Abstract
The early Cenozoic was characterized by a very warm climate especially during the Early Eocene. To understand climatic changes in eastern Asia, we reconstructed the Early Eocene vegetation and climate based on palynological data of a borehole from Wutu coal mine, East China and evaluated the climatic differences between eastern Asia and Central Europe. The Wutu palynological assemblages indicated a warm temperate vegetation succession comprising mixed needle- and broad-leaved forests. Three periods of vegetation succession over time were recognized. The changes of palynomorph relative abundance indicated that period 1 was warm and humid, period 2 was relatively warmer and wetter, and period 3 was cooler and drier again. The climatic parameters estimated by the coexistence approach (CA) suggested that the Early Eocene climate in Wutu was warmer and wetter. Mean annual temperature (MAT) was approximately 16°C and mean annual precipitation (MAP) was 800–1400 mm. Comparison of the Early Eocene climatic parameters of Wutu with those of 39 other fossil floras of different age in East China, reveals that 1) the climate became gradually cooler during the last 65 million years, with MAT dropping by 9.3°C. This cooling trend coincided with the ocean temperature changes but with weaker amplitude; 2) the Early Eocene climate was cooler in East China than in Central Europe; 3) the cooling trend in East China (MAT dropped by 6.9°C) was gentler than in Central Europe (MAT dropped by 13°C) during the last 45 million years.
Highlights
The early Cenozoic climate was characterized by a much warmer mean global temperature than today, the extreme case being the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO), 53–51 million years ago, when concentrations of greenhouse gases were high and global temperature reached a long-term maximum [1]
According to our works by using the CA in the last more than 10 years, we found that this method needs to be improved to some extent, but it is still very useful for reconstructing the Cenozoic climatic changes in East China
The climatic changes in East China during the Cenozoic were illustrated by comparing the climatic changes in Wutu and other 39 fossil floras in different ages
Summary
The early Cenozoic climate was characterized by a much warmer mean global temperature than today, the extreme case being the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO), 53–51 million years ago, when concentrations of greenhouse gases were high and global temperature reached a long-term maximum [1]. The Early Eocene is marked by the rapid evolution and diversity of early modern plants and vertebrates with important intra- and intercontinental dispersals starting during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, about 55 million years ago [2, 3]. The response of vegetation succession to the Early Eocene climatic changes in the Northern. Vegetation and Climatic Changes in East China
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