Arctic plant diversity in the Early Eocene greenhouse
For the majority of the Early Caenozoic, a remarkable expanse of humid, mesothermal to temperate forests spread across Northern Polar regions that now contain specialized plant and animal communities adapted to life in extreme environments. Little is known on the taxonomic diversity of Arctic floras...
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rspb.2011.1704 2024-09-09T19:17:45+00:00 Arctic plant diversity in the Early Eocene greenhouse Harrington, Guy J. Eberle, Jaelyn Le-Page, Ben A. Dawson, Mary Hutchison, J. Howard 2011 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.1704 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2011.1704 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2011.1704 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 279, issue 1733, page 1515-1521 ISSN 0962-8452 1471-2954 journal-article 2011 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.1704 2024-08-05T04:35:32Z For the majority of the Early Caenozoic, a remarkable expanse of humid, mesothermal to temperate forests spread across Northern Polar regions that now contain specialized plant and animal communities adapted to life in extreme environments. Little is known on the taxonomic diversity of Arctic floras during greenhouse periods of the Caenozoic. We show for the first time that plant richness in the globally warm Early Eocene (approx. 55–52 Myr) in the Canadian High Arctic (76° N) is comparable with that approximately 3500 km further south at mid-latitudes in the US western interior (44–47° N). Arctic Eocene pollen floras are most comparable in richness with today's forests in the southeastern United States, some 5000 km further south of the Arctic. Nearly half of the Eocene, Arctic plant taxa are endemic and the richness of pollen floras implies significant patchiness to the vegetation type and clear regional richness of angiosperms. The reduced latitudinal diversity gradient in Early Eocene North American plant species demonstrates that extreme photoperiod in the Arctic did not limit taxonomic diversity of plants. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic The Royal Society Arctic Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 279 1733 1515 1521 |
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The Royal Society |
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crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
For the majority of the Early Caenozoic, a remarkable expanse of humid, mesothermal to temperate forests spread across Northern Polar regions that now contain specialized plant and animal communities adapted to life in extreme environments. Little is known on the taxonomic diversity of Arctic floras during greenhouse periods of the Caenozoic. We show for the first time that plant richness in the globally warm Early Eocene (approx. 55–52 Myr) in the Canadian High Arctic (76° N) is comparable with that approximately 3500 km further south at mid-latitudes in the US western interior (44–47° N). Arctic Eocene pollen floras are most comparable in richness with today's forests in the southeastern United States, some 5000 km further south of the Arctic. Nearly half of the Eocene, Arctic plant taxa are endemic and the richness of pollen floras implies significant patchiness to the vegetation type and clear regional richness of angiosperms. The reduced latitudinal diversity gradient in Early Eocene North American plant species demonstrates that extreme photoperiod in the Arctic did not limit taxonomic diversity of plants. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Harrington, Guy J. Eberle, Jaelyn Le-Page, Ben A. Dawson, Mary Hutchison, J. Howard |
spellingShingle |
Harrington, Guy J. Eberle, Jaelyn Le-Page, Ben A. Dawson, Mary Hutchison, J. Howard Arctic plant diversity in the Early Eocene greenhouse |
author_facet |
Harrington, Guy J. Eberle, Jaelyn Le-Page, Ben A. Dawson, Mary Hutchison, J. Howard |
author_sort |
Harrington, Guy J. |
title |
Arctic plant diversity in the Early Eocene greenhouse |
title_short |
Arctic plant diversity in the Early Eocene greenhouse |
title_full |
Arctic plant diversity in the Early Eocene greenhouse |
title_fullStr |
Arctic plant diversity in the Early Eocene greenhouse |
title_full_unstemmed |
Arctic plant diversity in the Early Eocene greenhouse |
title_sort |
arctic plant diversity in the early eocene greenhouse |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.1704 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2011.1704 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2011.1704 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 279, issue 1733, page 1515-1521 ISSN 0962-8452 1471-2954 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.1704 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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279 |
container_issue |
1733 |
container_start_page |
1515 |
op_container_end_page |
1521 |
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1809757861430951936 |