Flammable biomes dominated by eucalypts originated at the Cretaceous-Palaeogene boundary
Flammable biomes dominated by eucalypts originated at the Cretaceous-Palaeogene boundary
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DOI：
10.1038/ncomms1191
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发表时间：
2011-02-01
影响因子：
16.6
通讯作者：
Bowman, David M. J. S.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Crisp, Michael D.;Burrows, Geoffrey E.;Bowman, David M. J. S.
火是群落的一个主要调节因素，但其在塑造当前生物群落中的普遍作用的进化起源尚不确定。澳大利亚是最容易发生火灾的大陆之一，大部分陆地被依赖火灾的硬叶植物和稀树草原生物群落所占据。与其他大陆具有相似气候的生物群系相反，澳大利亚的树木植物群由单一属，桉树和相关的桃金娘科主导。桃金娘科植物中一种独特的耐火和灾后恢复机制可能导致了这种优势。在这里，我们发现一个保守的火灾后重新发芽（epicormic）解剖和生物群落进化之间的系统发育关系，可追溯到60至62 M马，在最早的古近纪。因此，依赖火的社区可能比之前认为的早5000万年存在。我们预测，epicormic重新发芽可以使eucarct森林和林地一个很好的长期碳银行减少大气中的二氧化碳与生物群落相比，在其他大陆类似的火灾制度。
Fire is a major modifier of communities, but the evolutionary origins of its prevalent role in shaping current biomes are uncertain. Australia is among the most fire-prone continents, with most of the landmass occupied by the fire-dependent sclerophyll and savanna biomes. In contrast to biomes with similar climates in other continents, Australia has a tree flora dominated by a single genus, Eucalyptus, and related Myrtaceae. A unique mechanism in Myrtaceae for enduring and recovering from fire damage likely resulted in this dominance. Here, we find a conserved phylogenetic relationship between post-fire resprouting (epicormic) anatomy and biome evolution, dating from 60 to 62 M Ma, in the earliest Palaeogene. Thus, fire-dependent communities likely existed 50 million years earlier than previously thought. We predict that epicormic resprouting could make eucalypt forests and woodlands an excellent long-term carbon bank for reducing atmospheric CO2 compared with biomes with similar fire regimes in other continents.