Effects of rapid global warming at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary on neotropical vegetation.
نویسندگان
چکیده
Temperatures in tropical regions are estimated to have increased by 3° to 5°C, compared with Late Paleocene values, during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, 56.3 million years ago) event. We investigated the tropical forest response to this rapid warming by evaluating the palynological record of three stratigraphic sections in eastern Colombia and western Venezuela. We observed a rapid and distinct increase in plant diversity and origination rates, with a set of new taxa, mostly angiosperms, added to the existing stock of low-diversity Paleocene flora. There is no evidence for enhanced aridity in the northern Neotropics. The tropical rainforest was able to persist under elevated temperatures and high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, in contrast to speculations that tropical ecosystems were severely compromised by heat stress.
منابع مشابه
Transient floral change and rapid global warming at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary.
Rapid global warming of 5 degrees to 10 degrees C during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) coincided with major turnover in vertebrate faunas, but previous studies have found little floral change. Plant fossils discovered in Wyoming, United States, show that PETM floras were a mixture of native and migrant lineages and that plant range shifts were large and rapid (occurring within 10,...
متن کاملResponse of tropical vegetation to Paleogene warming
—The late Paleocene-early Eocene transition was characterized by a long period of global warming that culminated with the highest temperatures of the Cenozoic. This interval is associated with a significant increase in plant diversity in temperate latitudes. However, data from tropical regions remain largely unknown. The record of pollen and spore diversity across the late Paleocene to the earl...
متن کاملA continental shelf perspective of ocean acidification and temperature evolution during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
A rapid and large injection of isotopically light carbon into the ocean-atmosphere reservoirs is signaled by a negative carbon isotope excursion (CIE) at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary ~56 m.y. ago. To better understand the extent of ocean warming and acidification associated with the carbon injection we generated elemental and isotopic records of surface and thermocline planktonic foraminifera ...
متن کاملResponse of plant-insect associations to paleocene-eocene warming
The diversity of modern herbivorous insects and their pressure on plant hosts generally increase with decreasing latitude. These observations imply that the diversity and intensity of herbivory should increase with rising temperatures at constant latitude. Insect damage on fossil leaves found in southwestern Wyoming, from the late Paleocene-early Eocene global warming interval, demonstrates thi...
متن کاملDeep-sea temperature and circulation changes at the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.
A rapid increase in greenhouse gas levels is thought to have fueled global warming at the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). Foraminiferal magnesium/calcium ratios indicate that bottom waters warmed by 4 degrees to 5 degrees C, similar to tropical and subtropical surface ocean waters, implying no amplification of warming in high-latitude regions of deep-water formation under ice-free cond...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید
ثبت ناماگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید
ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Science
دوره 330 6006 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2010