Biotic Response to Global Change: The Last 145 Million Years

by Edited by Stephen J. Culver , Peter F. Rawson

• ISBN13: 9780521034197
• ISBN10: 0521034191
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-12-14
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Concern about the effects of global change on our planet's future has driven much research into the last few thousand years of earth history. In contrast, this volume takes a much longer viewpoint to provide a historical perspective to recent and future global change. Over 40 international specialists investigate the reaction of life to global environmental changes, from Cretaceous times to the turn of the century. During this time earth's climate has changed from a very warm, 'greenhouse' phase with no significant ice sheets to today's 'ice-house' world. A wide spectrum of animal, plant and protistan life is discussed, encompassing terrestrial, shallow-marine and deep-marine realms. Each chapter considers a particular taxonomic group, looking first at the general picture and then focusing on more specialized aspects such as extinctions, diversity and biogeography. This volume will form an invaluable reference for researchers and graduate students in paleontology, geology, biology, oceanography and climatology.

Table of Contents

List of contributors

Preface

Introduction

The Cretaceous world

The Cenozoic world

Calcareous nannoplankton and global climate change

Phenotypic response of foraminifera to episodes of global environmental change

The response of planktonic formanifera to the Late Pliocene intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation

The response of Cretaceous cephalopods to global change

Global change and the fossil fish record: the relevance of systematics

Response of shallow water foraminiferal paleocommunities to global and regional environmental change

Intrinsic and extrinsic controls on the diversificationof the

Global events and biotic interaction as controls on the evolution of gastropods

Algal symbiosis, and the collapse and recovery of reef communities: Lazarus corals across the K-T boundary

Changes in the diversity, taxic composition and life-history patterns of echinoids over the past 145 million years

Origin of the modern bryozoan fauna

Angiosperm diversification and Cretaceous environmental change

Cenozoic evolution of modern plant communities and vegetation

Leaf physiognomy and climate change

Biotic response to Late Quaternary global change - the pollen record: a case study from the Upper

The Cretaceous and Cenozoic record of insects (Hexapoda) with regard to global change

The palaeoclimatological significance of Late Cenozoic Coleoptera: familiar species in very unfamiliar circumstances

Amphibians, reptiles and birds: a biogeographical review

Paleogene mammals: crises and ecological change

Response of Old World terrestrial vertebrate biotas to Neogene climate change

Mammalian response to global change in the later Quaternary of the British Isles

Human evolution: how an African primate became global

The biotic response to global change: a summary

References

Index

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