What would the world be like without humans?

We tend to focus on the ongoing effects of humans on nature but by doing so we may easily ignore all the historic and prehistoric effects (this is often referred to as the shifting baseline syndrome). In some studies within this theme we try to understand how the world function in a hypothetical work without any human influence for the last 130 000 years which among other things would mean elephants roaming the Swedish countryside. In other studies we try to search for evidence for anthropogenic effects on biodiversity from our ancestors several million years ago. This research currently focusses on vertebrates (mainly mammals and birds).