Investigating the influence of climate changes on rodent communities at a regional-scale (MIS 1-3, southwestern France)

25 pagesInternational audienceTerrestrial ecosystems have continuously evolved throughout the Late Pleistocene and theHolocene, deeply affected by both progressive environmental and climatic modifications, aswell as by abrupt and large climatic changes such as the Heinrich or Dansgaard-Oeschgerevents. Yet, the impacts of these different events on terrestrial mammalian communities arepoorly known, as is the role played by potential refugia on geographical species distributions.This study examines community changes in rodents of southwestern France between50 and 10 ky BP by integrating 94 dated faunal assemblages coming from 37 archaeologicalsites. This work reveals that faunal distributions were modified in response to abruptand brief climatic events, such as Heinrich events, without actually modifying the rodentcommunity on a regional scale. However, the succession of events which operated betweenthe Late Pleistocene and the Holocene gradually led to establishing a new rodent communityat the regional scale, with intermediate communities occurring between the Bølling andthe Allerød