Explaining Late Quaternary beetle extinctions in the UK using palaeoenvironmental databases for quantitative environmental reconstruction

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http://www.diva-portal.org

This is the published version of a paper presented at The XIX INQUA Congress: Quaternary Perspectives on Climate Change, Natural Hazards and Civilization, Nagoya, Japan, 26 Jul - 2 Aug, 2015.

Citation for the original published paper:

Buckland, P I., Lemdahl, G. (2015)

Explaining Late Quaternary beetle extinctions in the UK using palaeoenvironmental databases for quantitative environmental reconstruction.

In:

N.B. When citing this work, cite the original published paper.

Permanent link to this version:

http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-109420

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Linnaeus Universitet

Explaining Late Quaternary beetle extinctions in the UK using palaeoenvironmental databases...

Philip I Buckland

Environmental Archaeology Lab.

Umeå University, Sweden phil.buckland@umu.se

Geoffrey Lemdahl

Dept. Biology and Environmental Science Linnaeus University, Sweden

Unwitting victims: Paul Buckland, Andrew Duff, Umeå Environmental Archaeology MA students

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Assumptions & hypothesis

• If: Loss of habitat can lead to regional extinctions (extirpation)

• Then: The traits of extinct species could provide information on environmental change...

• And: ...climate change for stenothermic species

Work in progress! All results preliminary...

Multiple types and quality of dating evidence.

Samples aggregated by broad periods:

• Q = (prior to MIS5e/ >~130kaBP).

• I = last interglacial (~130-115kaBP)

• G = last glacial (~115-15kaBP)

• LG = late glacial (~13.5-10kaBP)

• H = Holocene

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Research origins & tools

Duff 2008 & 2012 (featuring Buckland & Buckland)

Species with UK fossil record but now regionally extinct (extirpated)

BugsCEP database (Buckland & Buckland 2006 + updates)

http://www.bugscep.com (see Buckland 2014 QI)

>1300 datasets

>7200 samples

~11000 taxa

~8500 species

>650,000 observations

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- Species based modern ecology reference data & information - Interpretative and quantitative habitat reconstruction

http://www.bugscep.com

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- Climate reference data Mutual Climatic Range (MCR) reconstruction

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- Climate reference data Mutual Climatic Range (MCR) reconstruction

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Methods

Data acquisition a combination of:

1. Querying BugsCEP for:

Coleoptera

Fossil record from British Isles (all date types) Modern distribution not including British Isles 2. Further check of modern species status:

Checklist of UK Coleoptera (Duff 2012 )

Red Data Book of British Insects (various sources) 3. Manual crosschecking of all records and dates

Interpolating sample dates

Details of climate reconstruction (sample MCR’s) (in progress)

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Methods

Data processing a combination of:

1. Quantitative environment and climate reconstruction using BugsCEP’s tools

(Each species in database already assigned to ≥1 of 22 habitats – results scaled to count of habitat

indications per sample)

2. Detailed investigation of ecology of each species (in progress)

3. Simple GIS, presentation with dating (in progress)

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Preliminary results

After initial manual checking:

ca 241 taxa, 183 sites, 1300 records

...

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Preliminary results

• A single species example

Boreaphilus henningianus: last record = Late Glacial

Buckland & Buckland 2014 Antenna

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Preliminary results

• All 183 sites

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Preliminary results

• All sites

• 5 dominant habitats

Wetlands Aquatic

Wood & trees Heathland & moorland

Meadows

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Meadows

Preliminary results

• Last

Glaciation

Wetlands

Aquatic Wood & trees

Heathland & moorland Meadows

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Preliminary results

1 1

1

2 2 3 3

3

• Last Glaciation habitats (1<n.spp/site<59)

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Preliminary results

• Lateglacial

Wetlands Aquatic

Heathland & moorland

Meadows

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Preliminary results

• Lateglacial habitats (1<n<35)

1 2

3

5 4

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Preliminary results

• Holocene habitats (1<n<8)

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Wetlands

Aquatic Wood & trees

Heathland

& moorland

Meadows

Preliminary results

• Holocene habitats - mapped

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Summer

Winter

MCR of extirpated species

MCR of >60% of species represents a continental climate prior to Holocene

25 18 47 45 10

N. MCR species

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Compared with all European beetle records

Species extinct during Last Glaciation

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Species extinct in Holocene

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Species extinct in Quaternary >130,000 BP

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Thank you for listening! For the multiproxy future of BugsCEP:

See poster H28-P01 Saturday 8^th

or else the bugs will get you...

Photo: USGSBIML