Insect herbivory during the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) in Arctic Spitsbergen - Insides from early Cenozoic high latitudinal floras

• Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Torsten Wappler
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Paläontologie
• Förderung: Förderung von 2013 bis 2016
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 234222794

The Palaeocene Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is a unique climatic event in the history of the Earth, which indicates the abrupt transition from the Palaeocene to Eocene of the Cenozoic era with a rapid increase in global surface temperatures, marking the warmest climates in the past 65 million years. The impact of this event on community structures of plant-insect associations, especially on northern hemisphere higher latitude terrestrial ecosystems is so far poorly known. The project includes the thermal affects that are likely to affect insect herbivory by allowing diverse insect populations from lower latitudes to migrate northwards concomitant with changes in insect metabolism and population density. Variations in extant insect herbivory along latitudinal and climatic gradients have been observed, and greater herbivory generally occurs in the tropics than in temperate regions. A major goal of the proposed study is to use interpretations of plant/insect associations of the PETM in high-latitudinal non-marine strata and to examine the magnitude of vegetation and climatic change during the warming period. Furthermore, this project is ideal to reconstruct the palaeoenvironment and climate of the Arctic (Svalbard) during the Palaeocene-Eocene transition with excellent outcrops of Tertiary flora on the Nordenskjöldfjellet and Bjørndalen near Longyearbyen.Thus, in turn the project has the potential to offer deep insights into the evolution of arctic terrestrial ecosystems and community structures of plant-insect associations in a circumscribed interval of critical environmental change during the Palaeocene-Eocene boundary.

• DFG-Verfahren: Sachbeihilfen
• Internationaler Bezug: Frankreich, Österreich, Schweden
• Beteiligte Institution: Alfred-Wegener-Institut; Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung
• Beteiligte Personen: Dr. Thomas Denk; Privatdozent Dr. Friðgeir Grímsson; Professor Andre Nel, Ph.D.