Growth of subtropical forests in Miocene Europe: The roles of carbon dioxide and Antarctic ice volume

peer reviewed The middle Miocene is a crucial period for the evolution of apes, and it corresponds to their appearance in Europe. The dispersion of apes was made possible by tectonic changes and the expansion of their habitat, (sub-) tropical forest, in Europe. The context in which the middle Miocen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geology
Main Authors: Hamon, Noémie, Sepulchre, Pierre, Donnadieu, Yannick, Henrot, Alexandra-Jane, François, Louis, Jaeger, Jean-Jacques, Ramstein, Gilles
Other Authors: Unité de Modélisation du Climat et des Cycles Biogéochimiques, Université de Liège
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Geological Society of America 2012
Subjects:
Miocene
climate
modelling
Physical
chemical
mathematical & earth Sciences
Earth sciences & physical geography
Physique
chimie
mathématiques & sciences de la terre
Sciences de la terre & géographie physique
Antarc*
Antarctic
Antarctica
Ice Sheet
Online Access:https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/117251
https://doi.org/10.1130/G32990.1
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Summary:peer reviewed The middle Miocene is a crucial period for the evolution of apes, and it corresponds to their appearance in Europe. The dispersion of apes was made possible by tectonic changes and the expansion of their habitat, (sub-) tropical forest, in Europe. The context in which the middle Miocene climatic optimum occurred still lacks constraints in terms of atmospheric pCO2 and ice-sheet volume and extent. Using a coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model (GCM) and dynamic vegetation model, we investigated the sensitivity of Miocene climate and vegetation to pCO2 levels and Antarctic ice-sheet confi gurations. Our results indicate that higher than present pCO2 is necessary to simulate subtropical forest in Western and Central Europe during the middle Miocene, but that a threshold at high pCO2 makes subtropical forest partly collapse. Moreover, removing ice over Antarctica modifi es oceanic circulation and induces warmer and slightly wetter conditions in Europe, which are consistent with the expansion of subtropical forest. These results suggest that a small East Antarctic Ice Sheet (25% of present-day ice volume) together with higher than present pCO2 values are in better agreement with available European middle Miocene data. Comprendre le refroidissement du Cénozoïque

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