Abstract
Since the rise of photosynthesis, life has influenced terrestrial atmosphere, particularly the O2 and the CO2 content (the latter being originally more than 95%), changing the chemistry of waters, atmosphere, and soils. Billions of years after, a far offspring of these first unicellular forms conquered emerging lands, not only completely changing landscape, but also modifying geological cycles of deposition and erosion, many chemical and physical characteristics of soils and fresh waters, and, more, the cycle of various elements. So, there are no doubts that vascular plants modified geology; but it is true that also geology has affected (and, more, has driven) plant evolution. New software, PyRate, has determined vascular plant origin and diversification through a Bayesian analysis of fossil record from Silurian to today, particularly observing their origination and extinction rate. A comparison between PyRate data and geological history suggests that geological events massively influenced plant evolution and that also the rise of nonflowering seed plants and the fast diffusion of flowering plants can be explained, almost partly, with the environmental condition changes induced by geological phenomena.
Highlights
Since the rise of photosynthesis, life has influenced terrestrial atmosphere, the O2 and the CO2 content, changing the chemistry of waters, atmosphere, and soils
There are no doubts that vascular plants modified geology; but it is true that geology has affected plant evolution
A comparison between PyRate data and geological history suggests that geological events massively influenced plant evolution and that the rise of nonflowering seed plants and the fast diffusion of flowering plants can be explained, almost partly, with the environmental condition changes induced by geological phenomena
Summary
Climate is regulated firstly by the amount of solar radiation reaching the surface; this value is mainly a function of the latitude. Earth orbit variations are globally felt: the effects of orbital forcing, known as Milankovitch cycles, have been well recognized in many sedimentary series in plenty of geochemical and stratigraphic parameters; there are changes in solar activity rate at a pluricentennial scale: for example, in Holocene colder and warmer period (such as the Medieval climatic optimum and the Little Ice Age) are linked to these variations that can produce shifts of the limits of climatic belts. All these changes are poorly reflected in life evolution because they are too brief to promote evolution. Landmass union and intracontinental rifts have raised mountain belts that changed climate and created barriers for rains and biotic movements between the two sides of the uplifted belt
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