Identification

Title

Global changes in terrestrial vegetation and continental climate during the Paleoceneâ€�Eocene Thermal Maximum

Abstract

Most studies of the response of terrestrial vegetation to climate change during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) have focused on individual sites and sections. To get a broader perspective we compiled published records of terrestrial pollen and spores across the Paleocene-Eocene transition at 38 sites around the globe. For the 10 sites with quantitative data PETM palynofloras were largely distinct in composition from those in the latest Paleocene or post-PETM early Eocene. We also inferred paleoclimatic conditions at each site from the distributions of nearest living relatives (NLRs) of fossil pollen taxa among present-day Koppen climate types. The NLRs of Paleocene high-paleolatitude palynotaxa are most diverse in cooler climates, whereas the NLRs of PETM taxa are more diverse in warmer, wetter climates. At middle-paleolatitudes NLRs of Paleocene palynotaxa are most diverse in warm, wet climates, whereas NLRs of PETM palynotaxa are most diverse in warm, seasonally dry climates. In the tropics there is little change from Paleocene to PETM in the climate distributions of NLRs. We compared changes in paleoclimate reconstructed from the Koppen distributions of the NLRs with those simulated from the Community Earth System Model (version CESM1.2). Paleoclimatic changes during the PETM inferred from palynological proxies are mostly consistent with modeled climate changes, including the expansion of temperate climates at the expense of cold climate types at high-paleolatitudes and the expansion of temperate and tropical climates in middle-paleolatitudes. Despite this concordance, modeled winter temperatures in continental interiors and high-paleolatitudes remain colder than those reconstructed from NLR distributions.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7z60sqt

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2022-04-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact