Mammoth steppe

During the Last Glacial Maximum, the mammoth steppe was the Earth’s most extensive biome. It spanned from Spain eastwards across Eurasia to Canada and from the arctic islands southwards to China. It had a cold, dry climate, the vegetation was dominated by palatable high-productivity grasses, herbs and willow shrubs, and the animal biomass was dominated by the bison, horse, and the woolly mammoth. This ecosystem covered wide areas of the northern part of the globe, thrived for approximately 100,000 years without major changes and then suddenly became all but extinct about 12,000 years ago.

At the end of the 19th century, Alfred Nehring (1890) and Iwan Dementjewitsch Chersky (Tscherski, 1891) proposed that during the last glacial period a major part of northern Europe had been populated by large herbivores and that a steppe climate had prevailed there. In 1982, the scientist R. Dale Guthrie coined the term "mammoth steppe" for this paleoregion.

The last glacial period, commonly referred to as the 'Ice Age', spanned from 125,000 to 14,500 YBP and was the most recent glacial period within the current ice age which occurred during the last years of the era. It reached its peak during the last glacial maximum, when ice sheets commenced advancing from 33,000 years BP and reached their maximum positions 26,500 years BP. Deglaciation commenced in the Northern Hemisphere approximately 19,000 years BP, and in Antarctica approximately 14,500 years BP which is consistent with evidence that it was the primary source for an abrupt rise in the sea level at that time.

During the peak of the last glacial maximum, a vast mammoth steppe stretched from Spain across Eurasia and over the Bering land bridge into Alaska and the Yukon where it was stopped by the Wisconsin glaciation. This land bridge existed because more of the planet's water was locked up in ice than now and therefore the sea levels were lower. When the sea levels began to rise this bridge was inundated around 11,000 years BP.

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