TY - JOUR
T1 - Extinction of water plants in the Hula Valley
T2 - Evidence for climate change
AU - Melamed, Yoel
AU - Kislev, Mordechai
AU - Weiss, Ehud
AU - Simchoni, Orit
N1 - Funding Information: This study was carried out with the support of an ongoing grant awarded by the Israel Science Foundation (Grant No. 300/06 ) to the Center of Excellence Project Title: ‘‘The Effect of Climate Change on the Environment and Hominins of the Upper Jordan Valley between ca. 800 ka and 700 ka as a Basis for Prediction of Future Scenarios’’. The authors wish to thank the Israel Science Foundation, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University , and the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University for supporting the international conference where this study was presented. We also thank to the keepers of the herbaria of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem; the Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum, Berlin-Dahlem; and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, for their great help for building our seed reference collection. Thanks also to Dr. Y. Langsam of The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, for the SEM photography, and to H. Vered-Leshner, the herbarium of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, for her assistance.
PY - 2011/4
Y1 - 2011/4
N2 - We describe two events of water plant extinction in the Hula Valley, northern Israel: the ancient, natural extinction of 3 out of 14 extinct species at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, which occurred some 800-700 k.yr., and an anthropogenic, near contemporary extinction of seven species in the artificial drainage of the Hula Lake in the 1950s. We conclude that the considerable fraction of water plants that disappeared from the Hula Valley in the Early-Middle Pleistocene was the result of habitat desiccation and not global warming. Thus, there is evidence that the hominins who lived in the Hula Valley inhabited a comparatively dry place. The disappearance of water plant species was partially the result of reduced seed dispersal by birds (ornitochory) as a result of the shrinkage of water bodies and their number along the Rift Valley. We suggest that the disappearance of a group of rare, local water plants can be used as an indicator of climate drying and impacts on the local vegetation.
AB - We describe two events of water plant extinction in the Hula Valley, northern Israel: the ancient, natural extinction of 3 out of 14 extinct species at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, which occurred some 800-700 k.yr., and an anthropogenic, near contemporary extinction of seven species in the artificial drainage of the Hula Lake in the 1950s. We conclude that the considerable fraction of water plants that disappeared from the Hula Valley in the Early-Middle Pleistocene was the result of habitat desiccation and not global warming. Thus, there is evidence that the hominins who lived in the Hula Valley inhabited a comparatively dry place. The disappearance of water plant species was partially the result of reduced seed dispersal by birds (ornitochory) as a result of the shrinkage of water bodies and their number along the Rift Valley. We suggest that the disappearance of a group of rare, local water plants can be used as an indicator of climate drying and impacts on the local vegetation.
KW - Climatic drying
KW - Extinction
KW - Hippuris
KW - Regional drying
KW - Stratiotes
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79952362804&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://uli.nli.org.il/discovery/search?query=issn,exact,0047-2484&tab=LibraryCatalog&search_scope=MyInstitution&vid=972NNL_ULI_C:MAIN
U2 - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.07.025
DO - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.07.025
M3 - مقالة
C2 - 21146195
SN - 0047-2484
VL - 60
SP - 320
EP - 327
JO - Journal of Human Evolution
JF - Journal of Human Evolution
IS - 4
ER -
