Why do foliar physiognomic climate estimates sometimes differ from those observed? Insights from taphonomic information loss and a CLAMP case study from the Ganges Delta

Spicer, Robert A.; Bera, Subir; Bera, Sreelekha De; Spicer, Teresa E.V.; Srivastava, Gaurav; Mehrotra, R. C.; Mehrotra, Naresh C.; Yang, Jian

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2011.01.024

Cited by 54 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…As the composition of the plant litter in a fossil assemblage never reflects the local vegetation to 100 percent (Ferguson, 2005;Spicer et al, 2011), it is obvious that taphonomic processes have a huge impact on the character and composition of the respective taphocoenoses. The leaf components, in particular leaf litter beds, in fluvial sediments are regarded as being mostly parautochthonous (Gastaldo et al, 1996;Greenwood, 2005;Kunzmann and Walther, 2007), which means that the transport route between the mother plants and the places of deposition are assumed to be negligibly short.…”

Section: Taphonomic Taxonomic and Methodical Restrictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Weißelster Basin, a coastal floodplain area during the late Eocene with estuaries and braided rivers, is characterized by small-scale changes of slack-water areas, sand banks, swamps and channels. These habitat features show significant effects in the calculated temperature and precipitation, as plants from such wet habitats tend to have distinct physiognomies with generally more toothed species than nearby more mesic habitats (Burnham et al, 2001;Kowalski and Dilcher, 2003;Greenwood, 2005;Spicer et al, 2011). Variations in the groundwater level in braided river systems causing water stress to woody plants, or a high water availability and the monthly distribution of precipitation overlay each other and thus the effective precipitation amount is not detectable in a reliable way.…”

Section: Remarks On Palaeoclimate Signals Of Fluvial Plant Assemblagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Estimation of late Eocene (Bartonian–Priabonian) terrestrial palaeoclimate: Contributions from megafloral assemblages from central Germany

Moraweck

Uhl

Kunzmann

2015

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

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Section: Taphonomic Taxonomic and Methodical Restrictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Remarks On Palaeoclimate Signals Of Fluvial Plant Assemblagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of late Eocene (Bartonian–Priabonian) terrestrial palaeoclimate: Contributions from megafloral assemblages from central Germany

Moraweck

Uhl

Kunzmann

2015

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

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“…Harbert and Nixon (2015) suggest CRACLE, and other taxon-based mutual range methods, are most applicable and precise for floras closer to modern (Quaternary) due to sensitivity to extinctions, whilst climates in deep time are more accurately estimated by methods such as leaf foliar physiognomic analyses, which are based on physiological adaptations to climate and do not necessarily require knowledge of phylogenetic relatedness to modern flora (Li et al, 2016). However, foliar physiognomic analyses are complicated by their own biases including taphonomic (e.g., Greenwood, 1992Greenwood, , 2005Burnham et al, 2001;Kowalski and Dilcher, 2003;Spicer et al, 2011) and methodological (e.g., Jordan, 2011;Milla and Reich, 2011) concerns. The time period from this study lies at the intersection of the projected utility of these two families of methods, thus application of foliar physiognomy to validate CRACLE estimates of climate in the Pliocene may provide valuable insight to disentangle how ecosystem assembly and individual physiognomy respond to climate.…”

Section: Observations On Craclementioning

confidence: 99%

Floral Dissimilarity and the Influence of Climate in the Pliocene High Arctic: Biotic and Abiotic Influences on Five Sites on the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

et al. 2017

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A recurring goal in ecological and paleoclimatic studies is to either forecast how ecosystems will respond to future climate or hindcast climate from past ecosystem assemblages. The Pliocene is a useful deep-time laboratory for understanding an equilibrium climate state under modern atmospheric CO 2 , and has been a focus for climate modelers. Accurate estimates of proxy data-model mismatch are hindered by the scarcity of well-constrained observations from well-dated sites in the High Arctic. Using a recently developed community-based approach (Climate Reconstruction Analysis using Coexistence Likelihood Estimation: CRACLE) compared with an established method (The Coexistence Approach: CA), and applied to extraordinary, permafrost-driven preservation of floras, we explore the climate and community assemblages at five Pliocene sites in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The results suggest that climatic differences at this scale do not simply correlate to differences in community assemblage between sites. The threshold temperature for tree line is one important component, but other factors in the environment (e.g., soil characteristics) may drive dissimilarity of communities where the taxa could share the same climate space. Estimates from CRACLE agree with previous estimates where available, and generally fall within the ranges of CA. Mean annual temperatures were ∼22 • C hotter (ranging from 0.8 to 6.2 • C by species across sites) and mean annual precipitation ∼500 mm wetter (ranging from 530 to 860 mm by species across sites) during the Early to "mid"-Pliocene (∼3.6 Ma) when compared with modern climate station data in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Comparison of estimates for three levels of taxonomic input suggest judicious interpretation is needed when generic level identifications are used, especially in the Polar Regions. The results herein are a reminder of the large impact of non-climatic abiotic and biotic factors to be accounted for when predicting future ranges of communities under different climate conditions from the present, and when hindcasting climate from past ecosystem assemblages.

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“…Additionally, evapotranspirational cooling during drier winter months in generally warm environments is likely to indicate a lower than actual CMMT. CLAMP estimated WMMTs are usually closer to observed WMMTs (Spicer et al, 2011). These factors could result in an overestimation of seasonality.…”

Section: Physiognomic Analyses Resultsmentioning

confidence: 58%

New plant fossil records and paleoclimate analyses of the late Pliocene Citronelle Formation flora, U.S. Gulf Coast

Stults

Axsmith

2015

Palaeontologia Electronica

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The late Pliocene was an important time of relatively recent global warmth, and it heralded the end of Neogene Epoch. However, plant fossils from this time are uncommon in North America. This study provides detailed descriptions of 23 plant fossil taxa representing 14 woody angiosperm families from the late Pliocene (mid-Piacenzian) Citronelle Formation in coastal Alabama. This is the only significant late Pliocene megafossil plant assemblage in eastern North America, and one of the few from the entire Neogene of this region. Many are first records of their kind, and several are confidently identified to the species level. Overall, the floral composition is similar to that of the modern Gulf Coast. These findings, along with previous records, form the basis of quantitative paleoclimate estimates using leaf margin analysis (LMA), the Coexistence Approach (CoA), the Bioclimatic Analysis/Mutual Climate Range Technique (BA/ MCRT), and the climate leaf multivariate program (CLAMP). The CLAMP analysis had the highest site-to-site disparity and provided anomalously low mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean annual precipitation (MAP) values. The LMA, CoA analysis, and BA/MCRT results are likely better proxies in this case, as the climate estimates obtained are closer to independent proxies and modern values. The BA/MCRT MAT results were most convincing at 18ºC. Nevertheless, higher MAT results were expected, as the mid-Piacenzian was a time of global warmth. Precipitation estimates below modern values obtained in all the relevant analyses are consistent with the presence of white pine in the Citronelle flora.

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Why do foliar physiognomic climate estimates sometimes differ from those observed? Insights from taphonomic information loss and a CLAMP case study from the Ganges Delta

Cited by 54 publications

References 23 publications

Estimation of late Eocene (Bartonian–Priabonian) terrestrial palaeoclimate: Contributions from megafloral assemblages from central Germany

Estimation of late Eocene (Bartonian–Priabonian) terrestrial palaeoclimate: Contributions from megafloral assemblages from central Germany

Floral Dissimilarity and the Influence of Climate in the Pliocene High Arctic: Biotic and Abiotic Influences on Five Sites on the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

New plant fossil records and paleoclimate analyses of the late Pliocene Citronelle Formation flora, U.S. Gulf Coast

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