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In the Late Pleistocene the formation of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet (SIS) caused a wide periglacial zone in Europe. The effects of environmental conditions in the periglacial zone on small mammal assemblages have not yet been studied in detail on a European scale during maximum extension of the SIS. In this study, the impact of the SIS on the qualitative/quantitative composition of European small mammal local faunas (LFs) was studied for the GS-2.1 (∼22.9–17.48 a b2k, final of the Last Glacial Maximum). We analysed 55 LFs between 0°E and 55°E and between 45°N and 55°N and proved that the variations in their compositions contained information about spatial variation in environmental/geographical variables, including distance from the putative edge of the SIS and the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean and, to a lesser extent, the altitudes of localities. Based on various criteria, we concluded that the impact of the SIS on the spatial variability of compositions of LSs was not as significant as the effects of air masses over the Atlantic Ocean, but more important than altitude above sea level. It was most probable that the impact of the SIS, considered independently of the Atlantic Ocean, contributed in part to a latitudinal gradient of the mean annual temperature formation, while the Atlantic Ocean air masses predominantly shaped a sectoral west-east gradient of temperature and precipitation. We compared the geographic patterns of compositions of species belonging to LFs in the past and present and concluded that the effect of the Atlantic air masses is the main physical factor that forms the spatial pattern in modern European small mammals and that a similar impact prevailed during the GS-2.1. Qualitative and quantitative differences in the distribution of small mammal species in LFs and in diversity indices between the GS-2.1 and the present time were investigated. We concluded that it is possible that in the GS-2.1 narrow/fragmented ranges dominated, whereas in the Holocene the proportion of small mammal species with wide ranges and intrazonal species increased significantly in the composition of faunas. Additional evidence is provided to support the hypothesis of the existence of the "Carpathian refuge". In the GS-2.1 we attributed the lack of correlation between species richness with mean annual temperature and precipitation. A spatial mosaic of glacial/cryptic refuges conceals a positive correlation between species richness and distance from the putative edge of the SIS. In addition, we described the responses of some common and indicator species to variations in environmental variables. • The effect of SIS on a spatial pattern of LFs was not as significant as expected. • Species richness not determined by a climate pattern around the SIS in the GS.2.1. • Mosaic of glacial refuges had a specific spatial pattern in the periglacial zone. • Atlantic air masses is the main factor forms a spatial pattern of LFs in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uncertain chronology and data scarcity have impeded realistic reconstructions of megafauna extinctions in the Late Pleistocene in several key regions of the Northern Hemisphere such as Beringia. This region was a refuge for several plants, animals during the extremely cold period of the Late Pleistocene in high Arctic latitudes. The woolly rhinoceros was one of the most widespread members of the megafauna in the Asiatic part of the region (West Beringia) between ∼60 and 14 cal ka BP. This study is based on statistical analyses of 20 newly obtained and 110 previously published radiocarbon dates. We found three large "waves" in the woolly rhinoceros range changes separated between themselves by the cold climatic Heinrich events (H2 and H4). The chronology of the woolly rhinoceros was overlaid on data of environmental changes obtained basing on 504 generalized early published pollen spectra throughout the species range and, separately, outside the range – in the east of the West Beringia realm and in East Beringia. In general, milder environmental conditions of MIS3 (57–29 ka BP) were more favourable for the woolly rhinoceros than the harsh conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum (∼29–15 cal ka BP) in MIS2. We have concluded that the feed base was unlikely the main limiting factor in the distribution of woolly rhinoceros in Western Beringia, and other ecological factors (temperature/precipitation) determined the species range and its oscillation over the MIS3–MIS2 stages. Based on summarizing available data and this research, we have proposed that there were sets of different reasons that prevented the woolly rhinoceros migration to the east of Beringia in different periods of the Late Pleistocene. Abrupt woolly rhinoceros extinction in Beringia between 15 and 14 cal ka BP coincided with the Bölling warming and the Older Dryas cooling. The ecological situation just before the extinction, associated with climate warming, moisture increasing and shrub tundra expansion in West Beringia, was qualitatively different from previous cases of the species range degradations in the second half of the Late Pleistocene. This multi-proxy study of woolly rhinoceros chronology provide a new basis for further understanding of its population history, demography, and biology in Beringia before its extinction. [Display omitted] • We provide new data of the Late Pleistocene chronology of the woolly rhinoceros in West Beringia, Northeast Asia. • Three "waves" in the species range changes divided among themselves by the Heinrich events (H2 and H4) were described. • Multivariate statistical analyses of 504 generalized pollen spectra provide basic environmental changes in Beringia. • Milder environmental conditions of MIS3 were more favourable for the rhinoceros than the harsh conditions of the LGM. • The ecological conditions just before the extinction, associated with warming, moisture increasing, mesic tundra expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]