View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Archive Ouverte en Sciences de l'Information et de la Communication Evolution of habitat and environment of red deer (Cervus elaphus) during the Lateglacial and early Holocene in eastern France using stable isotope composition ( d13C, d15N, d18O) of archaeological bones. Dorothée G. Drucker, Anne Bridault, Christophe Cupillard, A. Hujic, H. Bocherens To cite this version: Dorothée G. Drucker, Anne Bridault, Christophe Cupillard, A. Hujic, H. Bocherens. Evolution of habitat and environment of red deer (Cervus elaphus) during the Lateglacial and early Holocene in eastern France using stable isotope composition ( d13C, d15N, d18O) of archaeological bones.. Qua- ternary International, Elsevier, 2011, 245, pp.268-278. 10.1016/j.quaint.2011.07.019. hal-00669478 HAL Id: hal-00669478 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00669478 Submitted on 28 Oct 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Evolution of habitat and environment of red deer (Cervus elaphus) during the Late-glacial and early Holocene in eastern France (French Jura and the western Alps) using multi-isotope analysis (d13C, d15N, d18O, d34S) of archaeological remains D.G. Drucker a,b,*, A. Bridault c, C. Cupillard d, A. Hujic a,b, H. Bocherens a a Fachbereich Geowissenschaften, Forschungsbereich Paläobiologie, Universität Tübingen, Hölderlinstr. 12, D-72074 Tübingen, Germany b Fachbereich Geowissenschaften, Forschungsbereich Urgeschichte und Naturwisssenschaftliche Archäologie, Universität Tübingen, Rümelinstr. 23, D-72070 Tübingen, Germany c Equipe d’Archéologies Environnementales, Maison de l’Archéologie et de l’Ethnologie René Ginouvès, ArScAn-UMR 7041, case courrier 05, 21 allée de l’Université, F-92023 Nanterre Cedex, France d Service regional de l’Archéologie de France-Comté, 7 rue Charles Nodier, F-25043 Besançon Cedex, France; Laboratoire de Chrono-Environnement, UMR 6249, UFR des Sciences et des Techniques, 16 route de Gray, F-25030 Besançon Cedex, France abstract Red deer (Cervus elaphus)isaflexible species that survived the significant climatic and environmental change toward warming temperature and forested landscape of the Late-glacial to early Holocene transition (ca. 17e6 ka cal BP). To investigate the conditions of ethological adaptation of red deer at that 13 15 34 time, isotopic analysis of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur in collagen (d Ccoll, d Ncoll, d Scoll) and of oxygen in 18 phosphate (d Op) were performed on red deer from archaeological sites of the French Jura and the western Alps. Fifty out of eighty two samples benefited from direct AMS radiocarbon dating, which confirmed the few number of red deer record during the cold Younger Dryas oscillation (ca. 12.8 e11.6 ka cal BP) in Western Europe. The French Jura red deer showed a significant decrease in their 13 15 d Ccoll values and increase in their d Ncoll values in the early Holocene compared to the Late-glacial, which is most likely due to the change in environment from open areas with low pedogenic activity 13 15 to warm dense forests with increasing soil maturity. In contrast, the stable d Ccoll and d Ncoll values over time in the western Alps were thought to indicate a change to higher altitude for the red deer habitat in 18 this mountainous region. A decrease of the d Op values between the Late-glacial and the early Holocene was observed in the western Alps red deer, in contrast to the expected increase with rising temperature which was indeed confirmed for the French Jura red deer. The multi-isotope results pointed to open areas home range at higher altitude for the Alps red deer in the Holocene compared to the previous period. The 34 15 similarity of the d Scoll patterns with those of the d Ncoll suggested the primarily influence of soil activity on the 34S abundances recorded by red deer in a purely terrestrial context. Red deer of the French Jura on one hand and of the western Alps on the other hand showed different adaptive response to the global warming of the early Holocene, with an ethological change in the first case and a change in home range in the second case. 1. Introduction rapid oscillations between warm (interstadial) and cold (stadial) events before the final global warming of the early Holocene is now The Late-glacial to early Holocene transition, from ca. 17 to extensively documented through oxygen-isotope investigation on 6 ka cal BP, was marked by significant climatic change leading to ice-cores from Greenland (Björck et al., 1998; Lowe et al., 2008). As a global warming, and the development of temperate landscape a result, the vegetation composition changed from steppe-tundra and faunal recomposition in western Europe. The succession of during the Oldest Dryas (ca. 17.0e14.7 ka cal BP) to temperate dense deciduous forest that developed by the end of the Preboreal (ca. 11.6e10.0 ka cal BP). Stadial episodes were reflected by the * Corresponding author. Fachbereich Geowissenschaften, Forschungsbereich Paläobiologie, Universität Tübingen, Hölderlinstr. 12, D-72074 Tübingen, Germany. development of herbaceous vegetation during the Younger Dryas E-mail address: [email protected] (D.G. Drucker). (ca. 12.8e11.6 ka cal BP), and interstadial episodes corresponded to the development of pine-birch forest during the Bölling/Alleröd (ca. lower than those of their counterparts living at higher altitude and/ 14.7e12.8 ka cal BP) and Preboreal (e.g. Amman and Lotter, 1989; or in more open habitat. De Beaulieu et al., 1994). A major change also occurred in the faunal composition with the extinction of megafaunal species 3. Habitat and environmental tracking using nitrogen-15 inherited from the Pleniglacial, such as woolly rhinoceros (Coelo- donta antiquitas), giant deer (Megaloceros giganteus) and mammoth The nitrogen isotopic composition of bone collagen (d15N) from (Mammuthus primigenius) in Western Europe (e.g. Stuart et al., herbivores depends on dietary, physiological and climatic param- 2004). Other glacial species such as reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) eters. The enrichment in 15N during the first months of life due to were extirpated from most regions of northwestern Europe the consumption of animal protein through maternal milk was including eastern France (Bridault et al., 2000), while temperate convincingly documented in herbivores (e.g. Jenkins et al., 2001). species such as red deer (Cervus elaphus) and roe deer (Capreolus For adults, seasonal change in diet composition, nutritional quality capreolus) increased in abundance (e.g. Sommer et al., 2008a, of the forage and physiological status (pregnancy, lactation) can 2008b). significantly impact the d15N values of tissues (e.g. Barnett, 1994; Species that survived the climatic changes and the vegetation Sponheimer et al., 2003a, 2003b; Barboza and Parker, 2006). The modifications of this period offer the opportunity to track potential effect of such punctual changes on isotopic signature can be habitat change using phenotypic indicators. Stable isotopic retained in dentine collagen coming from tooth roots, which grow composition of carbon, nitrogen, sulphur and oxygen in fossil bones on short period of time and are not remodeled once completely are some of these ecological tracers. Among these species, red deer formed (e.g. Balasse et al., 2001; Britton, 2009; Drucker et al. in (C. elaphus) is an opportunistic mixed feeder and is able to live in press). In contrast, bone collagen is reflecting long-term isotopic variable habitat from open steppe to closed temperate forest trend as bone is continuously remodeled with a turnover of several 15 (Heptner et al., 1989; Geist, 1999). The question that this paper will years over life (review in Koch, 2007). Thus, bone d Ncoll values of attempt to answer is, which strategy did red deer use to survive the mature individuals of a given species are more sensitive to envi- global warming of the early Holocene? Eastern France offers ronmental change through long time periods. Temperature and a favorable context to document ecological changes in this large aridity are mostly quoted as climatic parameters driving significant 15 15 ungulate in different topographical contexts. French Jura and the changes in d Ncoll values of herbivores as a result of change in d N western Alps exhibit contrasted altitudinal ranges that could have values of foraged plants in modern and ancient ecosystems (e.g. triggered different ecological responses of red deer facing warming. Iacumin et al., 2000; Drucker et al., 2003a; Murphy and Bowman, Isotopic trackers offer the opportunity to investigate several aspect 2006; Stevens et al., 2006). In Western Europe during the last of mammal, and especially red deer, ecology as reviewed in the 40,000 years, the chronological and geographical variation in 15 following paragraphs. d Ncoll values of large herbivore seemed to follow the intensity of soil activity driven by temperature and glacier occurrence (Drucker 2. Habitat and environmental tracking using carbon-13 et al., 2003a, 2003b; Stevens et al., 2008). A previous study focused on the Late-glacial and early Holocene red deer from the Rochedane 13 15 The carbon-13 abundances (d C) of herbivore tissues reflect site in Jura has confirmed the relation between increasing d Ncoll those of plants, which depend on the source of atmospheric carbon values and rising temperature over time (Drucker et al., 2009). and the photosynthetic process (review in Tieszen, 1991; Heaton, Implied mechanism most probably involved increasing nitrogen 1999).