, where it is not silent, supports a far more conservative appraisal of the region's ability to sustain any but the sparsest forms of plant and animal life. The volume is organized into seven parts. Part 1 focuses on the paleogeography of the Beringia. The studies in Part 2 explore the ancient vegatation. Part 3 deals with the steppe-tundra concept and its application in Beringia. Part 4 examines the paleoclimate while Part 5 is devoted to the biology of surviving relatives of the Pleistocene ungulates. Part 6 takes up the presence of man in ancient Beringia. Part 7 assesses the paleoecology of Beringia during the last 40,000 years

Contributors

Preface

Acknowledgments

Paleogeography

1. Aspects of the Paleogeography of Beringia during the Late Pleistocene

2. Evolution of Lowland Landscapes in Northeastern Asia during Late Quaternary Time

Ancient vegetation—the fossil record

3. Comparison of the Development of Steppe-Tundra Environments in West and East Beringia: Pollen and Macrofossil Evidence from Key Sections

4. Vegetational History of Western Alaska during the Wisconsin Glacial Interval and the Holocene

5. Late Pleistocene Vegetation of Eastern Beringia: Pollen Analysis of Dated Alluvium

6. The Late Quaternary Vegetation of the North Yukon

7. East Beringia during Late Wisconsin Time: a Review of the Biotic Evidence

The Steppe-Tundra Concept and Its Application in Beringia

8. History of the Steppe-Tundra Concept

9. Relics of the Xerophyte Vegetation of Beringia in Northeastern Asia

10. The Vegetation of Land-Bridge Beringia

Paleoclimate

11. Approaches to Reconstructing the Climate of the Steppe-Tundra Biome

12. Approaches to Mathematical Modeling of the Steppe-Tundra Paleoclimate

Primary Production and the Pleistocene Ungulates—the Productivity Paradox

13. Production and Diversity in Contemporary Grasslands

14. Present-Day Arctic Vegetation and Ecosystems as a Predictive Tool for the Arctic-Steppe Mammoth Biome

15. Digestive and Grazing Strategies of Animals in the Arctic Steppe

16. Paleoecology of the Mammoth Fauna in the Eurasian Arctic

17. Morphological Characters of the Mammoth: an Adaptation to the Arctic-Steppe Environment

18. Ecology and Behavior of Living Elephants: Bases for Assumptions concerning the Extinct Woolly Mammoths

19. Mammals of the Mammoth Steppe as Paleoenvironmental Indicators

Man in Ancient Beringia

20. Late Pleistocene Man in Northern Alaska and the Mammoth-Steppe Biome

21. Ancient Beringians: Human Occupation in the Late Pleistocene of Alaska and the Yukon Territory

22. Were Clovis Progenitors in Beringia?

23. The Pattern and Meaning of Holarctic Mammoth Extinction

24. Arguing from the Present to the Past: a Contemporary Case Study of Human Predation on African Buffalo

Paleoecology of Beringia—a Synthesis

References

General Index

Index to Faunal and Floral Taxa