Leaf habit of Late Permian Glossopteris trees from high-palaeolatitude forests

• Published in: Journal of the Geological Society
• Main Authors: Gulbranson, Erik, Ryberg, Patricia, Decombeix, Anne-Laure, Taylor, Edith, Taylor, Thomas, Isbell, John
• Other Authors: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Park University, Botanique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations (UMR AMAP), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud ), University of Kansas Kansas City
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2014
• Subjects: Glossopteris; Permian; Antarctic; Wood anatomy; [SDV.BID.SPT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Systematics; Phylogenetics and taxonomy; [SDV.EE.ECO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology; environment/Ecosystems; [SDV.BV.BOT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Vegetal Biology/Botanics; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://hal.umontpellier.fr/hal-02043566; https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2013-127

International audience The leaf longevity of trees, deciduous or evergreen, plays an important role in climate feedbacks and plant ecology. In modern forests of the high latitudes, evergreen trees dominate; however, the fossil record indicates that deciduous vegetation dominated during some previous warm intervals. We show, through an integration of palaeobotanical techniques and isotope geochemistry of trees in one of the earliest polar forests (Late Permian, c. 260 Ma, Antarctica), that the arborescent glossopterid taxa were both deciduous and evergreen, with a greater abundance of evergreen trees occurring in the studied forests. These new findings suggest the possibility that deciduousness was a plastic trait in ancient polar plants, and that deciduous plants, migrating poleward from lower latitudes, were probably better adapted to high-disturbance areas in environments that were light-limited.