Gurung, K., Field, K.J., Batterman, S.A. et al. (2 more authors) (2024) Geographic range of plants drives long-term climate change. Nature Communications, 15. 1805. ISSN 2041-1723
Abstract
Long computation times in vegetation and climate models hamper our ability to evaluate the potentially powerful role of plants on weathering and carbon sequestration over the Phanerozoic Eon. Simulated vegetation over deep time is often homogenous, and disregards the spatial distribution of plants and the impact of local climatic variables on plant function. Here we couple a fast vegetation model (FLORA) to a spatially-resolved long-term climate-biogeochemical model (SCION), to assess links between plant geographical range, the long-term carbon cycle and climate. Model results show lower rates of carbon fixation and up to double the previously predicted atmospheric CO2 concentration due to a limited plant geographical range over the arid Pangea supercontinent. The Mesozoic dispersion of the continents increases modelled plant geographical range from 65% to > 90%, amplifying global CO₂ removal, consistent with geological data. We demonstrate that plant geographical range likely exerted a major, under-explored control on long-term climate change.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Earth Surface Science Institute (ESSI) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) NE/S009663/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 22 Feb 2024 12:53 |
Last Modified: | 16 May 2024 13:58 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Nature Portfolio |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41467-024-46105-1 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:209483 |