Project description DEENESFRITPL Uncovering what led to the extinction of large animals when humans arrived Ecosystem destruction usually brings about fragmentation – the division of habitats into smaller and more isolated areas. Consequently, large mammal populations are collapsing. What caused megafauna, i.e. large animals, to go extinct over the last 50 000 years remains hotly debated. Another unanswered question is how humans and the climate helped to transform and collapse megafaunal ecosystems, and how this affected human societies at various periods. The EU-funded ISLANDLAB project will address these questions using the Maltese Islands to explore the effects of anthropogenic ecosystem fragmentation. It will create high-resolution ecological, climatic and archaeological characterisations of Malta before and after humans arrived and the ensuing change of living organisms. Show the project objective Hide the project objective Objective Humans are fragmenting ecosystems into habitat 'islands', causing an unprecedented global collapse of large mammal populations just as science is discovering their essential ecological roles. The impact of these losses is such that our understanding of the contemporary biosphere is clearly shaped by a world artificially depleted of terrestrial giants. However, the causes of megafaunal extinctions over a much deeper, >50,000-year timeframe remain strongly contested. How did specific anthropogenic and/or climate factors interact to transform and collapse megafaunal ecosystems and what implications did this have for human societies at different points in time? The feedbacks and ecological legacies of these older extinctions have important lessons for the current biodiversity crisis, yet the dearth of good quality fossil and contextual data from many regions, settings and species has prevented robust appraisal. ISLANDLAB will explore these questions using the Maltese Islands as a frame of reference for the effects of anthropogenic ecosystem fragmentation. Pilot work has already uncovered an unprecedented deep-time record of pristine natural systems successively interrupted by waves of humans. Direct interaction between humans and the endemic megafauna begins with a likely Neanderthal presence and ends with the first monumental civilizations, with exponential losses and subsequent faunal reintroductions lasting until the mid-Holocene. By building high-resolution ecological, climatic, and archaeological characterisations of Malta before and after human arrival and subsequent alteration of biotas, ISLANDLAB will therefore document long-term legacies and feedbacks between ecological changes, societal responses, and ecosystem resilience. More broadly, the results will shed light on extinction processes in current anthropogenic landscapes, elucidating the ecological and human dimensions of restoration pathways from an island paradigm at a pivot between Europe and Africa. Fields of science humanitieshistory and archaeologyhistoryprehistorynatural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesmeteorologybiospheranatural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystemsnatural sciencesbiological scienceszoologymammalogy Keywords Human Evolution Anthropocene Megafauna Programme(s) HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme Topic(s) ERC-2021-STG - ERC STARTING GRANTS Call for proposal ERC-2021-STG See other projects for this call Funding Scheme HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants Host institution MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV Net EU contribution € 1 308 093,76 Address HOFGARTENSTRASSE 8 80539 Munchen Germany See on map Region Bayern Oberbayern München, Kreisfreie Stadt Activity type Research Organisations Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 1 308 093,76 Beneficiaries (2) Sort alphabetically Sort by Net EU contribution Expand all Collapse all MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV Germany Net EU contribution € 1 308 093,76 Address HOFGARTENSTRASSE 8 80539 Munchen See on map Region Bayern Oberbayern München, Kreisfreie Stadt Activity type Research Organisations Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 1 308 093,76 UNIVERSITA TA MALTA Malta Net EU contribution € 190 789,24 Address TAL OROQQ 2080 MSIDA See on map Region Malta Malta Malta Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 190 789,24
