Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Cretaceous world
- 3 The Cenozoic world
- 4 Calcareous nannoplankton and global climate change
- 5 Phenotypic response of foraminifera to episodes of global environmental change
- 6 The response of planktonic foraminifera to the Late Pliocene intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation
- 7 The response of Cretaceous cephalopods to global change
- 8 Global change and the fossil fish record: the relevance of systematics
- 9 Response of shallow water foraminiferal palaeocommunities to global and regional environmental change
- 10 Intrinsic and extrinsic controls on the diversification of the Bivalvia
- 11 Global events and biotic interaction as controls on the evolution of gastropods
- 12 Algal symbiosis, and the collapse and recovery of reef communities: Lazarus corals across the K–T boundary
- 13 Changes in the diversity, taxic composition and life-history patterns of echinoids over the past 145 million years
- 14 Origin of the modern bryozoan fauna
- 15 Angiosperm diversification and Cretaceous environmental change
- 16 Cenozoic evolution of modern plant communities and vegetation
- 17 Leaf physiognomy and climate change
- 18 Biotic response to Late Quaternary global change – the pollen record: a case study from the Upper Thames Valley, England
- 19 The Cretaceous and Cenozoic record of insects (Hexapoda) with regard to global change
- 20 The palaeoclimatological significance of Late Cenozoic Coleoptera: familiar species in very unfamiliar circumstances
- 21 Amphibians, reptiles and birds: a biogeographical review
- 22 Paleogene mammals: crises and ecological change
- 23 Response of Old World terrestrial vertebrate biotas to Neogene climate change
- 24 Mammalian response to global change in the later Quaternary of the British Isles
- 25 Human evolution: how an African primate became global
- 26 The biotic response to global change: a summary
- References
- Index
17 - Leaf physiognomy and climate change
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Cretaceous world
- 3 The Cenozoic world
- 4 Calcareous nannoplankton and global climate change
- 5 Phenotypic response of foraminifera to episodes of global environmental change
- 6 The response of planktonic foraminifera to the Late Pliocene intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation
- 7 The response of Cretaceous cephalopods to global change
- 8 Global change and the fossil fish record: the relevance of systematics
- 9 Response of shallow water foraminiferal palaeocommunities to global and regional environmental change
- 10 Intrinsic and extrinsic controls on the diversification of the Bivalvia
- 11 Global events and biotic interaction as controls on the evolution of gastropods
- 12 Algal symbiosis, and the collapse and recovery of reef communities: Lazarus corals across the K–T boundary
- 13 Changes in the diversity, taxic composition and life-history patterns of echinoids over the past 145 million years
- 14 Origin of the modern bryozoan fauna
- 15 Angiosperm diversification and Cretaceous environmental change
- 16 Cenozoic evolution of modern plant communities and vegetation
- 17 Leaf physiognomy and climate change
- 18 Biotic response to Late Quaternary global change – the pollen record: a case study from the Upper Thames Valley, England
- 19 The Cretaceous and Cenozoic record of insects (Hexapoda) with regard to global change
- 20 The palaeoclimatological significance of Late Cenozoic Coleoptera: familiar species in very unfamiliar circumstances
- 21 Amphibians, reptiles and birds: a biogeographical review
- 22 Paleogene mammals: crises and ecological change
- 23 Response of Old World terrestrial vertebrate biotas to Neogene climate change
- 24 Mammalian response to global change in the later Quaternary of the British Isles
- 25 Human evolution: how an African primate became global
- 26 The biotic response to global change: a summary
- References
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
A principal driving force for evolutionary change through selection is environmental change. This is borne out by the widespread recognition that the ‘Red Queen World’ (Van Valen, 1973), where competition between organisms is divorced from change in the physical surroundings, is largely a theoretical (but useful) abstraction because the effect of environmental change in the real world is all pervasive. Of all the possible mechanisms for environmental change, those due to climate perturbations are the most universal and persistent. Understanding the pattern and process of climate change is therefore of extreme importance to an understanding of the pattern and process of biotic responses to that change.
Climate change is not only an expression of atmospheric phenomena: it is intimately linked to variations in sea level, ocean circulation and tectonics. The bulk of the ocean realm, however, is to a large extent buffered from the short-term (days to weeks) high magnitude fluctuations in temperature, pressure, and fluid flow regimes experienced by non-marine environments that are directly exposed to atmospheric conditions. In terms of magnitude and frequency, climate change is, therefore, most strongly expressed in the terrestrial realm. Here, climatic conditions are recorded at high temporal and spatial resolutions by a variety of features possessed by the plants, animals and sediments present in that environment.
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- Biotic Response to Global ChangeThe Last 145 Million Years, pp. 244 - 264Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000
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