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The intensification of the East Asian winter monsoon contributed to the disappearance of Cedrus (Pinaceae) in southwestern China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Tao Su ,
Yu-Sheng (Christopher) Liu ,
Frédéric M.B. Jacques ,
Yong-Jiang Huang ,
Yao-Wu Xing  and
Zhe-Kun Zhou
Tao Su
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla 666303, China State Key Laboratory of Paleobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
Yu-Sheng (Christopher) Liu
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, and Don Sundquist Center of Excellence in Paleontology, Box 70703, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee 37614-1710, USA
Frédéric M.B. Jacques
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla 666303, China
Yong-Jiang Huang
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Biogeography, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650204, China
Yao-Wu Xing
Affiliation:
Institute of Systematic Botany, University of Zürich, Zürich 8008, Switzerland
Zhe-Kun Zhou*
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla 666303, China Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Biogeography, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650204, China
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: + 86 871 5219932. E-mail address:zhouzk@xtbg.ac.cn (Z.-K. Zhou).
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Abstract

Climate change during the Quaternary played an important role in the distribution of extant plants. Herein, cone scales of Cedrus (Pinaceae) were uncovered from the Upper Pliocene Sanying Formation, Longmen Village, Yongping County of Yunnan Province in southwestern China. Detailed comparisons show that these fossils all belong to the genus Cedrus (Pinaceae), and a new species is proposed, Cedrus angusta sp. nov. This find expands the known distribution of Cedrus during the Late Pliocene to Yunnan, where the genus no longer exists in natural forests. Based on the analysis of reconstructed Neogene climate data, we suggest that the intensification of the East Asian winter monsoon during the Quaternary may have dramatically increased seasonality and given rise to a much drier winter in Yunnan. Combined with information on Cedrus fossil records and its seed physiology, we conclude that the intensification of a drier climate after the Late Pliocene may have prevented the survival of Cedrus seedlings, leading to the eventual disappearance of Cedrus in western Yunnan. This study indicates that the topography in southwestern China acted as a vital refuge for many plants during the Quaternary, but that other species gradually disappeared due to the intensification of the monsoonal climate.

Keywords

CedrusClimatic changeCone scaleLongmenMonsoonPlioceneQuaternarySanying FormationYunnan
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 80 , Issue 2 , September 2013 , pp. 316 - 325
Copyright
University of Washington

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