Investigating the impact of humans on the feasibility of mammalian interaction networks across the globe

• Grant number: 25/04833-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: September 01, 2025
• End date: February 28, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Theoretical Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Mathias Mistretta Pires
• Grantee: Pedro Danel de Souza Ugarte
• Supervisor: Justin Douglas Yeakel
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of California, Merced (UC Merced), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/15709-7 - Investigating the consequences of Late Pleistocene humans and carnivores interactions from Great Britain, BP.MS

Abstract

Human presence is often associated with changes in the dynamics of local biodiversity, and by the late Pleistocene human influence intensified, resulting in extinction events worldwide. Their presence in mammalian trophic networks resulted in direct and indirect effects that might have accelerated mammal faunal turnover. In predator-prey relationships, the level of specialization of the predator is determinant in prey population persistence. Whilst quantifying human diet breadth is challenging, exploring possible humans prey usage patterns could help us better comprehend impacted mammal populations. In this study, I aim to combine both the fossil record and ecological theory to investigate the possible drivers of mammal faunal turnover during the late Pleistocene across the globe. I will reconstruct paleo food webs and include humans with varying prey usage patterns to try to recreate extinction dynamics. I expect that the impact on communities increase as humans are closer to omnivory (i.e., they are not limited by the consumption of other mammals), with augmented extinction risks towards larger herbivore species and areas where climate change predominated.