Reconstructing Neogene vegetation and climates to infer tectonic uplift in western Yunnan, China

Sun, Bainian; Wu, Jingyu; Liu, Yusheng; Ding, Shuai; Li, Xiangchuan; Xie, Shucheng; Yan, Daojiang; Lin, Zhicheng

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.09.023

Cited by 158 publications

(121 citation statements)

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“…In Yunnan (southwest China), the evolution of the Miocene climate has been extensively investigated using different floral proxies, such as pollen [11,12] and plant mega-fossils [13][14][15][16][17], indicating that Yunnan was already under a monsoonal climate in the Miocene [11,14]. We have previously reported palynological results from a 400 m-thick sedimentary succession in Wenshan, southeast Yunnan, to reveal how the vegetation dynamics responded to a monsoonal climate [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lake geochemistry reveals marked environmental change in Southwest China during the Mid Miocene Climatic Optimum

Lebreton-Anberrée

et al. 2016

Science Bulletin

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The Mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO; *15-17 Ma) was one of the short-term climatic warm events that punctuated the Cenozoic long-term cooling trend. Because there are very few terrestrial records of this event, most of our understanding comes from marine cores. In this report, we first present new palaeomagnetic data that revises the dating of our 400 m-thick lacustrine section in Wenshan (Yunnan), previously thought to be Late Miocene. These new data suggest an older age, ca. 15.2-16.5 Ma, coinciding with the MMCO. We measured d 13 C on bulk organic matter (d 13 C org ), total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN) and C/N ratios at a high sample resolution to: (1) reconstruct the palaeoenvironmental changes in the lake catchment area, and (2) infer mechanisms responsible for these changes. Our results show that all four geochemical parameters demonstrate that a strong environmental change occurred around the middle of the section, shortly after the C5Cn/C5Br geomagnetic reversal and the Early/Middle Miocene boundary at 15.97 Ma. We propose that the environmental shift may be due to a combination of a change in climate, which became cooler, together with a change in organic matter cycling within the lake. This study provides a new insight into the MMCO and demonstrates that although the MMCO was generally a warm event, it was also a time of climatic instability and abrupt environmental changes.Keywords Yunnan Á Mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum Á Bulk organic carbon isotopes (d 13 C org ) Á C/N ratio Á TOC Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lake geochemistry reveals marked environmental change in Southwest China during the Mid Miocene Climatic Optimum

Lebreton-Anberrée

et al. 2016

Science Bulletin

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“…In recent years, the southeastern border of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (SBTP) has become the focus of several studies regarding its climates during the late Pliocene (Xu et al, 2004;Kou et al, 2006;Sun et al, 2011;Xie et al, 2012;Yao et al, 2012;Su et al, 2013). This region experienced dramatic changes in topography and climate throughout the late Cenozoic associated with the uplift and expansion of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (Kutzbach et al, 1993;Ge and Li, 1999;Schoenbohm et al, 2006;Westaway, 2009;Zhang et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Around 20 Neogene floras have been well documented from this region, of which several are late Pliocene in age (e.g., Tao, 1986;Ge and Li, 1999;Zhou, 2000;Xu, 2002;Xu et al, 2003Xu et al, , 2004Wang and Shu, 2004;Kou et al, 2006;Su et al, 2013). During the last decade, palaeoclimate data for some of those late Pliocene floras were reconstructed quantitatively (Xu, 2002;Xu et al, 2004;Kou et al, 2006;Sun et al, 2011;Yao et al, 2012;Su et al, 2013). These palaeoclimatic reconstructions consistently show warmer conditions in the late Pliocene than at present (e.g., Kou et al, 2006;Sun et al, 2011;Su et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During the last decade, palaeoclimate data for some of those late Pliocene floras were reconstructed quantitatively (Xu, 2002;Xu et al, 2004;Kou et al, 2006;Sun et al, 2011;Yao et al, 2012;Su et al, 2013). These palaeoclimatic reconstructions consistently show warmer conditions in the late Pliocene than at present (e.g., Kou et al, 2006;Sun et al, 2011;Su et al, 2013). Mostly published as case studies, they demonstrate their capability to reveal the late Pliocene climatic regime at a given locality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Late Pliocene temperatures and their spatial variation at the southeastern border of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Huang

Chen

Jacques

et al. 2015

Journal of Asian Earth Sciences

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a b s t r a c tIt is widely accepted that the late Pliocene spans a time with globally warmer conditions compared to today. Regional specifics in temperature patterns from this period, however, remain poorly known. In this study, we reconstruct quantitatively late Pliocene climates for eight sites at the southeastern border of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (SBTP), based on palaeobotanical data compiled from published sources using the Coexistence Approach (CoA), and analyze anomalies with respect to modern climates. The reconstructed temperatures indicate that in the late Pliocene, the northwestern part of the study area was cooler than its southern part. This spatial differentiation in temperature was largely due to differences in altitude: the northwest of the SBTP probably had higher altitudes than the south at that time. Mean annual temperatures (MATs) were around 1°C higher than today, suggesting a cooling trend since the late Pliocene. Our data show that summer temperatures have declined significantly since the late Pliocene while winter temperatures have remained similar to those of the present, different from observations in other territories. The unexpected summer and winter temperature changes can be explained by the regional orogenic uplift plus the global cooling. The eastward extrusion of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau might have blocked the southward cold high pressure of the winter monsoon and forced it to circumvent the eastern flank of the plateau, weakening its impact on the SBTP. The post-Pliocene mountain uplift increased the overall altitude of the region, which caused the temperature decline for both summer and winter. The reconstructed summer precipitation was lower while the winter precipitation was higher than today, suggesting a weaker monsoon climate during the late Pliocene.

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“…By contrast, uplift of the Hengduan Mountains region, at the southeastern margin ( Fig. 1), is generally believed to have been rapid and recent, occurring mainly between the late Miocene and late Pliocene (18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23).…”

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confidence: 99%

Uplift-driven diversification in the Hengduan Mountains, a temperate biodiversity hotspot

Xing

Ree

2017

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

462

473

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A common hypothesis for the rich biodiversity found in mountains is uplift-driven diversification-that orogeny creates conditions favoring rapid in situ speciation of resident lineages. We tested this hypothesis in the context of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) and adjoining mountain ranges, using the phylogenetic and geographic histories of multiple groups of plants to infer the tempo (rate) and mode (colonization versus in situ diversification) of biotic assembly through time and across regions. We focused on the Hengduan Mountains region, which in comparison with the QTP and Himalayas was uplifted more recently (since the late Miocene) and is smaller in area and richer in species. Time-calibrated phylogenetic analyses show that about 8 million y ago the rate of in situ diversification increased in the Hengduan Mountains, significantly exceeding that in the geologically older QTP and Himalayas. By contrast, in the QTP and Himalayas during the same period the rate of in situ diversification remained relatively flat, with colonization dominating lineage accumulation. The Hengduan Mountains flora was thus assembled disproportionately by recent in situ diversification, temporally congruent with independent estimates of orogeny. This study shows quantitative evidence for uplift-driven diversification in this region, and more generally, tests the hypothesis by comparing the rate and mode of biotic assembly jointly across time and space. It thus complements the more prevalent method of examining endemic radiations individually and could be used as a template to augment such studies in other biodiversity hotspots.biogeography | vascular plants | molecular clocks | dispersal | speciation C entral to understanding global patterns of biodiversity are considerations of biotic assembly: For a given region, when and how did resident species accumulate? Of primary interest is tempo (the rate of accumulation) and mode (the process, whether by colonization via dispersal or in situ lineage diversification). We wish to know how and why these vary in time and space.For mountains, well-known for harboring a disproportionate fraction of terrestrial species, a common hypothesis is that of uplift-driven diversification-that orogeny creates conditions favoring in situ speciation of resident lineages (1-6). Among global biodiversity hotspots, the mountain ranges surrounding the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) are unusual and enigmatic: They harbor one of the world's richest temperate floras, and (unlike other hotspots) they are neither tropical nor Mediterranean in climate. Moreover, despite increasing interest from biogeographers, their biotic assembly remains poorly understood (3, 4, 7). The mountains form three distinct hotspots of biodiversity that respectively lie to the west, south, and east of the QTP's central high desert: the Central Asian mountains (Altai and Tianshan ranges), the Himalayas, and the Hengduan Mountains region (4) (Fig. 1). Of these, the richest in plant diversity is the Hengduan Mountains, with a vascular flor...

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Reconstructing Neogene vegetation and climates to infer tectonic uplift in western Yunnan, China

Cited by 158 publications

References 31 publications

Lake geochemistry reveals marked environmental change in Southwest China during the Mid Miocene Climatic Optimum

Lake geochemistry reveals marked environmental change in Southwest China during the Mid Miocene Climatic Optimum

Late Pliocene temperatures and their spatial variation at the southeastern border of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

Uplift-driven diversification in the Hengduan Mountains, a temperate biodiversity hotspot

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