Multiproxy analysis of permafrost preserved faeces provides an unprecedented insight into the diets and habitats of extinct and extant megafauna

The study of faecal samples to reconstruct the diets and habitats of extinct megafauna has traditionally relied on pollen and macrofossil analysis. DNA metabarcoding has emerged as a valuable tool to complement and refine these proxies. While published studies have compared the results of these three proxies for sediments, this comparison is currently lacking for permafrost preserved mammal faeces. Moreover, most metabarcoding studies have focused on a single plant-specific DNA marker region. In this study, we target both the commonly used chloroplast trnL P6 loop as well as nuclear ribosomal ITS (nrITS). The latter can increase taxonomic resolution of plant identifications but requires DNA to be relatively well preserved because of the target length (∼300–500 bp). We compare DNA results to pollen and macrofossil analyses from permafrost and ice-preserved faeces of Pleistocene and Holocene megafauna. Samples include woolly mammoth, horse, steppe bison as well as Holocene and extant caribou. Most plant identifications were found using DNA, likely because the studied faeces contained many vegetative remains that could not be identified using macrofossils or pollen. Several taxa were, however, identified to lower taxonomic levels uniquely with macrofossil and pollen analysis. The nrITS marker provides species level taxonomic resolution for commonly encountered plant families that are hard to distinguish using the other proxies (e.g. Asteraceae, Cyperaceae and Poaceae). Integrating the results from all proxies, we are able to accurately reconstruct known diets and habitats of the extant caribou. Applying this approach to the extinct mammals, we find that the Holocene horse and steppe bison were not strict grazers but mixed feeders living in a marshy wetland environment. The mammoths showed highly varying diets from different non-analogous habitats. This confirms the presence of a mosaic of habitats in the Pleistocene ‘mammoth steppe’ that mammoths could fully exploit due to their flexibility in food choice

Pollen and spores from molar folds reflect food choice of late Pleistocene and Early Holocene herbivores in The Netherlands and the adjacent North Sea area

Molars of eight large herbivore species (Megaloceros giganteus, Cervus elaphus, Rangifer tarandus, Alces alces, Bison priscus, Ovibos moschatus, Coelodonta antiquitatis and Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis) were collected ex situ from Pleistocene and Holocene sands dredged in the North Sea, and from Dutch inland sites. Folds in many molars contained compacted masticated plant remains, and also microfossils. We identified pollen, spores, and non-pollen palynomorphs and discuss and interpret food preferences, represented flowering seasons, or parts of flowering seasons, and we discuss effects of changing vegetation composition in relation to climate and age of the molars, based on the pollen spectra. Various confounding factors have contributed to the recorded pollen composition, but nevertheless the pollen spectra show valuable aspects of vegetation composition, food choice, age, and landscapes, from subarctic open areas to interglacial forest. Ecological and statistical analysis of the results shows dietary differences between the mammal species analyzed

Structuuranalyse Nieuwe Veehouderijsystemen. Bijlagen

3 bijlagen: 1. Structuur van de veehouderij in Noord-West Europa. In deze 1e bijlage wordt de structuur van de primaire sector in Noord-West Europa besproken. Hierbij wordt uitgegaan van de reeds in de hoofdtekst gebruikte EUROSTAT dataset. Met name wordt gekeken naar de verschillende bedrijfstypen, zoals ze voorkomen in België, Denemarken en Duitsland. Deze worden onderling vergeleken. 2. Historische ontwikkelingen in het buitenland. Gebruikmakend van dezelfde dataset als voor Nederland wordt in deze 2e bijlage gekeken naar vergelijkbare ontwikkelingen in andere landen van Noord-West Europa, met name in België, Denemarken en Duitsland. 3. Sectorale ontwikkelingen in de niet-primaire sector in Nederland. In deze laatste bijlage worden de ontwikkelingen, die de afgelopen 4 decennia hebben plaatsgevonden in de sector alsmede in de omgeving van de sector, weergegeven, waarbij vooral wordt ingegaan op de factoren, die van belang zijn geweest voor de vorming van de huidige structuur van veehouderijsector in Nederland

A multidisciplinary study of a late Pleistocene arctic ground squirrel (Urocitellus parryii) midden from Yukon, Canada

Plant science