Leaf traits of long-ranging Paleogene species and their relationship with depositional facies, climate and atmospheric CO2 level

Moraweck, Karolin; Grein, Michaela; Konrad, Wilfried; Kvaček, Jiřı́; Kovar-Eder, Johanna; Neinhuis, Christoph; Traiser, Christopher; Kunzmann, Lutz

doi:10.1127/palb/2019/0062

Cited by 17 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…4a,b), based on modelling experiments (Herold et al, 2010;Henrot et al, 2010). Moreover, thus far, Neogene Ca estimates reconstructed using gas-exchange methods (Reichgelt et al, 2016;Tesfamichael et al, 2017;Londoño et al, 2018;Moraweck et al, 2019) appear to agree with the suggested ESS to Ca (Fig. 4a,b).…”

Section: Earliest Miocene Co2supporting

confidence: 72%

“…Leaf-level gas-exchange derived Ca estimates suggest that early Miocene atmospheric CO2 was higher than pre-industrial levels at 450-550 ppm, further solidifying the growing consensus of relatively high early Miocene global temperatures maintained by high atmospheric CO2 (Kürschner et al, 2009;Tesfamichael et al, 2017;Super et al, 2018;Londoño et al, 2018;Moraweck et al, 2019). A relatively high Ca in the early Miocene also satisfies an Earth System Sensitivity of 3-7°C (Hansen et al, 2013;Royer, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

“…The ESS envelope was determined using deep-sea δ 18 O of benthic foraminifera (Zachos et al, 2001) and the transform function approach from Hansen et al 2013(Supplementary Information). Proxy-based Neogene Ca reconstructions are derived from a previously published compilation (Foster et al, 2017) and are supplemented with more recently published data (Ji et al, 2019;Londoño et al, 2018;Super et al, 2018;Greenop et al, 2019;Moraweck et al, 2019, Steinthorsdottir et al, 2019. Error bars on gas-exchange based proxy estimates represent ±1σ.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2017) and consists of ~100 kyr of annually laminated diatomite (Lindqvist and Lee, 2009;Fox et al, 2016). The Foulden maar-diatreme complex is part of the larger late Oligocenelate Miocene Waipiata Volcanic Field that produced a variety of maar volcanoes and scoria cones (Németh and White, 2003).…”

Section: Site Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Elevated CO<sub>2</sub>, increased leaf-level productivity and water-use efficiency during the early Miocene

Reichgelt¹,

D'Andrea²,

Valdivia-McCarthy³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Rising atmospheric CO2 is expected to increase global temperatures, plant water-use efficiency, and carbon storage in the terrestrial biosphere. A CO2 fertilization effect on terrestrial vegetation is predicted to cause global greening as the potential ecospace for forests expands. However, leaf-level fertilization effects, such as increased productivity and water-use efficiency, have not been documented from fossil leaves in periods of heightened atmospheric CO2. Leaf gas-exchange rates reconstructed from early Miocene fossils which grew at southern temperate and tropical latitudes, when global average temperatures were 5–6 °C higher than today reveal that atmospheric CO2 was ~ 450–550 ppm. Early Miocene CO2 is similar to projected values for 2040AD, and consistent with Earth System Sensitivity of 3–7 °C to a doubling of CO2. While early Miocene leaves had photosynthetic rates similar to modern plants, southern temperate leaves were more productive than modern due to a longer growing season. This higher productivity was likely mirrored at northern temperate latitudes as well, where a greater availability of landmass would have led to increased carbon storage in forest biomass relative to today. Intrinsic water-use efficiency of both temperate and tropical forest trees was high, toward the upper limit of the range for modern trees, which likely expanded the habitable range in regions that could not support forests with high moisture demands under lower atmospheric CO2. Overall, early Miocene elevated atmospheric CO2 sustained globally higher temperatures and our results reveal the first empirical evidence of concomitant enhanced intrinsic water-use efficiency, indicating a forest fertilization effect.

show abstract

Section: Earliest Miocene Co2supporting

confidence: 72%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Site Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Elevated CO<sub>2</sub>, increased leaf-level productivity and water-use efficiency during the early Miocene

Reichgelt¹,

D'Andrea²,

Valdivia-McCarthy³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Most of the subtropical to warm-temperate genera survived in that region until the Miocene Climatic Optimum (Mai, 1995). Based on proxies from macrofloras, MAT was almost stable at the EOT (Teodoridis and Kvaček, 2015) with ongoing prevailing seasonality in precipitation but which is not monsoonal (Moraweck et al, 2019).…”

Section: Eurasiamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Eocene-Oligocene transition: a review of marine and terrestrial proxy data, models and model-data comparisons

Hutchinson¹,

Coxall²,

Lunt³

et al. 2020

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. The Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT) from a largely ice-free greenhouse world to an icehouse climate with the first major glaciation of Antarctica was a phase of major climate and environmental change occurring ~34 million years ago (Ma) and lasting ~500 kyr. The change is marked by a global shift in deep sea δ18O representing a combination of deep-ocean cooling and global ice sheet growth. At the same time, multiple independent proxies for sea surface temperature indicate a surface ocean cooling, and major changes in global fauna and flora record a shift toward more cold-climate adapted species. The major explanations of this transition that have been suggested are a decline in atmospheric CO2, and changes to ocean gateways, while orbital forcing likely influenced the precise timing of the glaciation. This work reviews and synthesises proxy evidence of paleogeography, temperature, ice sheets, ocean circulation, and CO2 change from the marine and terrestrial realms. Furthermore, we quantitatively compare proxy records of change to an ensemble of model simulations of temperature change across the EOT. The model simulations compare three forcing mechanisms across the EOT: CO2 decrease, paleogeographic changes, and ice sheet growth. We find that CO2 forcing provides by far the best explanation of the combined proxy evidence, and based on our model ensemble, we estimate that a CO2 decrease of about 1.6× across the EOT (e.g. from 910 to 560 ppmv) achieves the best fit to the temperature change recorded in the proxies. This model-derived CO2 decrease is consistent with proxy estimates of CO2 decline at the EOT.

show abstract

Reconstructing leaf area from fragments: testing three methods using a fossil paleogene species

Toumoulin

Kunzmann

Moraweck

et al. 2020

American J of Botany

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PREMISE Fossil leaf traits can enable reconstruction of ancient environments and climates. Among these, leaf size has been particularly studied because it reflects several climatic forcings (e.g., precipitation and surface temperature) and, potentially, environment characteristics (e.g., nutrient availability, local topography, and openness of vegetation). However, imperfect preservation and fragmentation can corrupt its utilization. We provide improved methodology to estimate leaf size from fossil fragments. METHODS We apply three methods: (1) visually reconstructing leaf area based on taxon‐specific gross morphology; (2) estimating intact leaf area from vein density based on a vein scaling relationship; and (3) a novel complementary method, determining intact leaf length based on the tapering of the midvein in the fragment. We test the three methods for fossils of extinct Eotrigonobalanus furcinervis (Fagaceae) from two lignite horizons of the middle and late Eocene of central Germany respectively (~45/46 and 35/36 Ma). RESULTS The three methods, including the new one, yield consistent leaf size reconstructions. The vein scaling method showed a shift to larger leaf size, from the middle to the late Eocene. CONCLUSIONS These methods constitute a toolbox with different solutions to reconstruct leaf size from fossil fragments depending on fossil preservation. Fossil leaf size reconstruction has great potential to improve physiognomy‐based paleoenvironmental reconstructions and the interpretation of the fossil record.

show abstract

Leaf traits of long-ranging Paleogene species and their relationship with depositional facies, climate and atmospheric CO2 level

Cited by 17 publications

References 0 publications

Elevated CO<sub>2</sub>, increased leaf-level productivity and water-use efficiency during the early Miocene

Elevated CO<sub>2</sub>, increased leaf-level productivity and water-use efficiency during the early Miocene

The Eocene-Oligocene transition: a review of marine and terrestrial proxy data, models and model-data comparisons

Reconstructing leaf area from fragments: testing three methods using a fossil paleogene species

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Leaf traits of long-ranging Paleogene species and their relationship with depositional facies, climate and atmospheric CO2 level

Cited by 17 publications

References 0 publications

Elevated CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;, increased leaf-level productivity and water-use efficiency during the early Miocene

Elevated CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;, increased leaf-level productivity and water-use efficiency during the early Miocene

The Eocene-Oligocene transition: a review of marine and terrestrial proxy data, models and model-data comparisons

Reconstructing leaf area from fragments: testing three methods using a fossil paleogene species

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Elevated CO<sub>2</sub>, increased leaf-level productivity and water-use efficiency during the early Miocene

Elevated CO<sub>2</sub>, increased leaf-level productivity and water-use efficiency during the early Miocene