Edouard-Ernest Maire

We present a composite terrestrial pollen record of latest Eocene through Oligocene (35.5–23 Ma) vegetation and climate change from the Gippsland Basin of south-eastern Australia. Climates were overwhelmingly mesothermic through this time period, with mean annual temperature (MAT) varying between 13 and 18 °C, with an average of 16 °C. We provide evidence to support a cooling trend through the Eocene–Oligocene Transition (EOT), but also identify three subsequent warming cycles through the Oligocene, leading to more seasonal climates at the termination of the Epoch. One of the warming episodes in the Early Oligocene appears to have also occurred at two other southern hemisphere sites at the Drake Passage as well as off eastern Tasmania, based on recent research. Similarities with sea surface temperature records from modern high southern latitudes which also record similar cycles of warming and cooling, are presented and discussed. Annual precipitation varied between 1200 and 1700 mm/yr, with an average of 1470 mm/yr through the sequence. Notwithstanding the extinction of Nothofagus sg. Brassospora from Australia and some now microthermic humid restricted Podocarpaceae conifer taxa, the rainforest vegetation of lowland south-eastern Australia is reconstructed to have been similar to present day Australian Evergreen Notophyll Vine Forests existing under the sub-tropical Köppen-Geiger climate class Cfa (humid subtropical) for most of the sequence. Short periods of cooler climates, such as occurred through the EOT when MAT was ~ 13 °C, may have supported vegetation similar to modern day Evergreen Microphyll Fern Forest. Of potentially greater significance, however, was a warm period in the Early to early Late Oligocene (32–26 Ma) when MAT was 17–18 °C, accompanied by small but important increases in Araucariaceae pollen. At this time, Araucarian Notophyll/Microphyll Vine Forest likely occurred regionally.

Aims The tropical niche conservatism (TNC) hypothesis and the out of the tropics (OTT) hypothesis propose mechanisms generating patterns of species diversity across warm-to-cold thermal gradients at large spatial scales. These two hypotheses both integrate ecological and biogeography-related evoluti…

In the 21st century, stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), is still the most devastating disease of wheat globally. Despite the critical roles of the alternate host plants, the Berberis species, in the sexual reproduction and spread of Pst, the climate change impacts on t…

Aim: Due to the sessile nature of flowering plants, movements to new geographical areas occur mainly during seed dispersal. Frugivores tend to be efficient dispersers because animals move within the boundaries of their preferable niches, so seeds are more likely to be transported to environments tha…

Bryophytes play important roles in high altitude–latitude ecosystem owing to their extensive geographical coverage. Particularly, the insulating effect prevent permafrost degradation with the rapidly climate warming on the QTP. However, few studies investigated how Bryophytes will react to environme…

The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) harbors abundant and diverse plant life owing to its high habitat heterogeneity. However, the distribution pattern of biodiversity hotspots and their conservation status remain unclear. Based on 148,283 high-resolution occurrence coordinates of 13,450 seed plants, w…

常绿阔叶林的优势类群由于其个体数量多、盖度大、生物量高、生存能力强, 对维持相应生态系统的稳定起着主导作用。樟属(Cinnamomum)植物为亚热带常绿阔叶林的优势类群, 通过对其过去、当前和未来潜在分布区的研究可以了解该类群的变迁历史, 为理解亚热带常绿阔叶林动态变化提供帮助, 有助于亚热带常绿阔叶林保育策略的制定。本研究利用最大熵(MaxEnt)模型模拟了我国樟属47种植物在5个时期(末次间冰期、末次盛冰期、全新世中期、当前和未来)的潜在分布区及物种丰富度热点区域。此外, 根据樟属植物的物种丰富度热点区域与自然保护区相叠加, 对当前自然保护区的保护状态进行了评估, 尤其是为保护亚热带常绿阔…

Threatened species are inadequately represented within protected areas (PAs) across the globe. Species conservation planning may be improved by using public species-occurrence databases, but empirical evidence is limited of how that may be accomplished at local scales. We used the Three Parallel Riv…

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The Cape Floristic Region (CFR) is one of the world's major biodiversity hotspots, and much work has gone into identifying the drivers of this diversity. Considered regionally in the context of Quaternary climate change, climate stability is generally accepted as being one of the major factors promo…