Mid‐Holocene and glacial‐maximum vegetation geography of the northern continents and Africa

Prentice, I. Colin; Jolly, Dominique

doi:10.1046/j.1365-2699.2000.00425.x

Cited by 603 publications

(463 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…The strong LGM precipitation anomaly link to palm richness for the ensemble-mean reconstruction was similarly found for CCSM3, but not MIROC3.2 (see the electronic supplementary material, table S16). The ensemble-mean and CCSM3 precipitation patterns capture the peak in palm species richness in northeast Madagascar and as mentioned above this is consistent with the LGM presence of rainforest habitat in the northeast according to palaeoecological rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org Proc R Soc B 280: 20123048 reconstructions and biome modelling [16,58]. The MIROC3.2 reconstruction fails to do this, and as a result provides a much weaker explanatory model for the palm species richness patterns (table 2; electronic supplementary material, tables S11 and S16).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Palaeo-precipitation is a major determinant of palm species richness patterns across Madagascar: a tropical biodiversity hotspot

et al. 2013

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The distribution of rainforest in many regions across the Earth was strongly affected by Pleistocene ice ages. However, the extent to which these dynamics are still important for modern-day biodiversity patterns within tropical biodiversity hotspots has not been assessed. We employ a comprehensive dataset of Madagascan palms (Arecaceae) and climate reconstructions from the last glacial maximum (LGM; 21 000 years ago) to assess the relative role of modern environment and LGM climate in explaining geographical species richness patterns in this major tropical biodiversity hotspot. We found that palaeoclimate exerted a strong influence on palm species richness patterns, with richness peaking in areas with higher LGM precipitation relative to present-day even after controlling for modern environment, in particular in northeastern Madagascar, consistent with the persistence of tropical rainforest during the LGM primarily in this region. Our results provide evidence that diversity patterns in the World's most biodiverse regions may be shaped by long-term climate history as well as contemporary environment.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Palaeo-precipitation is a major determinant of palm species richness patterns across Madagascar: a tropical biodiversity hotspot

et al. 2013

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“…Since there is sedimentary evidence that ice did override forest both during the last glacial period and the Holocene [Simpkins and Parkin, 1993;Punkari and Forsström, 1995;Luckman et al, 1992Luckman et al, , 1993Luckman, 1995], we do not consider scenario B to be entirely realistic. There is evidence, however, that some vegetation change did take place in North America and Europe as the ice sheets built up, with tundra becoming more abundant [Prentice et al, 2000]. We believe that the most likely scenario lies somewhere between the extreme end-member scenarios.…”

Section: Soil and Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…Scenario B assumes that ecosystems responded to climate cooling coincident with ice sheet advance and tundra ecosystems prevailed at the ice sheet margin. In the latter case, we assume that the predominant tundra biome was steppe tundra [Prentice et al, 2000], which displays lower carbon storage values (5.5 kg C m À2 ) than many of the forest ecosystems (7 -25 kg C m À2 ) (Adams, 1995). We include only soil carbon in this minimum estimate, assuming that vegetation died off prior to ice advance.…”

Section: Soil and Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subglacial methanogenesis: A potential climatic amplifier?

Wadham

Tranter

Tulaczyk

et al. 2008

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

114

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[1] Subglacial environments are a previously neglected component of the Earth's global carbon cycle, a reflection of the view held until recently that they are dominated by abiotic and oxic conditions. Here we provide a realistic assessment of the theory that the basal regions of the ice sheets that formed over North America and Europe during glaciations were host to significant populations of anaerobic microorganisms, including methanogens, able to metabolize organic carbon sequestered during interglacials and overridden during Quaternary glacials. In doing so, we review the current evidence for subglacial methane release during deglaciation, estimate the size of the subglacial reservoir of organic carbon (SOC), and assess the amount of SOC available to subglacial microbes and the likely pathways and rates of carbon turnover. We then discuss the fate of subglacial methane and the potential impact of its release on atmospheric methane concentrations. We calculate that the SOC equates to 418-610 Pg C and includes carbon from terrestrial soils/vegetation, peatlands, lake, and marine sediments. The SOC that is potentially available for microbial conversion to methane is smaller than this estimate due to (1) glacial erosion, (2) accumulation of recalcitrant organic carbon compounds over time, (3) conversion to carbon dioxide by aerobic/anaerobic respiration, and (4) incomplete conversion of labile organic matter to methane. We estimate that the total SOC available for conversion to methane is 63 Pg C. Our estimates of methane production potentials span a wide range because of the current uncertainty surrounding subglacial metabolic rates. We believe, however, that there is a strong likelihood that subglacial microbes could convert 63 Pg of SOC to methane during a glacial cycle. If this were the case, release of this methane from the ice sheet margins during retreat would need to be episodic in order to significantly impact atmospheric methane concentrations. Our findings suggest that it may well be important to consider subglacial environments as active components of the Earth's carbon cycle. Conclusive determination of the potential impact of subglacial methane production on atmospheric methane concentrations during deglaciation, however, awaits more precise determination of the ability of subglacial microbes to degrade organic carbon components and their associated rates of metabolism under in situ conditions.

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“…Substantial glacial-interglacial vegetation changes are documented in pollen and plant-macrofossil records 61 . Vegetation types adapted to low CO 2 levels, drought and cool temperatures were wide-spread at the Last Glacial Maximum, whereas orbitally induced insolation changes during the first part of the Holocene resulted in high-latitude warming that led to northward expansion of boreal and temperate forests, and enhanced monsoons that caused northward expansion of Sahelian vegetation 62 . These large-scale changes in turn led to changes in dust emission 63 and fire regimes 64 .…”

Section: Past Links Between Biogeochemical Cycles and Climatementioning

confidence: 99%

Terrestrial biogeochemical feedbacks in the climate system

et al. 2010

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The terrestrial biosphere is a key regulator of atmospheric chemistry and climate. During past periods of climate change, vegetation cover and interactions between the terrestrial biosphere and atmosphere changed within decades. Modern observations show a similar responsiveness of terrestrial biogeochemistry to anthropogenically forced climate change and air pollution. Although interactions between the carbon cycle and climate have been a central focus, other biogeochemical feedbacks could be as important in modulating future climate change. Total positive radiative forcings resulting from feedbacks between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere are estimated to reach up to 0.9 or 1.5 W m(-2) K-1 towards the end of the twenty-first century, depending on the extent to which interactions with the nitrogen cycle stimulate or limit carbon sequestration. This substantially reduces and potentially even eliminates the cooling effect owing to carbon dioxide fertilization of the terrestrial biota. The overall magnitude of the biogeochemical feedbacks could potentially be similar to that of feedbacks in the physical climate system, but there are large uncertainties in the magnitude of individual estimates and in accounting for synergies between these effects

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Mid‐Holocene and glacial‐maximum vegetation geography of the northern continents and Africa

Abstract: BIOME 6000 is an international project to map vegetation globally at mid-Holocene (6000 14

Cited by 603 publications

References 72 publications

Palaeo-precipitation is a major determinant of palm species richness patterns across Madagascar: a tropical biodiversity hotspot

Palaeo-precipitation is a major determinant of palm species richness patterns across Madagascar: a tropical biodiversity hotspot

Subglacial methanogenesis: A potential climatic amplifier?

Terrestrial biogeochemical feedbacks in the climate system

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