Early Eocene Asian climate dominated by desert and steppe with limited monsoons

Zhang, Zhongshi; Flatøy, Frode; Wang, Huijun; Bethke, Ingo; Bentsen, Mats; Guo, Zhengtang

doi:10.1016/j.jseaes.2011.05.013

Cited by 96 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…The Paleocene diversification of Cynoglossoideae, the most species rich group Boraginaceae (Weigend et al, 2013Chacón et al, 2016), perhaps exemplifies both of these events, as the initial divergence of this clade was followed by range expansions (or LDD) from Western Europe to Eastern Asia (Figure 2); once during the Ma; see the geological time scale in Cohen et al, 2013) in the MRCA of the clade (Rochelieae + Craniospermeae + Myosotideae + Cynoglosseae) clade, and once in the MRCA of the Lasiocaryeae + Trichodesmeae clade (Figure 1 and Table 1). During this period, parts of Western Asia and the Irano-Turanian region where covered by the Tethys Ocean, whose closure started about 50 Ma after the final collision of India with the Eurasian plate (Zhang et al, 2012). This allowed the posterior dispersal of plants between Europe and Eastern Asia, both across and from the Irano-Turanian region (e.g., Manafzadeh et al, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biogeographic Events Are Not Correlated with Diaspore Dispersal Modes in Boraginaceae

2017

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Long-distance dispersal seems to be the main biogeographic event responsible for intriguing distribution patterns in plant groups in which sister taxa are separated by thousands of kilometers of distance across oceans and continents. The biotic and abiotic mechanisms behind such dispersal events are poorly understood and many attempts have been made to explain how plants can manage to disperse and survive these long journeys. The biogeographic history of Boraginaceae, a subcosmopolitan plant family with many disjunct clades, is here addressed and analyzed in the context of the different dispersal modes exhibited by the species. The lack of a clear pattern between the main dispersal events in Boraginaceae and the phylogenetic distribution of the dispersal modes indicates that no single dispersal mechanism can be associated with the events of dispersal in the family. Moreover, adaptations to different dispersal agents and unassisted dispersal modes in some clades might have promoted the diversification of Boraginaceae in various habitats across several continents. Our study reveals that long-distance dispersal is a very complex process that needs to be analyzed in the context of climatic and environmental changes and the response of plants and their dispersal vectors to these variable conditions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biogeographic Events Are Not Correlated with Diaspore Dispersal Modes in Boraginaceae

2017

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“…The low-latitude modern African monsoon is similar to southernmost China in the Paleogene, where a tropical monsoon was present but did not extend far into the continent. In the region north of the aridity belt, a Mediterranean-like climate likely exists (Guo, 2010;Zhang et al, 2012), as is currently the case for the northern African continent.…”

Section: 2 Comparison Of the Regional Monsoonal Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The global monsoon across timescales: coherent variability of regional monsoons

et al. 2014

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Abstract. Monsoon has earned increasing attention from the climate community since the last century, yet only recently have regional monsoons been recognized as a global system. It remains a debated issue, however, as to what extent and at which timescales the global monsoon can be viewed as a major mode of climate variability. For this purpose, a PAGES (Past Global Changes) working group (WG) was set up to investigate the concept of the global monsoon and its future research directions. The WG's synthesis is presented here. On the basis of observation and proxy data, the WG found that the regional monsoons can vary coherently, although not perfectly, at various timescales, varying between interannual, interdecadal, centennial, millennial, orbital and tectonic timescales, conforming to the global monsoon concept across timescales. Within the global monsoon system, each subsystem has its own features, depending on its geographic and topographic conditions. Discrimination between global and regional components in the monsoon system is a key to revealing the driving factors in monsoon variations; hence, the global monsoon concept helps to enhance our understanding and to improve future projections of the regional monsoons. This paper starts with a historical review of the global monsoon concept in both modern and paleoclimatology, and an assessment of monsoon proxies used in regional and global scales. The main body of the paper is devoted to a summary of observation data at various timescales, providing evidence of the coherent global monsoon system. The paper concludes with a projection of future monsoon shifts in a warming world. The synthesis will be followed by a companion paper addressing driving mechanisms and outstanding issues in global monsoon studies.

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“…Geophysical modeling identifies desert and steppe climates with a limited monsoon in central Asia during early Eocene epoch (Zhang et al, 2012). The occurrence of late Paleocene-Eocene coals of the Himalaya suggests high degree of precipitation may be as a result of moderate Asian monsoon system during their development.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There were many hyperthermal events during Paleocene and Eocene epochs, but the extreme global warming that lasted for about 200,000 years occurred during Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), where the early Eocene was 5-7 ᵒ C warmer than the late Paleocene (Svensen et al, 2004;Sexton et al, 2011). Geophysical modeling reveals that desert and steppe climates dominated in Asia during early Eocene (Zhang et al, 2012) and the Indo-Asian monsoon system likely commenced sometime in the Eocene (Huber and Goldner, 2012). In contrast the late Eocene-Oligocene, linked with the nucleation and expansion of the Antarctic ice-sheets, was relatively cooler than the early Eocene.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%