Steppa dei mammut

L'Altopiano di Ukok (Siberia), odierna vestigia delle steppe dei mammut[1].

La cosiddetta Steppa dei mammut era il bioma più comune sul pianeta Terra durante l'Ultimo massimo glaciale (c.a. 20.000 anni fa), esteso dalla Spagna al Canada, attraverso tutta l'Eurasia, e dall'Artico alla Cina meridionale[2][3][4][5][6]. Era caratterizzata da un clima freddo e secco[7][6]. La flora era dominata dall'erba e dagli arbusti (Artemisia, Cyperaceae, ecc.)[3][6][8], con macchie di betulle nane e larici, e la fauna da bisonti, cavalli e mammut (v. c.d. Megafauna del Pleistocene)[7] dai quali il bioma prende il nome[9][10]. Quest'ecosistema, occupante ampie aree del settentrione del globo, perdurò per circa 100.000 anni salvo poi scomparire 12.000 anni fa[7].

  1. ^ Věra Pavelková Řičánková, Jan Robovský e Jan Riegert, Ecological Structure of Recent and Last Glacial Mammalian Faunas in Northern Eurasia: The Case of Altai-Sayan Refugium, in PLoS ONE, vol. 9, n. 1, 2014, pp. e85056, Bibcode:2014PLoSO...985056P, DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0085056, PMC 3890305, PMID 24454791.
  2. ^ J. M. Adams, H. Faure, L. Faure-Denard, J. M. McGlade e F. I. Woodward, Increases in terrestrial carbon storage from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Present, in Nature, vol. 348, n. 6303, 1990, pp. 711–714, Bibcode:1990Natur.348..711A, DOI:10.1038/348711a0.
  3. ^ a b Guthrie, R.D., Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1990, ISBN 978-0-226-15971-3.
  4. ^ Sher, A.V., 1997. Nature restructuring in the East-Siberian Arctic at the Pleistocene Holocene boundary and its role in mammal extinction and emerging of modern ecosystems. Earth Cryosphere 1 (3e11), 21e29.
  5. ^ Diego J. Álvarez-Lao e Nuria García, Geographical distribution of Pleistocene cold-adapted large mammal faunas in the Iberian Peninsula, in Quaternary International, vol. 233, n. 2, 2011, pp. 159–170, Bibcode:2011QuInt.233..159A, DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2010.04.017.
  6. ^ a b c S.A. Zimov, N.S. Zimov, A.N. Tikhonov e F.S. Chapin, Mammoth steppe: A high-productivity phenomenon, in Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 57, 2012, pp. 26–45, Bibcode:2012QSRv...57...26Z, DOI:10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.10.005.
  7. ^ a b c Guthrie, R.D., Origin and causes of the mammoth steppe: a story of cloud cover, woolly mammal tooth pits, buckles, and inside-out Beringia, Quaternary Science Reviews, 20 (2001) p. 549-574.
  8. ^ A.V. Sher, S.A. Kuzmina, T.V. Kuznetsova e L.D. Sulerzhitsky, New insights into the Weichselian environment and climate of the East Siberian Arctic, derived from fossil insects, plants, and mammals, in Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 24, 5–6, 2005, pp. 533–569, Bibcode:2005QSRv...24..533S, DOI:10.1016/j.quascirev.2004.09.007.
  9. ^ Guthrie, R. Dale: Mammals of the mammoth steppe as paleoenvironmental indicators. In: Hopkins, D.M., Schweger, C.E., Young, S.B. (ed.): Paleoecology of Beringia. Academic Press, New York 1982, pp. 307–329.
  10. ^ Blinnikov, Mikhail S., Gaglioti, Benjamin, Walker, Donald A., Wooller, Matthew J., Zazula, Grant D.: Pleistocene graminoid-dominated ecosystems in the Arctic. In: Quaternary Science Reviews, 30 (October 2011) pp. 2906–2929, DOI10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.07.002

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