Prehistoric Human Modification of Madagascar’s Terrestrial Ecosystems

Loss of biodiversity is one of the most urgent threats to ecosystems, particularly on tropical islands such as Madagascar. Effective conservation efforts should be informed by assessing the combined threats of deforestation, biological invasions, and climate change, which operate on multiple timescales. This project uses proxy data from the bones of both human-introduced animals (e.g., livestock, dogs, and rodents) and endemic animals (e.g., extinct megaherbivores and extant mouse lemurs and rodents) to estimate taxon-specific responses to past changes in resource availability during the past ~3,000 years. Radiocarbon data from bones helps to both 1) refine estimates of animal extinction and introduction during the past ~2,000 years and 2) ties animal proxy records to regional records of climate and vegetation change. These lines of evidence can be integrated with modern datasets to help infer some of the environmental tolerances and interspecific interactions that likely shaped Madagascar’s ecological communities over recent millennia.