Dynamics of Silurian Plants as Response to Climate Changes

0546351 - GLÚ 2022 RIV CH eng J - Článek v odborném periodiku
Pšenička, J. - Bek, Jiří - Žárský, Viktor - Uhlířová, M. - Štorch, Petr
Dynamics of Silurian Plants as Response to Climate Changes.
Life. Roč. 11, č. 9 (2021), č. článku 906. E-ISSN 2075-1729
Grant CEP: GA ČR(CZ) GA21-10799S
Institucionální podpora: RVO:67985831
Klíčová slova: early land plants * Silurian * plant assemblages * palaeoclimatic changes * polysporangiate plants * plant stress responses * carbon cycle
Obor OECD: Paleontology
Impakt faktor: 3.253, rok: 2021
Způsob publikování: Open access
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/11/9/906

The most ancient macroscopic plants fossils are Early Silurian cooksonioid sporophytes from the volcanic islands of the peri-Gondwanan palaeoregion (the Barrandian area, Prague Basin, Czech Republic). However, available palynological, phylogenetic and geological evidence indicates that the history of plant terrestrialization is much longer and it is recently accepted that land floras, producing different types of spores, already were established in the Ordovician Period. Here we attempt to correlate Silurian floral development with environmental dynamics based on our data from the Prague Basin, but also to compile known data on a global scale. Spore-assemblage analysis clearly indicates a significant and almost exponential expansion of trilete-spore producing plants starting during the Wenlock Epoch, while cryptospore-producers, which dominated until the Telychian Age, were evolutionarily stagnate. Interestingly cryptospore vs. trilete-spore producers seem to react differentially to Silurian glaciations—trilete-spore producing plants react more sensitively to glacial cooling, showing a reduction in species numbers. Both our own and compiled data indicate highly terrestrialized, advanced Silurian land-plant assemblage/flora types with obviously great ability to resist different dry-land stress conditions. As previously suggested some authors, they seem to evolve on different palaeo continents into quite disjunct specific plant assemblages, certainly reflecting the different geological, geographical and climatic conditions to which they were subject.
Trvalý link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0325399