Integrated leaf trait analysis – a new tool for analyzing European Paleogene ecosystems
Final Report Abstract
Leaves, the primary photosynthetic organs of higher plants, are optimally adapted to their environment. As part of the livelihood of other organisms, they are also optimized to withstand excessive use by other organisms. The project postulates conversely that traits of fossil leaves provide meaningful data for reconstructing ancient ecosystems and insect-plant interaction. The main project goal was to prove the interdependencies and interrelatedness of leaf traits with respect to paleoenvironment, paleoclimate and geological age. The Integrated Leaf Trait Analysis (ILTA) tool was introduced as approach to describe multiple traits as fingerprintlike images of fossil assemblages and their changes in the late Paleogene. Applicability of ILTA was demonstrated with 3 late Eocene and 5 Oligocene assemblages from Germany and the Czech Republic, coming either from coastal lowland or volcanic-shaped hinterland localities. All in all, trait data of 14.288 leaves were collected whereof 12.240 leaves were studied for observing insect-plant interactions. For studying multiple trait interrelationships by advanced statistical tools, 870 leaves were digitized. For the application of ILTA a workflow model including recommendations for sampling sizes was developed. ILTA was comprehensively applied to two nearby early Oligocene assemblages, Seifhennersdorf and Suletice-Berand, with similar geological contexts but different floristic compositions. The main results are: (1) Taxonomic composition of floras significantly and sensitively impacts trait variations and evidence of insect damage. (2) Associations between insect herbivory traces and specific Trait Combination Types (TCT) suggests that fossil-species with toothed leaves are more “attractive” host plants. (3) Leaf morphology itself, e.g., TCTs, cannot explain differences in insect herbivory on leaves. It is a more complex relationship where leaf morphology, LMA, phenology, and taxonomic affiliation are crucial. (4) Advanced multivariate statistical approaches are necessary in leaf trait studies for finding significant interdependencies. Important but not yet published results are: (1) A comprehensive test of a combined specimen-based and taxonomy-based TCT approach with three fragmented fossil leaf assemblages shows that the entire phenotypic plasticity is already gathered by specimenbased observation data but the combined approach reveals TCT frequencies more precisely. (2) It is not convincingly explainable yet why taphocoenoses with high quantities of wellpreserved compression fossils often reveal rather low abundancies of insect herbivory traces. (3) TCT pattern and average LMA of assemblages change over time, mainly dependent on paleoclimate change. Not all trait data are appropriately analyzed and published yet. Still, the first published results prove that the ILTA tool is a meaningful step forward to better combine leaf architectural and insect herbivory data for paleoenvironmental research.
Publications
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Integrated leaf trait analysis – a new tool for analyzing European Paleogene ecosystems. – In: Stumpf, S., Türtscher, J., Pfaff, C., Jambura, P. L., Kriwet, J. (eds): Abstracts of the 92nd Annual Meeting of the Paläontologische Gesellschaft – Berichte der Geologischen Bundesanstalt Wien 142: 145.
Müller, C., Roth-Nebelsick, A., Wappler, T. & Kunzmann, L.
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Taxon-specific variability of leaf traits in three long-ranging fossil-species of the Paleogene and Neogene: Responses to climate?. Palaeontologia Electronica.
Roth-Nebelsick, Anita; Grein, Michaela; Traiser, Christopher; Kunzmann, Lutz; Kvaček, Jiří; Wypich, Janina & Kovar-Eder, Johanna
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The Eocene–Oligocene transition: a review of marine and terrestrial proxy data, models and model–data comparisons. Climate of the Past, 17(1), 269-315.
Hutchinson, David K.; Coxall, Helen K.; Lunt, Daniel J.; Steinthorsdottir, Margret; de Boer Agatha, M.; Baatsen, Michiel; von der Heydt, Anna; Huber, Matthew; Kennedy-Asser, Alan T.; Kunzmann, Lutz; Ladant, Jean-Baptiste; Lear, Caroline H.; Moraweck, Karolin; Pearson, Paul N.; Piga, Emanuela; Pound, Matthew J.; Salzmann, Ulrich; Scher, Howie D.; Sijp, Willem P. ... & Zhang, Zhongshi
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Application of Trait Combination Type approach to fragmented fossil leaf assemblages. – In: Müller, C., Kunzmann, L. (ed.). Datz-Symposium. From functional traits to models – An interdisciplinary perspective on structure, functioning and evolution of ecosystems in deep time. – Abstracts of International Workshop Senckenberg Natural History Collections Dresden, Germany, May 17–19, 2022: 21.
Kunzmann, L., Müller, C., Traiser, C., Toumoulin, A. & Roth-Nebelsick, A.
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Datz-Symposium. From functional traits to models – An interdisciplinary perspective on structure, functioning and evolution of ecosystems in deep time. – International Workshop Senckenberg Natural History Collections Dresden, Germany, May 17–19, 2022.
Müller, C. & Kunzmann, L.
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Evolution of continental temperature seasonality from the Eocene greenhouse to the Oligocene icehouse –a model–data comparison. Climate of the Past, 18(2), 341-362.
Toumoulin, Agathe; Tardif, Delphine; Donnadieu, Yannick; Licht, Alexis; Ladant, Jean-Baptiste; Kunzmann, Lutz & Dupont-Nivet, Guillaume
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Integrated leaf trait analysis – a new tool for analyzing European Paleogene ecosystems. – In: McLoughlin, S. (ed.). 11th European Palaeobotany and Palynology Conference. Abstracts, Program and Proceedings: 145–146.
Müller, C., Roth-Nebelsick, A., Wappler, T. & Kunzmann, L.
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Towards an Integrated Leaf Trait Analysis: an example from the Paleogene. – In: Schweigert, G. (ed.). 2022. 93. Jahrestagung der Paläontologischen Gesellschaft, Sep. 19th to 23rd at the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart.
Müller, C., Toumoulin, A., Roth-Nebelsick, A., Wappler, T. & Kunzmann, L.
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Towards an Intergrated Leaf Trait Analysis: an example from the Paleogene. – In: Müller, C., Kunzmann, L. (ed.). Datz-Symposium. From functional traits to models – An interdisciplinary perspective on structure, functioning and evolution of ecosystems in deep time. – Abstracts of International Workshop Senckenberg natural History Collections Dresden, Germany, May 17–19, 2022: 22.
Müller, C., Toumoulin, A., Roth-Nebelsick, A., Wappler, T. & Kunzmann, L.
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An integrated leaf trait analysis of two Paleogene leaf floras. PeerJ, 11, e15140.
Müller, Christian; Toumoulin, Agathe; Böttcher, Helen; Roth-Nebelsick, Anita; Wappler, Torsten & Kunzmann, Lutz
