scholarly journals Early evolution of beetles regulated by the end-Permian deforestation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xianye Zhao ◽  
Yilun Yu ◽  
Matthew Clapham ◽  
Evgeny Yan ◽  
Jun Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Middle Triassic ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystem ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Deep Time ◽  
Ecological Shifts ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction ◽  
Early Middle Triassic

The end-Permian mass extinction (EPME) led to a severe terrestrial ecosystem collapse. However, the ecological response of insects—the most diverse group of organisms on Earth—to the EPME remains poorly understood. Here, we analyse beetle evolutionary history based on taxonomic diversity, morphological disparity, phylogeny, and ecological shifts from the Early Permian to Middle Triassic, using a comprehensive new data set. Permian beetles were dominated by xylophagous stem groups with a high diversity and disparity, which probably played an underappreciated role in the Permian carbon cycle. Our suite of analyses shows that Permian xylophagous beetles suffered a severe extinction during the EPME largely due to the collapse of forest ecosystems, resulting in an Early Triassic gap of xylophagous beetles. New xylophagous beetles appeared widely in the early Middle Triassic, which is consistent with the restoration of forest ecosystems. Our results highlight the ecological significance of insects in deep-time terrestrial ecosystems.

scholarly journals Early evolution of beetles regulated by the end-Permian deforestation

eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xianye Zhao ◽  
Yilun Yu ◽  
Matthew E Clapham ◽  
Evgeny Yan ◽  
Jun Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Forest Ecosystems ◽  
Middle Triassic ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystem ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Deep Time ◽  
Ecological Shifts ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction ◽  
Early Middle Triassic

The end-Permian mass extinction (EPME) led to a severe terrestrial ecosystem collapse. However, the ecological response of insects—the most diverse group of organisms on Earth—to the EPME remains poorly understood. Here, we analyse beetle evolutionary history based on taxonomic diversity, morphological disparity, phylogeny, and ecological shifts from the Early Permian to Middle Triassic, using a comprehensive new data set. Permian beetles were dominated by xylophagous stem groups with high diversity and disparity, which probably played an underappreciated role in the Permian carbon cycle. Our suite of analyses shows that Permian xylophagous beetles suffered a severe extinction during the EPME largely due to the collapse of forest ecosystems, resulting in an Early Triassic gap of xylophagous beetles. New xylophagous beetles appeared widely in the early Middle Triassic, which is consistent with the restoration of forest ecosystems. Our results highlight the ecological significance of insects in deep-time terrestrial ecosystems.

Early and Middle Triassic trends in diversity, evenness, and size of foraminifers on a carbonate platform in south China: implications for tempo and mode of biotic recovery from the end-Permian mass extinction

Paleobiology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan L. Payne ◽  
Mindi Summers ◽  
Brianna L. Rego ◽  
Demir Altiner ◽  
Jiayong Wei ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South China ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Middle Triassic ◽  
Carbonate Platform ◽  
Early Triassic ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Recovery Pattern ◽  
Biotic Recovery ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction

Delayed biotic recovery from the end-Permian mass extinction has long been interpreted to result from environmental inhibition. Recently, evidence of more rapid recovery has begun to emerge, suggesting the role of environmental inhibition was previously overestimated. However, there have been few high-resolution taxonomic and ecological studies spanning the full Early and Middle Triassic recovery interval, leaving the precise pattern of recovery and underlying mechanisms poorly constrained. In this study, we document Early and Middle Triassic trends in taxonomic diversity, assemblage evenness, and size distribution of benthic foraminifers on an exceptionally exposed carbonate platform in south China. We observe gradual increases in all metrics through Early Triassic and earliest Middle Triassic time, with stable values reached early in the Anisian. There is little support in our data set for a substantial Early Triassic lag interval during the recovery of foraminifers or for a stepwise recovery pattern. The recovery pattern of foraminifers on the GBG corresponds well with available global data for this taxon and appears to parallel that of many benthic invertebrate clades. Early Triassic diversity increase in foraminifers was more gradual than in ammonoids and conodonts. However, foraminifers continued to increase in diversity, size, and evenness into Middle Triassic time, whereas diversity of ammonoids and conodonts declined. These contrasts suggest decoupling of recovery between benthic and pelagic environments; it is unclear whether these discrepancies reflect inherent contrasts in their evolutionary dynamics or the differential impact of Early Triassic ocean anoxia or associated environmental parameters on benthic ecosystems.

scholarly journals Ontogeny of highly variable ceratitid ammonoids from the Anisian (Middle Triassic)

PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e10931
Author(s):  
Eva Alexandra Bischof ◽  
Nils Schlüter ◽  
Dieter Korn ◽  
Jens Lehmann
Keyword(s):  
Cross Sections ◽  
Middle Triassic ◽  
Phenotypic Variability ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Ontogenetic Changes ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Ontogenetic Trajectories ◽  
Early Middle Triassic ◽  
First Time ◽  
High Diversity

Ammonoids reached their greatest diversity during the Triassic period. In the early Middle Triassic (Anisian) stage, ammonoid diversity was dominated by representatives of the family Ceratitidae. High taxonomic diversity can, however, be decoupled from their morphologic disparity. Due to its high phenotypic variability, the high diversity of ceratitids of the Anisian of Nevada was initially assumed to be caused by artificial over-splitting. This study aims to contribute data to settle this issue by applying geometric morphometrics methods, using landmarks and semi-landmarks, in the study of ontogenetic cross-sections of ammonoids for the first time. The results reveal that alterations in ontogenetic trajectories, linked to heterochronic processes, lead to the morphologic diversification of the species studied herein. Our knowledge, based on these ontogenetic changes, challenge the traditional treatment of species using solely adult characters for their distinction. This study furthermore demonstrates that the high diversity of the Anisian ammonoid assemblages of Nevada based on the traditional nomenclatoric approach is regarded to be reasonably accurate.

scholarly journals The early Triassic rhynchosaur Mesosuchus browni and the interrelationships of basal archosauromorph reptiles

1998 ◽  
Vol 353 (1368) ◽  
pp. 501-541 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Dilkes
Keyword(s):  
Middle Triassic ◽  
Sister Group ◽  
Recent Common Ancestor ◽  
Early Triassic ◽  
Late Permian ◽  
Assemblage Zone ◽  
Stratigraphic Ranges ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction ◽  
Fossil Records ◽  
Early Middle Triassic

Restudy of the unique diapsid reptile Mesosuchus browni Watson, from the Cynognathus Assemblage Zone (late Early Triassic to early Middle Triassic) of the Burgersdorp Formation (Tarkastad Subgroup; Beaufort Group) of South Africa, confirms that it is the most plesiomorphic known member of the Rhynchosauria. A new phylogenetic analysis of basal taxa of Archosauromorpha indicates that Choristodera falls outside of the Sauria, Prolacertiformes is a paraphyletic taxon with Prolacerta sharing a more recent common ancestor with Archosauriformes than with any other clade, Megalancosaurus and Drepanosaurus are sister taxa in the clade Drepanosauridae within Archosauromorpha, and are the sister group to the clade Tanystropheidae composed of Tanystropheus , Macrocnemus , and Langobardisaurus . Combination of the phylogenetic relationships of basal archosauromorphs and their known stratigraphic ranges reveals significant gaps in the fossil records of Late Permian and Triassic diapsids. Extensions of the temporal ranges of several lineages of diapsids into the Late Permian suggests that more groups of terrestrial reptiles survived the end-Permian mass extinction than thought previously.

scholarly journals Potassium Control of Plant Functions: Ecological and Agricultural Implications

Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 419
Author(s):  
Jordi Sardans ◽  
Josep Peñuelas
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Stress Responses ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystem ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Wood Formation ◽  
Cellular Growth ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Metabolite Transport ◽  
Physiological Functions

Potassium, mostly as a cation (K+), together with calcium (Ca2+) are the most abundant inorganic chemicals in plant cellular media, but they are rarely discussed. K+ is not a component of molecular or macromolecular plant structures, thus it is more difficult to link it to concrete metabolic pathways than nitrogen or phosphorus. Over the last two decades, many studies have reported on the role of K+ in several physiological functions, including controlling cellular growth and wood formation, xylem–phloem water content and movement, nutrient and metabolite transport, and stress responses. In this paper, we present an overview of contemporary findings associating K+ with various plant functions, emphasizing plant-mediated responses to environmental abiotic and biotic shifts and stresses by controlling transmembrane potentials and water, nutrient, and metabolite transport. These essential roles of K+ account for its high concentrations in the most active plant organs, such as leaves, and are consistent with the increasing number of ecological and agricultural studies that report K+ as a key element in the function and structure of terrestrial ecosystems, crop production, and global food security. We synthesized these roles from an integrated perspective, considering the metabolic and physiological functions of individual plants and their complex roles in terrestrial ecosystem functions and food security within the current context of ongoing global change. Thus, we provide a bridge between studies of K+ at the plant and ecological levels to ultimately claim that K+ should be considered at least at a level similar to N and P in terrestrial ecological studies.

scholarly journals Reduced resilience of terrestrial ecosystems locally is not reflected on a global scale

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuhao Feng ◽  
Haojie Su ◽  
Zhiyao Tang ◽  
Shaopeng Wang ◽  
Xia Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystem ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Ecological Resilience ◽  
Terrestrial Vegetation ◽  
Ecosystem Resilience

AbstractGlobal climate change likely alters the structure and function of vegetation and the stability of terrestrial ecosystems. It is therefore important to assess the factors controlling ecosystem resilience from local to global scales. Here we assess terrestrial vegetation resilience over the past 35 years using early warning indicators calculated from normalized difference vegetation index data. On a local scale we find that climate change reduced the resilience of ecosystems in 64.5% of the global terrestrial vegetated area. Temperature had a greater influence on vegetation resilience than precipitation, while climate mean state had a greater influence than climate variability. However, there is no evidence for decreased ecological resilience on larger scales. Instead, climate warming increased spatial asynchrony of vegetation which buffered the global-scale impacts on resilience. We suggest that the response of terrestrial ecosystem resilience to global climate change is scale-dependent and influenced by spatial asynchrony on the global scale.

Iron-mediated deep-time preservation of osteocytes in a Middle Triassic reptile bone

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Surmik ◽  
M. Dulski ◽  
B. Kremer ◽  
J. Szade ◽  
R. Pawlicki
Keyword(s):  
Middle Triassic ◽  
Deep Time

A coupled multi-proxy and process modelling approach for extraction of quantitative terrestrial ecosystem information from speleothems

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Lechleitner ◽  
Christopher C. Day ◽  
Oliver Kost ◽  
Micah Wilhelm ◽  
Negar Haghipour ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Soil Respiration ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystem ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Clear Correlation ◽  
Northern Spain ◽  
Regional Temperature ◽  
Global Carbon

<p>Terrestrial ecosystems are intimately linked with the global climate system, but their response to ongoing and future anthropogenic climate change remains poorly understood. Reconstructing the response of terrestrial ecosystem processes over past periods of rapid and substantial climate change can serve as a tool to better constrain the sensitivity in the ecosystem-climate response.</p><p>In this talk, we will present a new reconstruction of soil respiration in the temperate region of Western Europe based on speleothem carbon isotopes (δ<sup>13</sup>C). Soil respiration remains poorly constrained over past climatic transitions, but is critical for understanding the global carbon cycle and its response to ongoing anthropogenic warming. Our study builds upon two decades of speleothem research in Western Europe, which has shown clear correlation between δ<sup>13</sup>C and regional temperature reconstructions during the last glacial and the deglaciation, with exceptional regional coherency in timing, amplitude, and absolute δ<sup>13</sup>C variation. By combining innovative multi-proxy geochemical analysis (δ<sup>13</sup>C, Ca isotopes, and radiocarbon) on three speleothems from Northern Spain, and quantitative forward modelling of processes in soil, karst, and cave, we show how deglacial variability in speleothem δ<sup>13</sup>C is best explained by increasing soil respiration. Our study is the first to quantify and remove the effects of prior calcite precipitation (PCP, using Ca isotopes) and bedrock dissolution (open vs closed system, using the radiocarbon reservoir effect) from the speleothem δ<sup>13</sup>C signal to derive changes in respired δ<sup>13</sup>C over time. Our approach allows us to estimate the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration (Q<sub>10</sub>), which is higher than current measurements, suggesting that part of the speleothem signal may be related to a change in the composition of the soil respired δ<sup>13</sup>C. This is likely related to changing substrate through increasing contribution from vegetation biomass with the onset of the Holocene.</p><p>These results highlight the exciting possibilities speleothems offer as a coupled archive for quantitative proxy-based reconstructions of climate and ecosystem conditions.</p>

scholarly journals Groundwater stable isotope profile of the Etosha National Park, Namibia

Koedoe ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward S. Riddell ◽  
Werner Kilian ◽  
Wilferd Versfeld ◽  
Martin Kosoana
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
National Park ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystem ◽  
Hydrological Process ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Tightly Coupled ◽  
Isotope Profile ◽  
Rainfall Recharge ◽  
Large Protected Area

The Etosha National Park (ENP) is a large protected area in northern Namibia. While the ENP has received a lot of research attention in terms of terrestrial ecosystem process understanding in recent decades, aquatic and hydrological research has to date been limited to a descriptive form. This study provides a baseline hydrological data set of the spatial representation of Oand H-isotope ratios in the groundwater at a park scale, with a focus on three water point types utilised by game, namely natural artesian and contact springs as well as artificial boreholes. The data are used to infer broad-scale hydrological process from groundwater recharge mechanisms dominated by direct rainfall recharge in the west of the ENP to evaporative controls on surface water recharge pathways in the east of the ENP close to Fishers Pan. The findings are used to recommend further targeted research and monitoring to aid management of water resources in the ENP.Conservation implications: The terrestrial ecosystem, particularly large game, are tightly coupled to the distribution of available surface water in the ENP, notably contact and artesian springs. Within the ENP there is a perceived desiccation of these springs. This study provides a baseline upon which more comprehensive studies should be undertaken to differentiate natural from anthropogenic causes for this phenomenon.

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