Do Southeast Asia's paleo‐Antarctic trees cool the planet?
Summary Many tree genera in the Malesian uplands have Southern Hemisphere origins, often supported by austral fossil records. Weathering the vast bedrock exposures in the everwet Malesian tropics may have consumed sufficient atmospheric CO 2 to contribute significantly to global cooling over the pas...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.19067 https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/nph.19067 |
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crwiley:10.1111/nph.19067 2024-06-09T07:40:44+00:00 Do Southeast Asia's paleo‐Antarctic trees cool the planet? Wilf, Peter Kooyman, Robert M. National Science Foundation 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.19067 https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/nph.19067 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ New Phytologist volume 239, issue 5, page 1556-1566 ISSN 0028-646X 1469-8137 journal-article 2023 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19067 2024-05-16T14:29:04Z Summary Many tree genera in the Malesian uplands have Southern Hemisphere origins, often supported by austral fossil records. Weathering the vast bedrock exposures in the everwet Malesian tropics may have consumed sufficient atmospheric CO 2 to contribute significantly to global cooling over the past 15 Myr. However, there has been no discussion of how the distinctive regional tree assemblages may have enhanced weathering and contributed to this process. We postulate that Gondwanan‐sourced tree lineages that can dominate higher‐elevation forests played an overlooked role in the Neogene CO 2 drawdown that led to the Ice Ages and the current, now‐precarious climate state. Moreover, several historically abundant conifers in Araucariaceae and Podocarpaceae are likely to have made an outsized contribution through soil acidification that increases weathering. If the widespread destruction of Malesian lowland forests continues to spread into the uplands, the losses will threaten unique austral plant assemblages and, if our hypothesis is correct, a carbon sequestration engine that could contribute to cooler planetary conditions far into the future. Immediate effects include the spread of heat islands, significant losses of biomass carbon and forest‐dependent biodiversity, erosion of watershed values, and the destruction of tens of millions of years of evolutionary history. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Wiley Online Library Antarctic Austral New Phytologist 239 5 1556 1566 |
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Wiley Online Library |
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English |
description |
Summary Many tree genera in the Malesian uplands have Southern Hemisphere origins, often supported by austral fossil records. Weathering the vast bedrock exposures in the everwet Malesian tropics may have consumed sufficient atmospheric CO 2 to contribute significantly to global cooling over the past 15 Myr. However, there has been no discussion of how the distinctive regional tree assemblages may have enhanced weathering and contributed to this process. We postulate that Gondwanan‐sourced tree lineages that can dominate higher‐elevation forests played an overlooked role in the Neogene CO 2 drawdown that led to the Ice Ages and the current, now‐precarious climate state. Moreover, several historically abundant conifers in Araucariaceae and Podocarpaceae are likely to have made an outsized contribution through soil acidification that increases weathering. If the widespread destruction of Malesian lowland forests continues to spread into the uplands, the losses will threaten unique austral plant assemblages and, if our hypothesis is correct, a carbon sequestration engine that could contribute to cooler planetary conditions far into the future. Immediate effects include the spread of heat islands, significant losses of biomass carbon and forest‐dependent biodiversity, erosion of watershed values, and the destruction of tens of millions of years of evolutionary history. |
author2 |
National Science Foundation |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Wilf, Peter Kooyman, Robert M. |
spellingShingle |
Wilf, Peter Kooyman, Robert M. Do Southeast Asia's paleo‐Antarctic trees cool the planet? |
author_facet |
Wilf, Peter Kooyman, Robert M. |
author_sort |
Wilf, Peter |
title |
Do Southeast Asia's paleo‐Antarctic trees cool the planet? |
title_short |
Do Southeast Asia's paleo‐Antarctic trees cool the planet? |
title_full |
Do Southeast Asia's paleo‐Antarctic trees cool the planet? |
title_fullStr |
Do Southeast Asia's paleo‐Antarctic trees cool the planet? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Do Southeast Asia's paleo‐Antarctic trees cool the planet? |
title_sort |
do southeast asia's paleo‐antarctic trees cool the planet? |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.19067 https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/nph.19067 |
geographic |
Antarctic Austral |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Austral |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic |
op_source |
New Phytologist volume 239, issue 5, page 1556-1566 ISSN 0028-646X 1469-8137 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19067 |
container_title |
New Phytologist |
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239 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
1556 |
op_container_end_page |
1566 |
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1801369139316523008 |