The relationship between Euramerican and Cathaysian tropical floras in the Late Palaeozoic: Palaeobiogeographical and palaeogeographical implications

Hilton, Jason; Cleal, Christopher J.

doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2007.07.003

Cited by 139 publications

(117 citation statements)

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“…Found in both clastic and peat substrates (Cleal and Shute 2012), much greater diversity has been described in the former, and no species have yet been described that are specific to peat substrates. Biogeographic differentiation has been documented in the Variscan mountain region of Euramerica (Cleal 2008b), and the group shows little dispersal into eastern Pangea during the Permian, even though wetlands persisted there after disappearing in central and western Pangea (Hilton and Cleal 2007). Thus, although tied to wetlands, possibly the higher nutrient parts thereof, the medullosans seemingly did not have the ability to colonize drier habitats or were limited in dispersal ability.…”

Section: Wetland Floral Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When considered in this light, dispersal limitation may be the strongest filter in this process and may have constrained the distribution of Pennsylvanian plant populations on many spatial scales (Laveine 1997;Hilton and Cleal 2007). Such local communityassembly controls are superimposed on glacial-interglacial fluctuations and the large and growing body of evidence that these were accompanied by and coordinated with widespread climatic changes.…”

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

confidence: 99%

“…The timing of this turnover varied slightly across Euramerica (Cleal et al 2009;Wagner and Á lvarez-Vá zquez 2010), but the results, in terms of dominance-diversity patterns, were the same everywhere. Many of the lineages, including some of the lycopsids, dominant in Middle Pennsylvanian assemblages, survived well into the Permian in Cathaysia (Hilton and Cleal 2007), representing a species pool from which dispersal back into Euramerica seemingly did not occur. Figures 7 and 8 represent a compilation of examples of the Pennsylvanian wetland plants from major American coal basins.…”

Section: Wetland Floral Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The better known of these floras was composed of plants that were obligately tied to wet substrates and possibly to high levels of atmospheric humidity (Scott 1977;Gastaldo 1987;Hilton and Cleal 2007;Galtier 2008;King et al 2011;Wagner and Castro 2011; see summaries in Eble and Grady 1990;DiMichele and Phillips 1994). The other flora consisted of plants that were tolerant of moisture deficits of varying degrees (Leary and Pfefferkorn 1977;Galtier et al 1992;Falcon-Lang et al 2009;Plotnick et al 2009;Bashforth et al 2014).…”

Section: Pennsylvanian Lowland Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In peat-forming environments, most lycopsid trees were abundant to dominant in the wetter parts of swamps with periodic standing water, so-called rheotrophic swamps, but others may have been centered in DIMICHELE-DYNAMICS OF COAL AGE TROPICAL VEGETATION 135 highly nutrient-depleted, highly oligotrophic parts of raised or ombrotrophic swamps. Regardless of habitat preference, all genera appear to have been widespread across the Euramerican part of Pangea in the Pennsylvanian (Thomas 2007), and many extended into the Cathaysian portions of Pangea during the Permian (Hilton and Cleal 2007;Wang et al 2009). …”

Section: Wetland Floral Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Wetland-Dryland Vegetational Dynamics in the Pennsylvanian Ice Age Tropics

DiMichele¹

2014

International Journal of Plant Sciences

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: Wetland Floral Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

confidence: 99%

Section: Wetland Floral Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Pennsylvanian Lowland Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Wetland Floral Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Wetland-Dryland Vegetational Dynamics in the Pennsylvanian Ice Age Tropics

DiMichele¹

2014

International Journal of Plant Sciences

158

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Tiering on Land – Trees and Forests (Late Palaeozoic)

Cleal

2010

Encyclopedia of Life Sciences

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Trees with woody trunks first appeared in Middle Devonian times (390 MYA). However, a number of other types of Palaeozoic plants also achieved large sizes, most notably the arborescent lycopsids. The tropical wetlands of late Carboniferous and early Permian age (320–280 MYA), often referred to as the coal swamps or coal forests, were dominated by the arborescent lycopsids. Because of the unusual growth and reproductive strategies of these plants, and the water‐logged and low pH substrates, the ecological structure of these forests was quite different from most modern‐day forests. Rather than there being a vertical stratification of the vegetation controlled by light availability, there was a lateral ecological partitioning of the habitats controlled mainly by substrate conditions. Key Concepts: The late Palaeozoic coal forests were relatively open habitats, and therefore, light levels were not significant in controlling their ecological partitioning. Substrate conditions were most important for controlling plant distribution in the coal forests, resulting in a lateral ecological partitioning, rather than a vertical tiering as is typical in most modern‐day forests. The rapid determinate growth of the arborescent lycopsids that dominated the coal forests meant that huge amounts of peat were generated, which are now preserved as coal. The coal forests were a major carbon sink during the late Palaeozoic times and had a significant impact on levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide and global climates.

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Tiering on Land – Trees and Forests (Late Palaeozoic)

Cleal

2021

Encyclopedia of Life Sciences

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The first regional‐scale forests appeared in mid‐Carboniferous times, c . 325 million years ago (Ma). Known as the coal swamps, they extended over large parts of tropical Pangaea and lasted for about 40 million years. The dominant plants of the swamps were arborescent lycopsids, sphenopsids, ferns, pteridosperms and cordaitanthales. Many were very fast‐growing plants and resulted in thick peat deposits being formed, which have subsequently changed into economically important coals. Changes in the geographical extent of these tropical swamps correlated with the waxing and waning of the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age polar ice sheet, and the carbon sequestration caused by the swamps may have been affecting global climates. The development of the swamps coincided with a major global diversification in insects and may also have been home to some early terrestrial amphibians and reptiles. Key Concepts The coal swamps were the first regional‐scale forests to occur on Earth. The swamps occupied a broad belt of land in palaeotropical Pangaea during the late Carboniferous and early Permian (325–275 Ma). They were responsible for one of the highest rates of terrestrial carbon sequestration in Earth history. The size of the coal swamps was correlated with climate fluctuations during the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age. Insects and possibly of tetrapod vertebrates diversified during the time of the coal swamps.

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The relationship between Euramerican and Cathaysian tropical floras in the Late Palaeozoic: Palaeobiogeographical and palaeogeographical implications

Cited by 139 publications

References 71 publications

Wetland-Dryland Vegetational Dynamics in the Pennsylvanian Ice Age Tropics

Wetland-Dryland Vegetational Dynamics in the Pennsylvanian Ice Age Tropics

Tiering on Land – Trees and Forests (Late Palaeozoic)

Tiering on Land – Trees and Forests (Late Palaeozoic)

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