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 10,000 years). Floral composition and leaf shape and size suggest that climate warmed by approximately 5 degrees C during the PETM and that precipitation was low early in the event and increased later. Floral response to warming and/or increased atmospheric CO2 during the PETM was comparable in rate and magnitude to that seen in postglacial floras and to the predicted effects of anthropogenic carbon release and climate change on future vegetation.
Wing
Scott L
SL
Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, 10th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20560, USA. wings@si.edu
Harrington
Guy J
GJ
Smith
Francesca A
FA
Bloch
Jonathan I
JI
Boyer
Douglas M
DM
Freeman
Katherine H
KH
D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D002247:Carbon Isotopes / Q000032:analysis; D002980:Climate; D017753:Ecosystem; D005580:Fossils; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D017752:Greenhouse Effect; D010103:Oxygen Isotopes / Q000032:analysis; D063245:Plant Development; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D010944:Plants / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification; D011891:Rain; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors; D014959:Wyoming
D002247:Carbon Isotopes; D010103:Oxygen Isotopes