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El Niño controls Holocene rabbit and hare populations in Baja California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Isaac A. Hart ,
Jack M. Broughton  and
Ruth Gruhn
Isaac A. Hart*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, 270 South 1400 East Room 102, Salt lake City 84112-0060, UT, USA
Jack M. Broughton
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, 270 South 1400 East Room 102, Salt lake City 84112-0060, UT, USA
Ruth Gruhn
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, 13–15 HM Tory Building, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H4, Canada
*
*Corresponding author.E-mail address:i.hart@anthro.utah.edu (I.A. Hart).
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Abstract

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 (rabbit and hare) 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 and eastern Pacific sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) derived from eastern Pacific geological records. Faunal indices vary significantly in response to El Niño-based precipitation and SST, 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.

Keywords

El NiñoENSORabbitHareLagomorphBaja CaliforniaHoloceneSmall mammal demography

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Quaternary Research , Volume 84 , Issue 1 , July 2015 , pp. 46 - 56
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University of Washington

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