Gill says protecting largest inhabitants key to preserving ecosystems, Maine Edge reports
The Maine Edge published a University of Maine news release on recent research by University of Maine paleoecologist Jacquelyn Gill. The assistant professor in the School of Biology and Ecology and the Climate Change Institute says fossils and other records from the deep past provide evidence of widespread short- and long-term changes in community composition, structure and function after large herbivores went extinct. Essentially, she says, extinctions are records of completed grand natural removal experiments. And the records indicate long-term changes after megafauna extinctions included reduced seed dispersal, which continues to influence plant species, as well as an increase in fires. “Large herbivores, from mammoths to elephants, play special keystone roles in ecosystems; when we lose them, we lose all the services they provide, from spreading nutrients to creating patches where many different plants can thrive,” Gill says.