See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330673180 Multiproxy studies on dung of endangered Sangai (Rucervus eldii eldii) and Hog deer (Axis porcinus) from Manipur, India: Implications for paleoherbivory and paleoecology Article in Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology · January 2019 DOI: 10.1016/j.revpalbo.2019.01.008 CITATIONS READS 5 1,000 6 authors, including: Swati Tripathi Sadhan Kumar Basumatary Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow, India 52 PUBLICATIONS 278 CITATIONS 56 PUBLICATIONS 345 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE Yengkhom Raghumani Singh H. Gregory McDonald Manipur University BLM - The Bureau of Land Management Lakewood Colorado (Retired) 39 PUBLICATIONS 153 CITATIONS 171 PUBLICATIONS 4,370 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Holocene vegetation vis vis climate alterations in Brahmaputra and Barak valley, Assam View project Holocene Paleoclimate View project All content following this page was uploaded by Swati Tripathi on 01 February 2019. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 263 (2019) 85–103 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/revpalbo Multiproxy studies on dung of endangered Sangai (Rucervus eldii eldii) and Hog deer (Axis porcinus) from Manipur, India: Implications for paleoherbivory and paleoecology Swati Tripathi a,⁎, Sadhan K. Basumatary a, Yengkhom R. Singh b, H. Gregory McDonald c, Deepika Tripathi d, L. Joykumar Singh e a Quaternary Palynology Laboratory, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, 53 University Road, Lucknow 226007, Uttar Pradesh, India b Department of Earth Sciences, Manipur University, Canchipur, Imphal 795003, Manipur, India c Bureau of Land Management, Utah State Office, 440 West 200 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84101, USA d Department of Botany, University of Allahabad, Allahabad 220002, Uttar Pradesh, India e Central Forest Division, Government of Manipur, Imphal 795001, Manipur, India article info abstract Article history: Pollen and non-pollen palynomorph analyses of 16 summer and winter dung samples of two endangered deer Received 15 June 2018 species, Sangai (Rucervus eldii eldii M'clelland) and Hog deer (Axis porcinus Zimmermann) from Keibul Lamjao Received in revised form 7 January 2019 National Park of Manipur, northeast India, was undertaken to examine the dietary preferences of these species Accepted 19 January 2019 in relation to the vegetation and ecology of the region. Grass is the primary food for both the deer species, Available online 25 January 2019 which though obvious based on direct observation, is also supported by our dataset, as indicated by the abun- Keywords: dance of grass pollen and phytoliths in the dung assemblage. Additionally, marshy and aquatic taxa are present Pollen and indicative of the importance of these plants in the diet of both species and indicate the utilization of the pe- Phytolith rennial water-logged habitat present in the region. The relative abundance and diversity of arboreal taxa in the Sangai and Hog deer summer dung samples is consistent with the extant vegetation. Fungal spores, especially coprophilous fungi, Dung were consistently present in the assemblage, although in low values. Energy Dispersive Spectroscopic (EDS) anal- Endangered ysis on the dung samples indicates that silica content was higher in the winter season compared to the summer Paleodietary dung samples. Multivariate principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to the quantified data obtained from Manipur pollen and phytolith frequency analyses of the dung samples and clearly revealed a significant variation in veg- India etation types based on pollen and phytoliths. These generated data will be helpful to document and understand seasonal difference in dietary preferences and ecology of the two deer species along with the other associated herbivores in the region. The palynodata is also useful in tracing the relationship between modern pollen and vegetation, which is challenging to accomplish systematically due to seasonal flooding of the region. © 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. 1. Introduction of these megafauna (animals with average weights N 44kg) remains controversial (Barnosky, 2008), with climate fluctuations (Wroe and The late Quaternary megafaunal extinction was a severe global-scale Field, 2006; Webb, 2008; Wroe et al., 2013; Cooper et al., 2015), event and has been researched by various workers in the recent past human impact through hunting (Brook and Johnson, 2006; Johnson, (Rule et al., 2012; Malhi et al., 2016). During the late Pleistocene and 2006; Brook et al., 2007), habitat alteration (Miller et al., 2016), and/or early Holocene, regions around the world suffered significant losses of a synergistic combination of climate and humans (Miller et al., 2005; megafauna species of a magnitude unprecedented for many millions Metcalf et al., 2016; Saltre´ et al., 2016), the commonly cited causes. Cur- of years (Barnosky et al., 2004; Prescott et al., 2012; Stegner and rently about 60% of the large extant herbivorous animals are now Holmes, 2013). Although the extinction of mammalian taxa is docu- threatened with possible extinction (Ripple et al., 2015). In southeast mented throughout the Cenozoic fossil record, the rapid and large Asia, between 21 and 48% of all native mammal species are predicted global species losses without functional replacements at the end of the to be extinct by 2100 (Brook et al., 2003). Major extinction drivers in- Pleistocene are unusual. Identifying the drivers of the global extinctions clude forest conversion for agriculture and exotic-tree plantations (Koh and Wilcove, 2008; Aziz et al., 2010) and market-driven hunting ⁎ Corresponding author. for bush meat, valuable body parts and traditional medicine (Bennett E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Tripathi). and Robinson, 2008; Brook et al., 2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2019.01.008 0034-6667/© 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. 86 S. Tripathi et al. / Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 263 (2019) 85–103 The Manipur Brow-antlered deer or Sangai (Rucervus eldii eldii)is diversity in India, barring these studies, no research has been focused the state animal of Manipur and leitmotif of the state's art, culture and on pollen and NPP preservation on the dung of other wild taxa. A num- folklore. It is considered to be “Critically Endangered” under The IUCN ber of pathways have been identified for the incorporations of the pol- Red List of Threatened Species (Gray et al., 2015) and is on the highest len and non-pollen palynomorphs into the animal's dung, such as list of protection under the Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) ingestion of plants, deposition of air pollen after excretion and water in- Act, 1972. Locally known as Sangai, it is the Indian form of the four sub gestion (Carrion et al., 2005). Additionally, the ingestion of ground soil species of Eld's deer. The Sangai is also included in Appendix 1 of the (geophagy) and other sources could also result in the incorporation of Convention on International trade in endangered species of wild fauna palynomorphs in the dung. Therefore, the study of pollen and non- and flora (CITES). Its critically threatened status is the result of un- pollen palynomorphs from the Sangai and Hog deer dung has the poten- treated human waste entering the 40 sq. km., national park, the deer's tial to examine the relationship between the modern pollen and vegeta- last refuge in India. This water includes liquid effluents, solid wastes tion and the diet of these deer species and document differences in and sewage from Manipur's capital city Imphal transported by polluted habitat utilization by these two cervids as well as seasonal differences rivers that empty into the national park. Additionally the reduction in in their respective diets. population size as led to a, loss of genetic variability resulting from, in- Studies have been carried out on coprophilous fungi in surface and breeding, genetic drift, catastrophic events like flood and diseases and sedimentary soil profiles to document or infer the former presence, poaching activities, all of which have rendered the animal critically en- and subsequent decline of herbivorous animals in a region (Davis, dangered (Angom, 2012; Angom and Hussain, 2013). Besides, Sangai 1987; Burney et al., 2003; Robinson et al., 2005; Raper and Bush, deer, a detailed assessment of the Red List status of Axis porcinus (com- 2009). Feranec et al. (2011) noted the need for more studies to better mon name Hog Deer) in 2008 convincingly demonstrated that the spe- understand different coprophilous fungal taxa as a proxy for the pres- cies had been undergoing a serious and overlooked global decline for ence of megaherbivores and to identify whether particular taxa are decades (Gupta et al., 2018). The Hog deer is a very primitive cervid, re- only present on the dung of specific herbivores. Thus, in this study we ported to have been present since the Pliocene and Pleistocene, when also tried to determine the fungal morphotypes in the dung samples forests were interspersed with open areas across Europe and Asia (Di of these deer species. The systematic study of the modern pollen and Stefano and Petronio, 2002). At the beginning of the 20th century, it vegetation relationship in Keibul Lamjao National Park is challenging was widely distributed throughout the Southeast Asian countries. How- due to high risk of disturbance to the wildlife and the ecology. Therefore, ever, in recent decades, continued depletion of its habitat has resulted in the primary objective of this study is to analyze the preservation of pol- a population decline, and it is confined to a few localities in its historical len and non-pollen palynomorphs on seasonally (summer and winter) distribution range (Biswas and Mathur, 2000). It is supposed to be ex- procured dung samples of these two deer species in order to determine tinct in 35 localities of Southeast Asia where it was found.