Research Database
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A 350-million-year legacy of fire adaptation among conifers
Year: 2016
Current phylogenetic evidence shows that fire began shaping the evolution of land plants 125 Ma, although the fossil charcoal record indicates that fire has a much longer history (>350 Ma). Serotiny (on-plant seed storage) is generally accepted as an adaptation to fire among woody plants. We developed a conceptual model of the requirements for the evolution of serotiny, and propose that serotiny is only expressed in the presence of a woody rachis as supporting structure, compact scales covering seeds as protective structure, seed wing as dispersal structure, and crown fire as the agent of…
Publication Type: Journal Article
Climate-Induced Changes in Lake Ecosystem Structure Inferred from Coupled Neo- and Paleoecological Approaches
Year: 2012
Over the 20th century, surface water temperatures have increased in many lake ecosystems around the world, but long-term trends in the vertical thermal structure of lakes remain unclear, despite the strong control that thermal stratification exerts on the biological response of lakes to climate change. Here we used both neo- and paleoecological approaches to develop a fossil-based inference model for lake mixing depths and thereby refine understanding of lake thermal structure change. We focused on three common planktonic diatom taxa, the distributions of which previous research suggests…
Publication Type: Journal Article