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Lyons et al. reply

Nature volume 537, pages E5–E6 (2016)Cite this article

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REPLYING TO C. Bertelsmeier & S. Ollier Nature 537, 10.1038/nature19110 (2016)

In the accompanying Comment1, Bertelsmeier and Ollier criticize our statistical analyses and question our conclusion that there was a shift in community structure in the mid-Holocene epoch2. The critique is based on a generalized linear model (GLM) using a binomial error distribution and logit link. We question the validity of the analyses made by Bertelsmeier and Ollier1 for several reasons.

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References

  1. Bertelsmeier, C. & Ollier, S. Questioning Holocene community shifts. Nature 537, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature19110 (2016)

  2. Lyons, S. K. et al. Holocene shifts in the assembly of plant and animal communities implicate human impacts. Nature 529, 80–83 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Gradstein, F. M. The Geologic Time Scale 2012 1st edn (Elsevier, 2012)

  4. Ulrich, W. Pairs—a FORTRAN program for studying pair wise species associations in ecological matrices. Available at: http://www.keib.umk.pl/pairs/?lang=en (2010)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA

    S. Kathleen Lyons, Anikó Tóth, Anna K. Behrensmeyer, Antoine Bercovici, William A. DiMichelle, Conrad Labandeira, Silvia Pineda-Munoz & Scott Wing

  2. Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, 45221, Ohio, USA

    Joshua H. Miller

  3. Department of Environmental Science and Biology, The College at Brockport – SUNY, Brockport, 14420, New York, USA

    Kathryn L. Amatangelo

  4. School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced, 5200 North Lake Road, Merced, 95343, California, USA

    Jessica L. Blois

  5. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, 06520, Connecticut, USA

    Matt Davis

  6. Department of Anthropology, Hominid Paleobiology Doctoral Program, Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology, George Washington University, Washington DC, 20052, USA

    Andrew Du, David Patterson & Amelia Villaseñor

  7. Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland,

    Jussi T. Eronen

  8. School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, Queensland, Australia

    J. Tyler Faith

  9. Department of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, 20013, USA

    Gary R. Graves

  10. Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 2100, Denmark

    Gary R. Graves

  11. Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611, Florida, USA

    Nathan Jud

  12. Department of Entomology, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, 20742, Maryland, USA

    Conrad Labandeira

  13. Key Lab of Insect Evolution and Environmental Changes, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100048, China

    Conrad Labandeira

  14. Department of Integrative Biology and Museum of Paleontology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Cindy V. Looy

  15. School Biology and Ecology & Sustainability Solutions Initiative, University of Maine, Orono, 04469, Maine, USA

    Brian McGill

  16. Department of Anthropology, Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, 20013, USA

    Richard Potts

  17. School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Las Vegas, 89154, Nevada, USA

    Brett Riddle

  18. Department of Integrative Biology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, 97731, Oregon, USA

    Rebecca Terry

  19. Chair of Ecology and Biogeography, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Lwowska 1, Torun, 87-100, Poland

    Werner Ulrich

  20. Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Heidi Anderson & John Anderson

  21. Department of Biology, University of Vermont, Burlington, 05405, Vermont, USA

    Nicholas J. Gotelli

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  1. S. Kathleen Lyons
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Correspondence to S. Kathleen Lyons.

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Lyons, S., Miller, J., Tóth, A. et al. Lyons et al. reply. Nature 537, E5–E6 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature19111

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