Insect herbivory during the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) in Arctic Spitsbergen - Insides from early Cenozoic high latitudinal floras
Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse
Fossil leaves are extremely sensitive indicators of past climates, plant-insect interactions, biodiversity, and the effects of major environmental disturbances. On going studies from the abundant, diverse, and well-preserved insect-feeding damage found on fossil leaves from different European localities provide for the first time deep insights in these patterns from a time period immediately before the Palaeocene Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) and after the middle Eocene Climatic Optimum for Europe. The Palaeogene shows cycles of cooling and warming superimposed on the broad global trend for progressive cooling, and thus provides a record of deep time climate change. Within the Palaeogene, the PETM was an abrupt and dramatic global warming event, and was followed by an interval of sustained warm climates spanning the Early Eocene to early Middle Eocene. To evaluate, if the results of plant-insect associations from the these localities are regionally affected or comparable to other sites new material from Spitsbergen, collected under refined stratigraphic framework and additional localities from the Palaeocene (Allt Mor leaf beds (Isle of Sky, Scotland)) were chosen. Furthermore, we choose additionally European and Gondwanan Neogene palaeofloral as their record is very rich and diverse which support a profound large-scale understanding of the floristic and vegetational development. Ecological and palaeontological studies indicate that temperature, precipitation, leaf nutrient content, transient increase in floral diversity and change in plant species composition can influence insect herbivory. However, plant-insect interactions, a dominant feature of terrestrial ecosystems, are not well known during this interval. In Europe, the Neogene is characterized by palaeogeographic reorganization due to the collision of the African with the Eurasian plate. In addition to the global climatic changes, the tectonic development and sea level changes severely influenced the climate in Eurasia. 1. High latitudinal herbivore pressure. The new Svalbard material fits within the picture and supports the hypothesis that during the Palaeocene and Eocene the diversity of plant-insect interactions was greater at higher latitudes (?) than at mid-latitudes with similar climates. Interesting, because the insect compression preservation is quite sparse. 2. Icelandic herbivory pattern. Palaeoecological studies that combine analyses of environmental factors, species interactions, ecology, biogeography, and geological history may better estimate the feedbacks between assembly dynamics and community structures and provided new insights into the formation of ecological communities. This study presents an extensive dataset of palaeoherbivory combining for the first time quantitative studies of middle Miocene to Pliocene fossil plant-animal interactions on Iceland. Our results demonstrate how patterns of herbivory have changed over time in direct relation to climate change that profoundly influenced levels of insectmediated damage diversity and frequency. In addition, higher structural complexity, particularly the establishment of species-rich herb layer communities seem to have positively influence the structures of insect communities in Icelandic palaeoforests. 3. Miocene Gondwanan herbivory pattern. The presence of phytophagous insect activity on fossil angiosperm leaves of the Hindon Maar has been recorded for the first time and show evidence of past insect life. The study shows a very high diversity of insect herbivory on angiosperm leaves of the Hindon Maar. 87 different damage types occur on the 584 studied leaves. By far more than from any other European Miocene palaeoflora is recorde. Leaves of Nothofagus were compared with Nothofagus fossil leaves from Antarctica and the Dunedin Volcano Group. Differences in the percentage of damage between Nothofagus in New Zealand and Antarctica became obvious. While the data of the Dunedin Volcano Group are quite similar to the Hindon Maar, there is an enormous difference to the Antarctica data.
Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)
- (2017) Bibionidae (Diptera) from the late Miocene of Hrútagil (Mókollsdalur), Iceland. PalZ 91 (2) 195–205
Skartveit, John; Grímsson, Friðgeir; Wappler, Torsten
(Siehe online unter https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-017-0341-0) - 2014. Before the ‘Big Chill’: A preliminary overview of arthropods from the middle Miocene of Iceland (Insecta, Crustacea). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 401, 1-12
Wappler, T. et al.
(Siehe online unter https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.03.006) - 2015. Character state-based taxa erected to accommodate fossil and extant needle stoneflies (Leuctridae - Leuctrida tax.n.) and close relatives. Systematic Entomology, 40, 322-341
Béthoux, O. et al.
(Siehe online unter https://doi.org/10.1111/syen.12102) - 2016. Before the ‘Big Chill’: Patterns of plant-insect associations from the Neogene of Iceland. Global and Planetary Change, 142, 73-86
Wappler, T. and Grímsson, F.
(Siehe online unter https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2016.05.003) - 2016. Iceland: a special island in the North Atlantic. In: D. Penney and A.J. Ross (Eds.), Fossils X3 - 7th International Conference on Fossil Insects, Arthropods and Amber. Siri Scientific Press, Edinburgh, pp. 58
Wappler, T., Grímsson, F. and Denk, T.
- 2016. Plant-insect interactions in the Late Eocene Profen flora (Sachsen-Anhalt) and ist palaeoecological interpretation – A preliminary report. In: B. Niebuhr, M. Wilmsen, L. Kunzmann and C. Stefen (Eds.), Fossils: Key to evolution, stratigraphy and palaeoenvironments. 87th Annual Conference of the Paläontologische Gesellschaft e.V. Senckenberg Naturhistorische Sammlungen Dresden, Dresden, pp. 113
Müller, C., Wappler, T., Schneider, J.W. and Kunzmann, L.
- 2016. Svalbard PETM and biota dispersal in NAIP area. In: B.P. Schultz (Ed.), In search for Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) – Moler in the Danish Limfjord area. World Heritage Symposium 2.-4. November 2016, Glyngore, Denmark
Wappler,T.
- 2017. High richness of insect herbivory from the early Miocene Hindon Maar crater, Otago, New Zealand. PeerJ, 5, e2985
Möller, A.L., Kaulfuss, U., Lee, D.E. and Wappler, T.
(Siehe online unter https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2985)
