Late Paleozoic continental warming of a cold tropical basin and floristic change in western Pangea

Tabor, Neil J.; DiMichele, William A.; Montañez, Isabel P.; Chaney, Dan S.

doi:10.1016/j.coal.2013.07.009

Cited by 57 publications

(35 citation statements)

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“…The floras from this time, Morrowan and Atokan, encompassed a considerable diversity of wetland species, including Lepidodendron, pteridosperms such as Neuropteris, and various calamitaleans (Tidwell 1967;Tidwell et al 1992;Lucas et al 2009). During the later Middle Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian) and Late Pennsylvanian (Tidwell 1988;Tidwell et al 1999;DiMichele et al 2004DiMichele et al , 2010DiMichele et al , 2013bDiMichele and Chaney 2005;Lerner et al 2009;Tabor et al 2013aTabor et al , 2013b, western wetland floras were less widespread and, as in the eastern coal basins, were greatly enriched in tree ferns, with a continued presence of pteridosperms and Sigillaria as the only tree lycopsid (figs. 15E-15L, 16B-16E).…”

Section: Fate Of the Wetland Flora During Dry-climate Intervalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These patterns of change in climate and ice volume appear to be strongly correlated with and probably driven by changes in atmospheric CO 2 concentration (Montañ ez and Poulsen 2013). Furthermore, there is evidence that the Pennsylvanian tropics at times, or perhaps at parts of glacial-interglacial cycles, may have been cooler than those of the modern world (Soreghan et al 2008;Tabor et al 2013a). These findings are in conformance with the surmise of Fredericksen (1972) that Pennsylvanian wetlands may have been cooler than generally envisioned.…”

Section: Tropical Cyclothems and Climate Cyclesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Wetland-Dryland Vegetational Dynamics in the Pennsylvanian Ice Age Tropics

DiMichele¹

2014

International Journal of Plant Sciences

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158

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Premise of research. The Late Paleozoic Ice Age was the last extensive pre-Pleistocene ice age. It includes many climate changes of different intensities, permitting examination of many and varied biotic responses. The tropical Pennsylvanian Subperiod, usually visualized as one vast wetland coal forest, in fact also was dominated, periodically, by seasonally dry vegetation that, in turn, covered most of the central and western Pangean supercontinent. Equatorial wetland and dryland biomes oscillated during single glacial-interglacial cycles. This recognition changes understanding of the Coal Age tropics; examination of their spatiotemporal patterns indicates that these vegetation types responded differently to global environmental disturbances and long-term trends and points to potentially different underlying controls on evolutionary histories of their component lineages.Methodology. This study is based on the published literature and on examination of geological exposures and fossil floras, mainly from North America but also from other parts of the world.Pivotal results. Wetlands and seasonally dry habitats were equally part of the Coal Age Pangean tropics. They dominated these landscapes at different times, under different climatic regimes. Wetland vegetation was likely forced into refugia during seasonally dry (subhumid to semiarid) parts of glacial-interglacial cycles; it reemerged/reassembled during wet (humid to perhumid) periods. Seasonally dry vegetation resided permanently in areas of western and central Pangea and in microhabitats within the Central Pangean Mountains. Both floras had lower biodiversity than modern floras in similar habitats. The wetland flora species pool was more phylogenetically disparate than any modern vegetation. In contrast, seasonally dry floras were dominated by seed plants. These biomes responded differently to acute environmental changes and chronic long-term aridification.Conclusions. From ecological or evolutionary perspectives, the present-day world is but one possibility. Lower-diversity worlds such as the late Paleozoic, with a rich spectrum of environmental variations, offer insights into relationships between organisms and environments that expand understanding of these phenomena and enlarge our sense of what is possible or probable as we look to the future.

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Section: Fate Of the Wetland Flora During Dry-climate Intervalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Tropical Cyclothems and Climate Cyclesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wetland-Dryland Vegetational Dynamics in the Pennsylvanian Ice Age Tropics

DiMichele¹

2014

International Journal of Plant Sciences

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158

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“…This icehouse-greenhouse transition was driven by an increase of atmospheric pCO 2 (with associated fluctuations) resulting in a global warming (Montañez et al, 2007Peyser and Poulsen, 2008;Isbell et al, 2012) and being an important analogue for the Pleistocene-present climatic 3 change (DiMichele et al, 2001;Chumakov and Zharkov, 2002;Tabor et al, 2013;DiMichele, 2014;Montañez et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aridification across the Carboniferous–Permian transition in central equatorial Pangea: The Catalan Pyrenean succession (NE Iberian Peninsula)

Mujal

Fortuny

Marmi

et al. 2018

Sedimentary Geology

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The Carboniferous-Permian terrestrial successions record a global climatic shift from icehouse to hothouse conditions. Our multidisciplinary study documents an aridification trend throughout the ~1000 m thick composite terrestrial succession of the western Catalan Pyrenees (NE Iberian Peninsula), representing this time period. The detailed stratigraphic framework integrates sedimentology, paleopedology, biochronology (plant 2 fossils and tetrapod footprints) and geochronology (paleomagnetism). Additional absolute age correlation is also carried out. The new and reviewed data show that the late Carboniferous wet environments (with short drought periods) progressively changed to a strong seasonal semi-arid and arid climate (with short humid periods) through the early Permian. This paleoclimatic trend supports the previously suggested aridification of the Pangean pan-tropical belt, and supports the hypothesis of the influence of the recurrent climatic fluctuations in Central Pangea, being tentatively correlated to the Southern Gondwanan glaciation-deglaciation periods. Therefore, the Carboniferous-Permian terrestrial succession from the Catalan Pyrenees emerges as a continuous record that can help to constrain late Paleozoic paleoenvironmental events.

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“…Ensuing warmings saw the rise of water-stress-tolerant tree ferns (WB 3) and the stepped emergence of marattialean tree ferns as swamp-community dominants (WB 4). A permanent shift to seasonally dry woodland flora [cordaitaleans and conifers; dryland biome (DB) 2] occurred across the Carboniferous-Permian boundary (299 Myr) coincident with widespread aridification (12). Thick, regionally extensive coals formed under humid climates, whereas shifts to water-stress-tolerant vegetation coincide with thinner, less-extensive coals of decreased quality (13).…”

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confidence: 99%

A Late Paleozoic climate window of opportunity

Montañez

2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Late Paleozoic continental warming of a cold tropical basin and floristic change in western Pangea

Cited by 57 publications

References 61 publications

Wetland-Dryland Vegetational Dynamics in the Pennsylvanian Ice Age Tropics

Wetland-Dryland Vegetational Dynamics in the Pennsylvanian Ice Age Tropics

Aridification across the Carboniferous–Permian transition in central equatorial Pangea: The Catalan Pyrenean succession (NE Iberian Peninsula)

A Late Paleozoic climate window of opportunity

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