Journal ArticleDOI
Linked canopy, climate, and faunal change in the Cenozoic of Patagonia
Regan E. Dunn,Caroline A.E. Strömberg,Richard H. Madden,Matthew J. Kohn,Alfredo Armando Carlini +4 more
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
A method for reconstructing leaf area index (LAI) based on light-dependent morphology of leaf epidermal cells and phytoliths derived from them is presented and, using this proxy, LAI for the Cenozoic of middle-latitude Patagonia is reconstructed.Abstract:
Vegetation structure is a key determinant of ecosystems and ecosystem function, but paleoecological techniques to quantify it are lacking. We present a method for reconstructing leaf area index (LAI) based on light-dependent morphology of leaf epidermal cells and phytoliths derived from them. Using this proxy, we reconstruct LAI for the Cenozoic (49 million to 11 million years ago) of middle-latitude Patagonia. Our record shows that dense forests opened up by the late Eocene; open forests and shrubland habitats then fluctuated, with a brief middle-Miocene regreening period. Furthermore, endemic herbivorous mammals show accelerated tooth crown height evolution during open, yet relatively grass-free, shrubland habitat intervals. Our Patagonian LAI record provides a high-resolution, sensitive tool with which to dissect terrestrial ecosystem response to changing Southern Ocean conditions during the Cenozoic.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
The Miocene: The Future of the Past
Margret Steinthorsdottir,Margret Steinthorsdottir,Helen K. Coxall,A. M. de Boer,Matthew Huber,Natasha Barbolini,Catherine Bradshaw,Catherine Bradshaw,Natalie J. Burls,Sarah J. Feakins,Edward Gasson,Jorijntje Henderiks,Ann Holbourn,S. Kiel,S. Kiel,Matthew J. Kohn,Gregor Knorr,Wolfram M. Kürschner,Caroline H Lear,Diederik Liebrand,Daniel J. Lunt,Thomas Mörs,Thomas Mörs,Paul Nicholas Pearson,Matthew J. Pound,Heather Stoll,Caroline A.E. Strömberg +26 more
TL;DR: A review of the state-of-the-art in Miocene climate, ocean circulation, biogeochemical cycling, ice sheet dynamics, and biotic adaptation research can be found in this article.
Journal ArticleDOI
Untangling the environmental from the dietary: dust does not matter
Gildas Merceron,Anusha Ramdarshan,Cécile Blondel,Jean-Renaud Boisserie,Noël Brunetière,Arthur Francisco,Denis Gautier,X. Milhet,Alice Novello,Dimitri Prêt +9 more
TL;DR: Dust appears a less significant determinant of dental microwear signatures than the intrinsic properties of ingested foods, implying that diet plays a critical role in driving the natural selection of dental innovations.
Journal ArticleDOI
Heterogeneity in global vegetation and terrestrial climate change during the late Eocene to early Oligocene transition.
Matthew J. Pound,Ulrich Salzmann +1 more
TL;DR: The first global vegetation and terrestrial temperature reconstructions for the EOT are presented and it is concluded that the heterogeneous pattern of global vegetation change has been controlled by a combination of multiple forcings, such as tectonics, sea-level fall and long-term decline in greenhouse gas concentrations during the late Eocene to early Oligocene.
Journal ArticleDOI
Functions of phytoliths in vascular plants: an evolutionary perspective
TL;DR: Mapping analysis indicates that active silica accumulation evolved numerous times, rather than being ancestral in land plants, and finds no convincing evidence for Cenozoic grass-grazer co-evolution.
Journal ArticleDOI
Ancient Mitogenomes Reveal the Evolutionary History and Biogeography of Sloths
Frédéric Delsuc,Melanie Kuch,Gillian C. Gibb,Gillian C. Gibb,Emil Karpinski,Dirk Hackenberger,Paul Szpak,Jorge G. Martínez,James I. Mead,H. Gregory McDonald,Ross D. E. MacPhee,Guillaume Billet,Lionel Hautier,Lionel Hautier,Hendrik N. Poinar +14 more
TL;DR: It is shown that recently extinct Caribbean sloths have a single origin but comprise two highly divergent lineages that are not directly related to living two-fingered sloths, which instead group with Mylodon.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Trends, Rhythms, and Aberrations in Global Climate 65 Ma to Present
TL;DR: This work focuses primarily on the periodic and anomalous components of variability over the early portion of this era, as constrained by the latest generation of deep-sea isotope records.
Book
Forest environments in tropical life zones: a pilot study.
L. R. Holdridge,W. C. Grenke +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the potential of a bioecological classification of tropical forests to organize quantitative data on undercanopy environments into a predictive system was examined, and a brief explanatory Life Zone mapping exercise was conducted in Thailand during 1965.
Journal ArticleDOI
The global extent and determinants of savanna and forest as alternative biome states.
TL;DR: Tree cover, climate, fire, and soils data sets are used to show that tree cover is globally discontinuous, and only fire differentiates between savanna and forest.
Journal ArticleDOI
Marked Decline in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentrations During the Paleogene
Mark Pagani,James C Zachos,James C Zachos,James C Zachos,Katherine H. Freeman,Katherine H. Freeman,Katherine H. Freeman,Brett J. Tipple,Brett J. Tipple,Brett J. Tipple,S. M. Bohaty,S. M. Bohaty,S. M. Bohaty +12 more
TL;DR: Stable carbon isotopic values of di-unsaturated alkenones extracted from deep sea cores are used to reconstruct pCO2 from the middle Eocene to the late Oligocene and demonstrate that it ranged between 1000 to 1500 parts per million by volume in the middle to late Eocene, then decreased in several steps during theOligocene, and reached modern levels by the latest Oligaen.
Journal ArticleDOI
Global synthesis of leaf area index observations: implications for ecological and remote sensing studies
TL;DR: The first global synthesis of plant canopy leaf area index (LAI) measurements from more than 1000 published estimates representing ∼ 400 unique field sites was presented in this article, where the data provide input to terrestrial ecosystem and land-surface models, for evaluation of global remote sensing products, for comparison to field studies, and other applications.
Related Papers (5)
An early Cenozoic perspective on greenhouse warming and carbon-cycle dynamics
The Origins of C4 Grasslands: Integrating Evolutionary and Ecosystem Science
Erika J. Edwards,Colin P. Osborne,Caroline A.E. Strömberg,Stephen A. Smith,William J. Bond,Pascal-Antoine Christin,Asaph B. Cousins,Melvin R. Duvall,David L. Fox,Robert P. Freckleton,Oula Ghannoum,James Hartwell,Yongsong Huang,Christine M. Janis,Jon E. Keeley,Jon E. Keeley,Elizabeth A. Kellogg,Alan K. Knapp,Andrew D. B. Leakey,David M. Nelson,Jeffery M. Saarela,Rowan F. Sage,Osvaldo E. Sala,Nicolas Salamin,Nicolas Salamin,Christopher J. Still,Brett J. Tipple +26 more