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Plio-Pleistocene climatic change had a major impact on the assembly and disassembly processes of Iberian rodent communities

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Abstract

Comprehension of changes in community composition through multiple spatio-temporal scales is a prime challenge in ecology and palaeobiology. However, assembly, structuring and disassembly of biotic metacommunities in deep-time is insufficiently known. To address this, we used the extensively sampled Iberian Plio-Pleistocene fossil record of rodent faunas as our model system to explore how global climatic events may alter metacommunity structure. Through factor analysis, we found five sets of genera, called faunal components, which co-vary in proportional diversity over time. These faunal components had different spatio-temporal distributions throughout the Plio-Pleistocene, resulting in non-random changes in species assemblages, particularly in response to the development of the Pleistocene glaciations. Three successive metacommunities with distinctive taxonomic structures were identified as a consequence of the differential responses of their members to global climatic change: (1) Ruscinian subtropical faunas (5.3–3.4 Ma) dominated by a faunal component that can be considered as a Miocene legacy; (2) transition faunas during the Villafranchian–Biharian (3.4–0.8 Ma) with a mixture of different faunal components; and (3) final dominance of the temperate Toringian faunas (0.8–0.01 Ma) that would lead to the modern Iberian assemblage. The influence of the cooling global temperature drove the reorganisation of these rodent metacommunities. Selective extinction processes due to this large-scale environmental disturbance progressively eliminated the subtropical specialist species from the early Pliocene metacommunity. This disassembly process was accompanied by the organisation of a diversified metacommunity with an increased importance of biome generalist species, and finally followed by the assembly during the middle–late Pleistocene of a new set of species specialised in the novel environments developed as a consequence of the glaciations.

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Acknowledgements

This paper is dedicated to Albert J. van der Meulen, leader in the field of mammalian palaeoecology and friend. Albert’s works on Neogene rodent communities have been an inspiring force for anyone interested in community ecology and the influence of climatic changes on the evolution of mammal faunas. We want to thank the editors of this issue in his honour for their initiative and for inviting us to participate. We also acknowledge the insightful suggestions and comments on the manuscript made by Catherine Badgley (University of Michigan), Belén Luna (University of Castilla-La Mancha) and an anonymous reviewer, which greatly helped to improve this paper. This is a contribution by the Palaeoclimatology, Macroecology and Macroevolution of Vertebrates research team (www.pmmv.com.es) of the Complutense University of Madrid as a part of the Research Group UCM 910607 on Evolution of Cenozoic Mammals and Continental Palaeoenvironments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), José Antonio Novais 2, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Manuel Hernández Fernández

  2. Departamento de Cambio Medioambiental, Instituto de Geociencias (UCM, CSIC), José Antonio Novais 2, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Manuel Hernández Fernández

  3. Departamento de Paleobiología. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), C. José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006, Madrid, Spain

    Juan L. Cantalapiedra

  4. Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Invalidenstr 43, Berlin, 10115, Germany

    Juan L. Cantalapiedra

  5. Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, 46, allée d’Italie, Lyon cedex 07, 69364, Lyon, France

    Ana R. Gómez Cano

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  1. Manuel Hernández Fernández
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Correspondence to Manuel Hernández Fernández.

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This article is a contribution to the special issue “Old worlds, new ideas. A tribute to Albert van der Meulen”.

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Hernández Fernández, M., Cantalapiedra, J.L. & Gómez Cano, A.R. Plio-Pleistocene climatic change had a major impact on the assembly and disassembly processes of Iberian rodent communities. Palaeobio Palaeoenv 95, 387–404 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-015-0196-x

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