Arctic defaunation initiated a cascade of mammal–plant interaction shifts through dispersal dynamics

Arctic defaunation initiated a cascade of mammal–plant interaction shifts through dispersal dynamics | bioRxiv /* */ /* */ <!-- <!-- /*! * yepnope1.5.4 * (c) WTFPL, GPLv2 */ (function(a,b,c){function d(a){return"[object Function]"==o.call(a)}function e(a){return"string"==typeof a}function f(){}function g(a){return!a||"loaded"==a||"complete"==a||"uninitialized"==a}function h(){var a=p.shift();q=1,a?a.t?m(function(){("c"==a.t?B.injectCss:B.injectJs)(a.s,0,a.a,a.x,a.e,1)},0):(a(),h()):q=0}function i(a,c,d,e,f,i,j){function k(b){if(!o&&g(l.readyState)&&(u.r=o=1,!q&&h(),l.onload=l.onreadystatechange=null,b)){"img"!=a&&m(function(){t.removeChild(l)},50);for(var d in y[c])y[c].hasOwnProperty(d)&&y[c][d].onload()}}var j=j||B.errorTimeout,l=b.createElement(a),o=0,r=0,u={t:d,s:c,e:f,a:i,x:j};1===y[c]&&(r=1,y[c]=[]),"object"==a?l.data=c:(l.src=c,l.type=a),l.width=l.height="0",l.onerror=l.onload=l.onreadystatechange=function(){k.call(this,r)},p.splice(e,0,u),"img"!=a&&(r||2===y[c]?(t.insertBefore(l,s?null:n),m(k,j)):y[c].push(l))}function j(a,b,c,d,f){return q=0,b=b||"j",e(a)?i("c"==b?v:u,a,b,this.i++,c,d,f):(p.splice(this.i++,0,a),1==p.length&&h()),this}function k(){var a=B;return a.loader={load:j,i:0},a}var l=b.documentElement,m=a.setTimeout,n=b.getElementsByTagName("script")[0],o={}.toString,p=[],q=0,r="MozAppearance"in l.style,s=r&&!!b.createRange().compareNode,t=s?l:n.parentNode,l=a.opera&&"[object Opera]"==o.call(a.opera),l=!!b.attachEvent&&!l,u=r?"object":l?"script":"img",v=l?"script":u,w=Array.isArray||function(a){return"[object Array]"==o.call(a)},x=[],y={},z={timeout:function(a,b){return b.length&&(a.timeout=b[0]),a}},A,B;B=function(a){function b(a){var a=a.split("!"),b=x.length,c=a.pop(),d=a.length,c={url:c,origUrl:c,prefixes:a},e,f,g;for(f=0;f<d;f++)g=a[f].split("="),(e=z[g.shift()])&&(c=e(c,g));for(f=0;f<b;f++)c=x[f](c);return c}function g(a,e,f,g,h){var i=b(a),j=i.autoCallback;i.url.split(".").pop().split("?").shift(),i.bypass||(e&&(e=d(e)?e:e[a]||e[g]||e[a.split("/").pop().split("?")[0]]),i.instead?i.instead(a,e,f,g,h):(y[i.url]?i.noexec=!0:y[i.url]=1,f.load(i.url,i.forceCSS||!i.forceJS&&"css"==i.url.split(".").pop().split("?").shift()?"c":c,i.noexec,i.attrs,i.timeout),(d(e)||d(j))&&f.load(function(){k(),e&&e(i.origUrl,h,g),j&&j(i.origUrl,h,g),y[i.url]=2})))}function h(a,b){function c(a,c){if(a){if(e(a))c||(j=function(){var a=[].slice.call(arguments);k.apply(this,a),l()}),g(a,j,b,0,h);else if(Object(a)===a)for(n in m=function(){var b=0,c;for(c in a)a.hasOwnProperty(c)&&b++;return b}(),a)a.hasOwnProperty(n)&&(!c&&!--m&&(d(j)?j=function(){var a=[].slice.call(arguments);k.apply(this,a),l()}:j[n]=function(a){return function(){var b=[].slice.call(arguments);a&&a.apply(this,b),l()}}(k[n])),g(a[n],j,b,n,h))}else!c&&l()}var h=!!a.test,i=a.load||a.both,j=a.callback||f,k=j,l=a.complete||f,m,n;c(h?a.yep:a.nope,!!i),i&&c(i)}var i,j,l=this.yepnope.loader;if(e(a))g(a,0,l,0);else if(w(a))for(i=0;i (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];var j=d.createElement(s);var dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.src='//www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;j.type='text/javascript';j.async=true;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-M677548'); Skip to main content Home About Submit ALERTS / RSS Search for this keyword Advanced Search New Results Arctic defaunation initiated a cascade of mammal–plant interaction shifts through dispersal dynamics View ORCID Profile Sisi Liu , View ORCID Profile Kathleen R. Stoof-Leichsenring , Marc-Thorsten Hütt , View ORCID Profile Weihan Jia , View ORCID Profile Boris K. Biskaborn , View ORCID Profile Bernhard Diekmann , View ORCID Profile Darrell S. Kaufman , View ORCID Profile Hanno Meyer , View ORCID Profile Martin Melles , View ORCID Profile Luidmila A. Pestryakova , View ORCID Profile Ulrike Herzschuh doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.06.23.661215 Sisi Liu 1 Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Sisi Liu For correspondence: sisi.liu{at}awi.de Kathleen R. Stoof-Leichsenring 1 Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Kathleen R. Stoof-Leichsenring Marc-Thorsten Hütt 2 Constructor University; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site Weihan Jia 1 Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Weihan Jia Boris K. Biskaborn 1 Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Boris K. Biskaborn Bernhard Diekmann 1 Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Bernhard Diekmann Darrell S. Kaufman 3 Northern Arizona University; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Darrell S. Kaufman Hanno Meyer 1 Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Hanno Meyer Martin Melles 4 University of Cologne; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Martin Melles Luidmila A. Pestryakova 5 North-Eastern Federal University of Yakutsk Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Luidmila A. Pestryakova Ulrike Herzschuh 1 Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research; Find this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site ORCID record for Ulrike Herzschuh Abstract Info/History Metrics Supplementary material Preview PDF Abstract Amid accelerating defaunation, it remains unclear whether the loss of large mammals can trigger ecosystem collapse and through which functional pathways. Using sedimentary ancient metagenomics, we identify an overlooked role of large mammal defaunation in helping drive the collapse of the glacial mammoth-steppe. Network analyses identified rewiring of mammal interactions during the late glacial supporting cascading effects. Crucially, megafaunal-mediated long-distance seed dispersal buffered vegetation turnover during periods of rapid climate warming but weakened with progressive losses of vital dispersal interactions leading to the steppe–tundra′s transition to open woodland in the early Holocene. Trophic interactions did not offset turnover and became dominant afterwards with the more stable climate. We identified resilient interactions that may support recovery, suggesting the potential of rewilding to restore Arctic ecosystems. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Footnotes i, Updated Figures 1 to 6. ii, Revised the manuscript text based on reviewer comments. iii, Updated the core description in the Supporting Information. iv, Added Data S2 with bioinformatics analyses for citation by a related study. Funder Information Declared European Research Council, https://ror.org/0472cxd90 , 772852 Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft , HE 2622/34-1 Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, https://ror.org/018mejw64 , 514539694 U.S. National Science Foundation , 2303462 Federal Ministry of Education and Research , 03G0859A Copyright The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license . View the discussion thread. Back to top Previous Next Posted May 18, 2026. Download PDF Supplementary Material Email Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv. NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article. Your Email * Your Name * Send To * Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas. 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Stoof-Leichsenring , Marc-Thorsten Hütt , Weihan Jia , Boris K. Biskaborn , Bernhard Diekmann , Darrell S. Kaufman , Hanno Meyer , Martin Melles , Luidmila A. Pestryakova , Ulrike Herzschuh bioRxiv 2025.06.23.661215; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.06.23.661215 Citation Manager Formats BibTeX Bookends EasyBib EndNote (tagged) EndNote 8 (xml) Medlars Mendeley Papers RefWorks Tagged Ref Manager RIS Zotero Tweet Widget Facebook Like Google Plus One Subject Area Ecology Subject Areas All Articles Animal Behavior and Cognition (7618) Biochemistry (17636) Bioengineering (13860) Bioinformatics (41847) Biophysics (21401) Cancer Biology (18536) Cell Biology (25424) Clinical Trials (138) Developmental Biology (13353) Ecology (19860) Epidemiology (2067) Evolutionary Biology (24287) Genetics (15583) Genomics (22463) Immunology (17701) Microbiology (40300) Molecular Biology (17141) Neuroscience (88434) Paleontology (666) Pathology (2825) Pharmacology and Toxicology (4813) Physiology (7633) Plant Biology (15107) Scientific Communication and Education (2042) Synthetic Biology (4285) Systems Biology (9808) Zoology (2268)