Cenozoic climate

Morphological trends in the fossil pollen of Decodon and the paleobiogeographic history of the genus

by Fridgeir Grimsson

2012
Fridgeir Grimsson, David K. Ferguson, Reinhard Zetter
International Journal of Plant Sciences

A Late Messinian Palynoflora with a Distinct Taphonomy

by Fridgeir Grimsson

2011
Thomas Denk, Fridgeir Grimsson, Reinhard Zetter, Leifur A Simonarson
Springer
Chapter 9

The Classic Surtarbrandur Floras

by Fridgeir Grimsson

2011
Thomas Denk, Fridgeir Grimsson, Reinhard Zetter, Leifur A Simonarson
Springer
Chapter 5

The Biogeographic History of Iceland - The North Atlantic Land Bridge Revisited

by Fridgeir Grimsson

2011
Thomas Denk, Fridgeir Grimsson, Reinhard Zetter, Leifur A Simonarson
Springer
Chapter 12

Climate Evolution in the Northern North Atlantic - 15 Ma to Present

by Fridgeir Grimsson

2011
Thomas Denk, Fridgeir Grimsson, Reinhard Zetter, Leifur A Simonarson
Springer
Chapter 13

The Miocene floras of Iceland and their significance for late Cainozoic North Atlantic biogeography

by Fridgeir Grimsson

2005
Thomas Denk, Fridgeir Grimsson, Zlatko Kvacek
Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society

Combined LM and SEM study of the Middle Miocene (Sarmatian) palynoflora from the Lavanttal Basin: Part II. Pinophyta (Cupressaceae, Pinaceae and Sciadopityaceae)

by Fridgeir Grimsson

2011
Fridgeir Grimsson, Reinhard Zetter
Grana

The evolution of the Australian flora: fossil evidence

by Stephen McLoughlin

Reference:
Hill, R.S., Truswell, E.M., McLoughlin, S. & Dettmann, M.E. 1999. The evolution of the Australian flora: fossil evidence. Flora of Australia, 2nd Edition, 1 (Introduction): 251-320.

The prehistory of the Australian vegetation is summarized – from the earliest traces of life in the Precambrian to the... more The prehistory of the Australian vegetation is summarized – from the earliest traces of life in the Precambrian to the events of the Cenozoic that shaped the continent’s modern flora. Australia’s oldest land plants appear in the Silurian with the rise of the lycophyte-dominated Baragwanathia flora. A succession of late Palaeozoic and Mesozoic pteridophyte- and gymnosperm-dominated floras followed, successive floras being punctuated by phases of major climate change and/or global mass-extinction events. For much of its Phenerozoic history, Australia has been part of the supercontinent Gondwana, thus it has shared broadly similar floras with the other Southern Hemisphere continents. The rise of the angiosperms in the Early Cretaceous was coincident with or slightly preceded the later stages of Gondwanan breakup. The modern angiosperm-dominated flora, therefore, developed during progressive isolation of Australia and its eventual collision with landmasses of southeast Asia. This history of isolation and amalgamation, together with the great climatic changes that have affected the continent over the past 100 million years, has set up intriguing scenarios for explaining the past and present distribution of a broad range of Australia’s plant taxa.

Late Cenozoic climate changes in China’s western interior: a review of research on Lake Qinghai and comparison with other records

by Andrew Henderson

Quaternary Science Reviews, 2007, 26, 2281 - 2300

We review Late Cenozoic climate and environment changes in the western interior of China with an emphasis on... more We review Late Cenozoic climate and environment changes in the western interior of China with an emphasis on lacustrine records from Lake Qinghai. Widespread deposition of red clay in the marginal basins of the Tibetan Plateau indicates that the Asian monsoon system was initially established by 8 Ma, when the plateau reached a threshold altitude. Subsequent strengthening of the winter monsoon, along with the establishment of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets, reflects a long-term trend of global cooling. The few cores from the Tibetan Plateau that reach back a million years suggest that they record the mid-Pleistocene transition from glacial cycles dominated by 41 ka cycles to those dominated by 100 ka cycles.
During Terminations I and II, strengthening of the summer monsoon in China’s interior was delayed compared with sea level and insolation records, and it did not reach the western Tibetan Plateau and the Tarim Basin. Lacustrine carbonate d18O records reveal no climatic anomaly during MIS3, so that high terraces interpreted as evidence for extremely high lake levels during MIS3 remain an enigma. Following the Last Glacial Maximum (LSM), several lines of evidence from Lake Qinghai and elsewhere point to an initial warming of regional climate about 14 500 cal yr BP, which was followed by a brief cold reversal, possibly corresponding to the Younger Dryas event in the North Atlantic region. Maximum warming occurred about 10 000 cal yr BP, accompanied by increased monsoon precipitation in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Superimposed on this general pattern are small-amplitude, centennial-scale oscillations during the Holocene. Warmer than present climate conditions terminated about 4000 cal yr BP. Progressive lowering of the water level in Lake Qinghai during the last half century is mainly a result of negative precipitation–evaporation balance within the context of global warming.