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Middle Devonian Archaeopteridales and their role in the evolution of early forest ecosystems

中泥盆世古蕨类及其在早期森林生态系统演化中的作用

基本信息

批准号：
NE/F010699/1
负责人：
Christopher Berry
金额：
$ 5.18万
依托单位：
CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2008
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2008 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FF010699%2F1
关键词：
Middle Devonian Archaeopteridales their role

项目摘要

During the Devonian era (approximately 400-360 million years ago) there was a progressive development from small herbaceous plants at the beginning to canopied forests at the end. Forests are well regarded as centres of biodiversity, as well as carbon sinks, and the establishment of such ecosystems were of great significance to the Earth System. Until recently the first forest trees were thought to be archaeopteridalean progymnosperms (genus Archaeopteris) during the Late Devonian. These had trunks which are similar to those of living conifers, and leafy branches, but reproduced with spores. More recently pseudosporochnalean plants have been shown to have formed forests in the Mid Devonian. These plants had trunks with some similarity to treeferns, yet the branches lacked flattened webbed leaves. Contemporaneous with these pseudosporochnalean plants were early forms of archaeopteridalean, named Svalbardia. Little is known about the architecture, morphology and anatomy of the early archaeopteridaleans. This project will study newly available material of these plants from the same deposits as the Mid Devonian pseudosporochnalean trees. From this material 'whole-plant' concepts of the early archaeopteridaleans will be created. Current theories suggest that leaves evolved in response to a drop in atmospheric CO2. The results of this investigation will allow direct comparison of the two whole plants which were competing for dominance during the transition from non-leafy to leafy forests, as well as better understanding of their relationships to seed plants.

在泥盆纪时期（大约4亿至3.6亿年前），从最初的小型草本植物逐渐发展到最后的树冠森林。森林被认为是生物多样性的中心和碳汇，建立这种生态系统对地球系统具有重大意义。直到最近，最早的森林树木被认为是晚泥盆世的古羊齿类（Archaeopteris）。它们的树干与现存的针叶树相似，树枝多叶，但有孢子繁殖。最近的研究表明，在泥盆纪中期，假孢子虫植物已经形成了森林。这些植物的树干与树蕨有些相似，但树枝上没有扁平的蹼状叶子。与这些假孢子虫类植物同时代的是古羊齿类植物的早期形式，命名为Svalbardia。关于早期古羊齿类的结构、形态和解剖学知之甚少。该项目将研究这些植物的新材料，这些植物来自与中泥盆世pseudosporochnalean树木相同的沉积物。从这些材料中，早期古羊齿类的“整株”概念将被创造出来。目前的理论认为，树叶的进化是对大气中二氧化碳含量下降的反应。这项调查的结果将允许直接比较的两个整体的植物竞争优势，在过渡期间从非叶到叶的森林，以及更好地了解它们的关系，种子植物。