Reconstructing colonization dynamics to establish how human activities transformed island biodiversity

Drivers and dynamics of initial human migrations across individual islands and archipelagos are poorly understood, hampering assessments of subsequent modification of island biodiversity. We developed and tested a new statistical-simulation approach for reconstructing the pattern and pace of human m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports Vol. 14; no. 1; pp. 5261 - 13
Main Authors: Tomlinson, Sean, Lomolino, Mark V., Anderson, Atholl, Austin, Jeremy J., Brown, Stuart C., Haythorne, Sean, Perry, George L. W., Wilmshurst, Janet M., Wood, Jamie R., Fordham, Damien A.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 04.03.2024
Nature Publishing Group
Nature Portfolio
Subjects:
631/158/1144
631/158/2462
631/158/670
631/158/851
631/158/852
Archipelagoes
Biodiversity
Biota
Colonization
Human biogeography
Human migration
Humanities and Social Sciences
Island biodiversity loss
Islands
Migration
multidisciplinary
Pacific
Process-based model
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Spatially explicit population model
New Zealand
Human biogeography
Pacific
Spatially explicit population model
Island biodiversity loss
Human migration
Process-based model
ISSN:2045-2322, 2045-2322
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Drivers and dynamics of initial human migrations across individual islands and archipelagos are poorly understood, hampering assessments of subsequent modification of island biodiversity. We developed and tested a new statistical-simulation approach for reconstructing the pattern and pace of human migration across islands at high spatiotemporal resolutions. Using Polynesian colonisation of New Zealand as an example, we show that process-explicit models, informed by archaeological records and spatiotemporal reconstructions of past climates and environments, can provide new and important insights into the patterns and mechanisms of arrival and establishment of people on islands. We find that colonisation of New Zealand required there to have been a single founding population of approximately 500 people, arriving between 1233 and 1257 AD, settling multiple areas, and expanding rapidly over both North and South Islands. These verified spatiotemporal reconstructions of colonisation dynamics provide new opportunities to explore more extensively the potential ecological impacts of human colonisation on New Zealand’s native biota and ecosystems.
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ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-024-55180-9