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This study used sedimentary ancient DNA from Greenland lakes to reconstruct the arrival and interaction of plants, animals, and humans over the past 12,200 years. The findings show that muskox arrived in northeast Greenland approximately 7,400 years ago, roughly 3,000 years before the first human settlement, supporting the hypothesis that early humans followed muskox migrations into the region. The research also reveals that warmer conditions existed 8,200-3,900 years ago, followed by abrupt environmental changes, while human populations appear to have had limited impact on megafauna despite coinciding with various environmental shifts.
Why it matters
This research provides crucial insights into how Arctic ecosystems, megafauna populations, and human cultures responded to past climate changes, offering valuable context for understanding current Arctic environmental transformations. The findings challenge assumptions about early human impact on wildlife populations and demonstrate the utility of sedimentary DNA for reconstructing long-term ecological histories in remote regions.
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⚠️ Preprint – Noch nicht peer-reviewed
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The Muskox Way hypothesis suggests that the first humans entering northeast Greenland from Arctic Canada followed and hunted muskox. Yet whether muskox arrived before people remains debated, as only two bones predate the Independence culture (4500-3900 cal BP). More broadly, the arrival of plants and animals, and how the three periods of human settlement related to ecosystem changes, remain poorly understood. We analysed sedimentary ancient DNA from lakes in Wandel Dal (Late Sommersoe and Midsommersoe) and Zackenberg, identifying 121 native plants and nine animal taxa. In Wandel Dal, the plant assemblage indicates a warmer climate than today about 8200-3900 years ago, followed by an abrupt change in flora and sedimentation rate at 3900 cal BP, especially at Midsommersoe. Muskox DNA is present continuously at Midsommersoe from 7400 cal BP, about three millennia before humans arrived. The Zackenberg record dates to 12,200 cal BP, with arctic forbs, grasses, ferns and crowberry in the earliest layers, willow from 8200 cal BP and birch from 7200 cal BP, but muskox only in the last 2500 years, the latter period coinciding with Greenlandic Dorset culture. The arrival of the Thule culture in 1400 CE coincides with a slight increase in plant richness at Wandel Dal and an increase in mammal detections. Reindeer occurred only in samples older than 6000 years, consistent with their absence from archaeological bone records. Overall, humans arrived long after the first megafauna and appear to have had limited impact on their populations, although cultural periods coincided with environmental changes.
Source: The Muskox Way: Humans, plants and animals in northeast Greenland through the Holocene