A 25 million year macrofloral record (Carboniferous-Permian) in the Czech part of the Intra-Sudetic Basin, biostratigraphy, plant diversity and vegetation patterns

0487069 - GLÚ 2018 RIV NL eng J - Journal Article
Opluštil, S. - Šimůnek, Z. - Pšenička, J. - Bek, Jiří - Libertín, M.
A 25 million year macrofloral record (Carboniferous-Permian) in the Czech part of the Intra-Sudetic Basin, biostratigraphy, plant diversity and vegetation patterns.
Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. Roč. 244, SEP 2017 (2017), s. 241-307. ISSN 0034-6667. E-ISSN 1879-0615
R&D Projects: GA ČR GAP210/12/2053
Institutional support: RVO:67985831
Keywords : Early Permian * floral zonation * Intra-Sudetic Basin * Pennsylvanian * plant diversity * plant taphonomy * vegetation patterns
OECD category: Paleontology
Impact factor: 1.665, year: 2017

The Intra-Sudetic Basin is a post-orogenic (Variscan) continental basin with sediments of the late Visean to the Triassic age. The discontinuous fossil record in the Czech part of the basin spans the interval from the late Visean to the Asselian. Species diversity was controlled by climatically-driven potential for preservation of plant material, which was highest in poorly drained/waterlogged habitats (wetlands, lakes) concentrated in basinal lowlands and representing major windows of preservation. Low fossilization potential is typical for well-drained fluvial habitats, now represented by red beds deposited under drier (seasonal) climate. Diversity in major windows of preservation was highest during the late Langsettian and Duckmantian (>50 species), lower in the Late Pennsylvanian (25-40 species) and the lowest in the Asselian (similar to 20 species). The diversity in red bed intervals varies between 11 and 21 species. The two distinct habitat types were dominated by different plant groups. Wetland habitats flourishing during the (per)humid to slightly seasonal intervals were colonized mainly by cryptogamic plants and some early gymnosperms, mainly pteridosperms and cordaitaleans. Habitats represented by red beds were dominated by cordaitaleans, from late Asturian time walchian conifers also occurred in these plant assemblages. Temporal changes in vegetation patterns that show an increasing proportion of gymnosperms, in both wetland and dryland habitats are in agreement with the well known aridification trend in late Paleozoic tropical Pangea. Delays between the first appearance of walchian conifers in red beds (late Asturian) versus coal-bearing deposits (Saberian) supports the hypothesis that evolutionary innovations took place outside the windows of preservation, i.e. in well-drained, moisture-deficient areas.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0281751