Plant–microbe interactions in deep time: A multidisciplinary study of Permian microorganisms associated with tree ferns, and their responses to climate change
Final Report Abstract
The area around Manebach in the Thuringian Forest (Germany) is rich in early Permian fossils, which reflect an array of different depositional environments, such as swamps, lakes, forested floodplains, and rivers. Along with impressions and compressions, structurally preserved (permineralized) plant remains also occur; however, specimens of the latter have hitherto only been discovered secondarily reworked in Quaternary river gravels and slope debris. One of the objectives of the present research project was to trace the origin(s) of the permineralizations and resolve the context of their formation and conditions under which they were preserved. Moreover, we intended to systematically examine the permineralizations for new information on the diversity, ecological roles, and significance of fungi and other plant-colonizing microorganisms in the outgoing Paleozoic. The stratigraphic position and correlation of the Manebach Formation should also be reassessed. This formation reflects a super-regionally important wet phase and one of the last refuges of the coal-forming swamp forests in Europe. All necessary fieldwork was conducted according to schedule despite the various restrictions imposed by COVID-19; however, the bulk of the thin sections required for analyzing the permineralized plants and microorganisms could not be prepared (on time). The field and laboratory data gathered nevertheless enabled us to reconstruct the development, ecology, and trophic structure of an early Permian lake ecosystem that was located within a peat-forming wetland. High-resolution litho- and biofacies analyses, along with radioisotopic U-Pb dating based on volcanic zircons from a newly discovered ash tuff within the Manebach lake, have yielded the first absolute age for the Manebach Formation. The lake was an exoreic, intramontane body of water of at least 100 km2 that existed in the seasonal tropics of east-central Pangaea some 298 Ma ago. Lake formation concurred with a regionally detectable moist climate interval of the early lake development and gave glimpses of microbial activities in the photic waterfront. Present in this assemblage is also terrestrial plant detritus, bivalves, crustaceans, and species-poor fish fauna. Compared with other structurally preserved plant remains from Manebach screened for plant-colonizing microorganisms, Psaronius stems showed a much higher density of colonization and morphological variety of colonizers, probably due to the nature of the root mantle that made the invasion and subsequent spreading out of microorganisms easier. Cathodoluminescence analysis of permineralizations produced only weak signals for foreign ions and lattice disturbances of the silica matrix, thus suggesting that silicification occurred in meteoric waters at surface temperature. Our fieldwork at Manebach would not have been possible without citizen scientists, who supported the project by contributing detailed local knowledge, actively participating in the excavation campaigns, opening their private collections to us, and their long-standing experience with the regional geography, geology, and fossil record. Finally, we profited from several students who used project data for their theses and often participated in the fieldwork.
Publications
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(2018): Deciphering silicification pathways of fossil forests: Case studies from the late Paleozoic of Central Europe. – Minerals, 8: 432
Trümper, S.; Rößler, R. & Götze, J.
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(2019): Beetle borings in wood with host response in early Permian conifers from Germany. PalZ, 93 (3): 409–421
Feng, Z.; Bertling, M.; Noll, R.; Slipinski, A. & Rößler, R.
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(2019): Geologisches Profil und Fossilführung des Geotops am Kammerberg (Manebach-Formation, Unterrotliegend) in Manebach/Thüringen. Semana, 34: 3–10
Trümper, S., Werneburg, R. & Schneider, J. W.
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(2020): Late Paleozoic red beds elucidate fluvial architectures preserving large woody debris in the seasonal tropics of central Pangaea. – Sedimentology, 67: 1973–2012
Trümper, S., Gaitzsch, B., Schneider, J. W., Ehling, B.-C., Kleeberg, R. & Rößler, R.
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(2020): Silica-Modifikationen in frühpermischen verkieselten Hölzern unterschiedlicher Vorkommen [Silica modifications in early Permian silicified wood from various occurrences]. – Veröffentlichungen des Museums für Naturkunde Chemnitz, 43: 131–140
Dietrich, D.; Trümper, S., Lampke, T. & Rößler, R.
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(2021): An early Permian ichthyofauna from the Manebach Formation (Thuringian-Forest Basin, central Germany). – Semana, 36: 35–50
Štamberg, S. & Trümper, S.
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(2021): Environment and taphonomy of an intrabasinal upland flora preserved in lower Permian volcaniclastic sediments. – Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, 300/3: 303–344
Trümper, S., Noll, R., Luthardt, L. & Rößler, R.
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(2021): Fungi as parasites: a conspectus of the fossil record. In: K. de Beats & J. W. Huntley (Eds.), The Evolution and Fossil Record of Parasitism – Identification and Macroevolution of Parasites (Topics in Geobiology, vol. 49), pp. 69–108, Cham, Springer
Harper, C. J. & Krings, M.
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(2021): The most entirely known Permian terrestrial ecosystem on Earth – kept by explosive volcanism. – Palaeontographica B, 303 (1–3): 1–75
Rößler, R.
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(2021): Wood shrinkage during fossilization and its significance for studying deep-time lignophytes. – Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 292: 104455
Rößler, R., Trümper, S., Noll, R., Hellwig, A. & Niemirowska, S.
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(2022): Large woody debris accumulations in the Late Pennsylvanian tropics—Evolutionary signal or tectono-climatic archive? – Palaios, 37: 251–291
Trümper, S., Mencl, V., Opluštil, S., Niemirowska, S. & Rößler, R.
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(2022): Tyloses in fossil plants: new data from a Mississippian tree, with a review of previous records. – Botany Letters
Decombeix, A. L., Harper, C. J., Galtier, J., Meyer-Berthaud, B. & Krings, M.
