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Pleistocene climate cycles are well documented to have shaped contemporary species distributions and genetic diversity. Northward range expansions in response to deglaciation following the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; approximately 21 000 years ago) are surmised to have led to population size expansions in terrestrial taxa and changes in seasonal migratory behaviour. Recent findings, however, suggest that some northern temperate populations may have been more stable than expected through the LGM. We modelled the demographic history of 19 co-distributed boreal-breeding North American bird species from full mitochondrial gene sets and species-specific molecular rates. We used these demographic reconstructions to test how species with different migratory strategies were affected by glacial cycles. Our results suggest that effective population sizes increased in response to Pleistocene deglaciation earlier than the LGM, whereas genetic diversity was maintained throughout the LGM despite shifts in geographical range. We conclude that glacial cycles prior to the LGM have most strongly shaped contemporary genetic diversity in these species. We did not find a relationship between historic population dynamics and migratory strategy, contributing to growing evidence that major switches in migratory strategy during the LGM are unnecessary to explain contemporary migratory patterns.
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This content will become publicly available on November 13, 2025
Exploring the impact of deglaciation on fault slip in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Colorado, USA
Few natural examples exist where climate’s influence on tectonics is clear. Based on a study of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in southern Colorado, we argue that climate-driven changes in ice loads affected spatial and temporal slip patterns on the range-front normal fault. Relict glacial features enable the reconstruction of paleoglacier extents and show variable amounts of footwall ice coverage during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Line load models indicate post-LGM ice melting reduced fault clamping stress by ~20–55 kPa at seismic depths. Flexural isostatic modeling shows several meters of footwall uplift due to ice unloading with spatial patterns and magnitudes consistent with post-LGM fault throw measured from offset Holocene and late Pleistocene alluvial fans. Post-LGM fault throw rates are at least a factor of five higher than middle and early Pleistocene rates. We infer that climate-modulated ice-load changes can pace fault clamping stress and slip patterns on range-bounding normal faults.
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- PAR ID:
- 10583960
- Publisher / Repository:
- GSA
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Geology
- Volume:
- 53
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0091-7613
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 150 to 154
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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