Carbon loss by deciduous trees in a CO2-rich ancient polar environment

Royer, Dana L.; Osborne, Colin P.; Beerling, David J.

doi:10.1038/nature01737

Cited by 60 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Spicer and Chapman, 1990). Recent modelling experiments Royer et al, 2003;Osborne et al, 2004) on bliving fossilsQ show that such conclusions can be refuted since the carbon cost of annually shedding leaves in deciduous trees greatly exceeds the cost of respiration in an evergreen canopy. Therefore attention needs to be paid to the morphology and anatomy (e.g.…”

Section: Implications For Growth In the High Southern Latitudesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multi-proxy approach to determine Antarctic terrestrial palaeoclimate during the Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary

Poole

Cantrill

Utescher

2005

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

100

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Fossil wood is abundant throughout the Cretaceous and Tertiary sequences of the northern Antarctic Peninsula region. The fossil wood represents the remains of the vegetation that once grew at the southern high palaeolatitudes at 59-628S through the general decline in climate, from the Late Cretaceous global warmth through to the mid-Eocene cool period prior to the onset of glaciation. This study draws on the largest dataset ever compiled of Antarctic conifer and angiosperm woods in order to derive clearer insights into the palaeoclimate. Parameters including mean annual temperature, mean annual range in temperature, cold month mean, warm month mean, mean annual precipitation are recorded. The fossil wood assemblages have been analysed using anatomical (physiognomic) characteristics to determine the palaeoclimate variables from the Coniacian-Campanian to the middle Eocene. These results are compared with data derived from Coexistence Analysis of the fossil floras (composed of leaves, wood and palynomorphs) and published data based on leaf physiognomic characters. These studies indicate a relatively warm and wet Late Cretaceous that becomes drier and cooler in the Early Paleocene and subsequently returns to warmer, wetter conditions by the latest Early Paleocene. During the Eocene the climate becomes relatively cool and dry once again. The discrepancies obtained from these two methods coupled with other published data are discussed in the context of the fluctuations in the temperatures of the surrounding oceans and global patterns of climate change. D

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Section: Implications For Growth In the High Southern Latitudesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multi-proxy approach to determine Antarctic terrestrial palaeoclimate during the Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary

Poole

Cantrill

Utescher

2005

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

100

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“…Long-standing evidence for a warm Arctic climate was first indicated by the Eocene fauna on Ellesmere Island (Nunavut, Arctic Canada) that included alligators, a varanid lizard, boid snakes, giant tortoises, tapirs and primates [10][11][12][13][14]. The physiological stresses placed on plants growing in warm polar latitudes are unique-these plants, even in greenhouse conditions of the past, tolerated the same extreme photoperiod that exists currently above the Arctic Circle [15] because the fossil-bearing strata in the High Arctic were just a couple of degrees further south than their present-day latitude [16,17]. Many of these polar plants were deciduous [3,4] and dormant during the dark winter months, but physiologically active during the low-intensity 24 h summer light regime [15,18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arctic plant diversity in the Early Eocene greenhouse

Harrington

Eberle

LePage³

et al. 2011

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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For the majority of the Early Caenozoic, a remarkable expanse of humid, mesothermal to temperate forests spread across Northern Polar regions that now contain specialized plant and animal communities adapted to life in extreme environments. Little is known on the taxonomic diversity of Arctic floras during greenhouse periods of the Caenozoic. We show for the first time that plant richness in the globally warm Early Eocene (approx. 55 -52 Myr) in the Canadian High Arctic (768 N) is comparable with that approximately 3500 km further south at mid-latitudes in the US western interior (44 -478 N). Arctic Eocene pollen floras are most comparable in richness with today's forests in the southeastern United States, some 5000 km further south of the Arctic. Nearly half of the Eocene, Arctic plant taxa are endemic and the richness of pollen floras implies significant patchiness to the vegetation type and clear regional richness of angiosperms. The reduced latitudinal diversity gradient in Early Eocene North American plant species demonstrates that extreme photoperiod in the Arctic did not limit taxonomic diversity of plants.

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“…Thus, the positive carbon balance experienced by deciduous plants created a competitive edge that allowed such plants to dominate warm ancient polar ecosystems. Growth chamber experiments and numerical models, however, demonstrate that there is no carbon balance advantage for deciduous trees over evergreen trees grown under a simulated polar photoperiod (Osborne & Beerling 2002;Royer et al 2003Royer et al , 2005, because deciduous trees must annually regrow all leaf tissue, and the carbon source for this new growth must be derived from photosynthate fixed during previous growing seasons (Sauter 1967;Essiamah & Eschrich 1985;Barbaroux & Breda 2002;Damesin & LeLarge 2003). Nevertheless, fossil evidence of trees such as Metasequoia, Larix, Alnus and Betula provides support that deciduous trees dominated the Northern Hemisphere polar regions during the Cenozoic (Wolfe 1980;Greenwood & Basinger 1993;Greenwood 1994;Williams et al 2003Williams et al , 2008Ballantyne et al 2010;Csank et al 2011a,b) and the Cretaceous (Spicer & Parrish 1986;Spicer & Chapman 1990), and they are interpreted to have dominated the Southern Hemisphere polar regions during the Permian and Triassic ( Fig.…”

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Leaf habit of Late PermianGlossopteristrees from high-palaeolatitude forests

Gulbranson

Ryberg

Decombeix

et al. 2014

JGS

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Abstract:The leaf longevity of trees, deciduous or evergreen, plays an important role in climate feedbacks and plant ecology. in modern forests of the high latitudes, evergreen trees dominate; however, the fossil record indicates that deciduous vegetation dominated during some previous warm intervals. We show, through an integration of palaeobotanical techniques and isotope geochemistry of trees in one of the earliest polar forests (Late Permian, c. 260 Ma, Antarctica), that the arborescent glossopterid taxa were both deciduous and evergreen, with a greater abundance of evergreen trees occurring in the studied forests. These new findings suggest the possibility that deciduousness was a plastic trait in ancient polar plants, and that deciduous plants, migrating poleward from lower latitudes, were probably better adapted to high-disturbance areas in environments that were light-limited.

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Carbon loss by deciduous trees in a CO2-rich ancient polar environment

Cited by 60 publications

References 24 publications

A multi-proxy approach to determine Antarctic terrestrial palaeoclimate during the Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary

A multi-proxy approach to determine Antarctic terrestrial palaeoclimate during the Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary

Arctic plant diversity in the Early Eocene greenhouse

Leaf habit of Late PermianGlossopteristrees from high-palaeolatitude forests

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