Paleoecology

[Sully]

There are three images in this video (which very briefly describes the study above: Combining paleo-data and modern exclosure experiments to assess the impact of megafauna extinctions on woody vegetation), which show how fencing off megafauna grazers means woodland prevails, and that they are an important suppressive force for dense vegetation. I would directly post these but wildfact doesn't let the post go through so you'll have to watch it (only 2 minutes)

These clues tell us that the extinction of the megafauna at the end of the pleistocene likely resulted in significant biome changes in many areas. We expect that without the suppressive forces of megafaunal herbivores, woodland and accompanying varieties of more dense vegetation would occur. Therefore we can conclude the pleistocene epoch was one characterised with more open ecosystems such as grasslands, steppes, and savannah's in comparison to today. Reply