ENSO and the rabbits of Baja California
Author(s): Isaac Hart; Ruth Gruhn; Jack Broughton
Year: 2015
Summary
The El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a major source of climatic variation worldwide, with significant impacts on modern human and animal populations. However, few detailed records exist on the long-term effects of ENSO on prehistoric vertebrate populations. Here we examine how lagomorph deposition rate, population age structure and taxonomic composition from Abrigo de los Escorpiones, a well-dated, trans-Holocene vertebrate fauna from northern Baja California, Mexico, vary as a function of the frequency of wet El Niño events derived from eastern Pacific geological records. Faunal indices vary significantly in response to El Niño based precipitation and sea surface temperature, with substantial moisture-driven variability in the middle and late Holocene. The late Holocene moisture pulse is coincident with previously documented changes in the population dynamics of other vertebrates, including humans. As the frequency and intensity of ENSO is anticipated to vary in the future, these results have important implications for change in future vertebrate populations.
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Cite this Record
ENSO and the rabbits of Baja California. Isaac Hart, Jack Broughton, Ruth Gruhn. Presented at The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Francisco, California. 2015 ( tDAR id: 398277)
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Keywords
General
Baja California
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Enso
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lagomorphs
Geographic Keywords
North America - Southwest
Spatial Coverage
min long: -115.532; min lat: 30.676 ; max long: -102.349; max lat: 42.033 ;