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dc.contributor.authorRees-Owen, Rhian L.
dc.contributor.authorGill, Fiona L.
dc.contributor.authorNewton, Robert J.
dc.contributor.authorIvanovic, Ruza F.
dc.contributor.authorFrancis, Jane E.
dc.contributor.authorRiding, James B.
dc.contributor.authorVane, Christopher H.
dc.contributor.authorLopes dos Santos, Raquel A.
dc.date.accessioned2018-02-12T12:30:07Z
dc.date.available2018-02-12T12:30:07Z
dc.date.issued2018-04
dc.identifier.citationRees-Owen , R L , Gill , F L , Newton , R J , Ivanovic , R F , Francis , J E , Riding , J B , Vane , C H & Lopes dos Santos , R A 2018 , ' The last forests on Antarctica : reconstructing flora and temperature from the Neogene Sirius Group, Transantarctic Mountains ' , Organic Geochemistry , vol. 118 , pp. 4-14 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2018.01.001en
dc.identifier.issn0146-6380
dc.identifier.otherPURE: 252026607
dc.identifier.otherPURE UUID: ce9d4176-2044-493d-b599-9cf1fa0a744a
dc.identifier.otherScopus: 85044624189
dc.identifier.otherORCID: /0000-0003-0520-4160/work/40797770
dc.identifier.otherWOS: 000428997900002
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/12701
dc.descriptionR.L.R.O. thanks the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) for supporting her PhD studentship (NE/K500847/1) and BGS for CASE support. R.I. was supported by a NERC Independent Fellowship (NE/K008536/1). F.L..G was supported by a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship.en
dc.description.abstractFossil-bearing deposits in the Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica indicate that, despite the cold nature of the continent’s climate, a tundra ecosystem grew during periods of ice sheet retreat in the mid to late Neogene (17–2.5 Ma), 480 km from the South Pole. To date, palaeotemperature reconstruction has been based only on biological ranges, thereby calling for a geochemical approach to understanding continental climate and environment. There is contradictory evidence in the fossil record as to whether this flora was mixed angiosperm-conifer vegetation, or whether by this point conifers had disappeared from the continent. In order to address these questions, we have analysed, for the first time in sediments of this age, plant and bacterial biomarkers in terrestrial sediments from the Transantarctic Mountains to reconstruct past temperature and vegetation during a period of East Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat. From tetraether lipids (MBT’/CBT palaeothermometer), we conclude that the mean continental summer temperature was ca. 5 °C, in agreement with previous reconstructions. This was warm enough to have allowed woody vegetation to survive and reproduce even during the austral winter. Biomarkers from vascular plants indicate a low diversity and spatially variable flora consisting of higher plants, moss and algal mats growing in microenvironments in a glacial outwash system. Abietane-type compounds were abundant in some samples, indicating that conifers, most likely Podocarpaceae, grew on the Antarctic continent well into the Neogene. This is supported by the palynological record, but not the macrofossil record for the continent, and has implications for the evolution of vegetation on Antarctica.
dc.language.isoeng
dc.relation.ispartofOrganic Geochemistryen
dc.rights© 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).en
dc.subjectAntarcticaen
dc.subjectNeogeneen
dc.subjectSirius Groupen
dc.subjectTerpenoiden
dc.subjectGDGTen
dc.subjectPalaeovegetationen
dc.subjectPalaeotemperatureen
dc.subjectPalaeoenvironmenten
dc.subjectGE Environmental Sciencesen
dc.subjectQE Geologyen
dc.subjectQD Chemistryen
dc.subjectNDASen
dc.subjectSDG 15 - Life on Landen
dc.subject.lccGEen
dc.subject.lccQEen
dc.subject.lccQDen
dc.titleThe last forests on Antarctica : reconstructing flora and temperature from the Neogene Sirius Group, Transantarctic Mountainsen
dc.typeJournal articleen
dc.description.versionPublisher PDFen
dc.contributor.institutionUniversity of St Andrews. School of Earth & Environmental Sciencesen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2018.01.001
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden


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