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Biological proxies. Plants as indicators of terrestrial environments Tissue/organs: Support --> wood (tree rings) Photosynthetic --> leaf anatomy (stomata)

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Presentation on theme: "Biological proxies. Plants as indicators of terrestrial environments Tissue/organs: Support --> wood (tree rings) Photosynthetic --> leaf anatomy (stomata)"— Presentation transcript:

1 Biological proxies

2 Plants as indicators of terrestrial environments Tissue/organs: Support --> wood (tree rings) Photosynthetic --> leaf anatomy (stomata) Reproductive --> pollen, (cones) seeds Detritus --> charcoal

3 Dendroclimatology: basics Plants are responsive to variations in the ambient physical environment; Response is expressed by variations in growth, reproductive effort, etc.; Growth response is recorded in woody (nontropical) trees by variations in the thickness of annual rings; The environmental stimuli can be revealed by analyzing ring widths of living or fossil trees from sensitive sites.

4 Environment - site interactions temperature-sensitive annual rings bark drought-sensitive complacent

5 Tree rings as proxies

6 Measuring tree ring widths

7

8 Tree ring records, N. Eurasia (AD 0 - 2000)

9

10 Spatial patterns: the megadrought of 1863 in the USA

11 Reconstructing fire history from scars and wounds

12 Fire history sites, SW USA

13 Constructing regional fire histories

14 Tree rings and volcanism dust veil ‘frost ring’ e.g. LaMarche and Hirschboeck, 1984, Nature 307, 121-126 narrow/frost rings record eruptions in spring/summer only?

15

16 Hemispheric analyses of tree ring density reveal annual and spatial variations in climate [ Northern hemisphere; AD 1815-1817] “The year without a summer” Eruption of Tambora continues

17 Palynology: pollen proxies Plants produce morphologically distinctive pollen grains. Pollen “rain” is representative of the local plant community (apart from non-anemophilous spp.). Pollen grains are extremely resistant to decay in anoxic conditions (e.g. lake sediments, peat bogs, wetland soils). Pre-existing plant communities can be reconstructed by sampling fossil assemblages in these sedimentary archives. Palaeoclimates can be derived from the ecological ranges of the constituent species.

18 Pollen morphology I

19 Pollen morphology II

20 Pollen types Pinus Tsuga Poaceae Achillea

21 Tsuga occidentalis range limits % isopolls Species range, pollen rain and environment -20 -10 0 10 20 30 Temperature (°C) Ann. Jan. July Precipitation (mm) Ann. Jan. July 1 10 100 1000 10000

22 Relative pollen % and summer temperature (Yukon)

23 Pollen capture by lakes EXTRA-LOCAL (20 TO SEVERAL HUNDRED METRES FROM LAKE) LOCAL (<20 METRES FROM LAKE) 0 100 200 300 1000 REGIONAL (UP TO SEVERAL HUNDRED KILOMETRES FROM LAKE) LAKE DIAMETER (M) % TOTAL POLLEN 100 0

24 Pollen representation (‘R-value’: Inuvik area) “Over” “Equal” “Under” alder 11.8 juniper 1.0 spruce 0.5 sage 5.0 willow 0.6 larch 0.2 grass 3.4 poplar 0.6 heaths 0.1 birch 3.0 sedge 2.2 R = 1; pollen production = species abundance in vegetation

25 Pine pollen percentage vs. influx (Rogers Lake, Connecticut) 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 Radiocarbon yrs BP % of total Influx (‘000 grains/cm 2 /yr) 0 20 40 60 0 10 20 Late Holocene Glacial Pine needles (regional pattern)

26 Plant macrofossils as proxies

27 Stomatal patterns Monocots (linear) Dicots (random)

28 Stomatal density and [CO 2 ]

29 Reconstructed atmospheric CO 2 levels from 300 Ma to PD

30

31 Charcoal influx (mm 2 cm -2 yr -1 ), Lake Francis, Abitibi, Québec http://www.consecol.org /vol2/iss2/art6 Local fires Regional fires (background)

32 Insect proxies (e.g. Coleoptera [beetles]) 1. Fossil extraction (washing [solvents include kerosene] & sieving). 2. Taxon ID: morphology, microsculpture & genitalia (X100) head capsule pronotum elytra (singular= elytron)

33 Beetles in UK “Devensian” deposits (=OIS 2/3) A-C = thermophiles D-G = tundra /alpines H = cosmopolitan species (after Coope) barren = full glacial

34 Modern ranges of cold-tolerant beetles from UK Devensian deposits

35 Modern ranges of thermophile beetles from UK Devensian deposits

36 Devensian exotica (periglacial deposits) “interglacial refuge”

37 Terrestrial shelly invertebrates

38 Terrestrial vertebrates Alan Griffiths; discoverer of fossil bear bones, QCI, from ~15 ka BP (map of Late Glacial vertebrate fossil finds) Photos: Vancouver Sun

39 Packrat middens Neotoma cinerea fossil extractionsampling a midden midden site (Colorado)

40 Packrat middens: sample sites (BC)

41 Pinus edulis: distribution records in US SW from packrat middens

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