International collaborator: Extraction of ancient DNA from the Atacama rodent fossil coprolites to reconstruct vegetation change.

Visiting from:  Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Chile

2016

Project: Analyzing ancient DNA, plant macrofossils and N isotopes in fossil rodent middens from the Atacama desert (Chile) to reconstruct past climate and biotic change during the last 30,000 years. During her visit to Landcare she extracted ancient DNA from the Atacama rodent fossil coprolites to reconstruct vegetation change and complement their records. DNA of parasites and plant pathogens were also analysed from the middens to reveal new insights from the Atacama Desert.

Key Outputs

Wood, J.R., Díaz, F.P., Latorre, C., Wilmshurst, J.M., Burge, O.R., González, F. and Gutiérrez, R.A., 2019. Ancient parasite DNA from late Quaternary Atacama Desert rodent middens. Quaternary Science Reviews, 226, p.106031.

Díaz, F.P., Latorre, C., Carrasco‐Puga, G., Wood, J.R., Wilmshurst, J.M., Soto, D.C., Cole, T.L. and Gutiérrez, R.A., 2019. Multiscale climate change impacts on plant diversity in the Atacama Desert. Global Change Biology, 25(5), pp.1733-1745.

Wood, J.R., Díaz, F.P., Latorre, C., Wilmshurst, J.M., Burge, O.R. and Gutiérrez, R.A., 2018. Plant pathogen responses to Late Pleistocene and Holocene climate change in the central Atacama Desert, Chile. Scientific reports, 8(1), pp.1-8.