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Plant carbon balance, evolutionary innovation and extinction in land plants
Author(s) -
Cowling Sharon A.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
global change biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.146
H-Index - 255
eISSN - 1365-2486
pISSN - 1354-1013
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2486.2001.00410.x
Subject(s) - extinction (optical mineralogy) , ecology , carbon cycle , plant evolution , extinction event , herbivore , ecosystem , global change , pleistocene , carbon fibers , terrestrial plant , fossil record , biology , climate change , paleontology , biological dispersal , biochemistry , population , materials science , demography , genome , sociology , composite number , gene , composite material
Summary The plant fossil record was reviewed to highlight how consideration of plant carbon balance strengthens our understanding of various evolutionary innovation and extinction events. Following a brief physiological primer to carbon acquisition and allocation in C3‐plants, specific evolutionary events are discussed in connection with postulated carbon‐based mechanisms. Primary topics include: (i) the evolution of plants with the C4‐photosynthetic pathway; (ii) the surprising lack of plant extinctions during the Pleistocene (1.6 million years ago, Ma); (iii) the trend toward declining plant diversity and increasing rates of herbivory across the Palaeocene/Eocene transition (57–52 Ma); and (iv) megaherbivore extinctions at the end of the Pleistocene (10 thousand years ago, Ka). A framework is presented for testing hypotheses on the cause–effect relationships between global carbon cycling, plant carbon dynamics and the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems.