Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T03:19:43.717Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Endemism in Wyoming plant and insect herbivore communities during the early Eocene hothouse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 June 2019

Ellen D. Currano Open the ORCID record for Ellen D. Currano [Opens in a new window] ,
Esther R. S. Pinheiro ,
Robert Buchwaldt ,
William C. Clyde  and
Ian M. Miller
Ellen D. Currano
Affiliation:
Departments of Botany and Geology & Geophysics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming 82071, U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected]
Esther R. S. Pinheiro
Affiliation:
Department of Botany, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming 82071, U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected]
Robert Buchwaldt
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and the Environment, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected]
William C. Clyde
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire 03824, U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected]
Ian M. Miller
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Denver, Colorado 80205, U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The warm, equable, and ice-free early Eocene Epoch permits investigation of ecosystem function and macro-ecological patterns during a very different climate regime than exists today. It also provides insight into what the future may entail, as anthropogenic CO2 release drives Earth toward a comparable hothouse condition. Studying plant–insect herbivore food webs during hothouse intervals is warranted, because these account for the majority of nonmicrobial terrestrial biodiversity. Here, we report new plant and insect herbivore damage census data from two floodplain sites in the Wind River Basin of central Wyoming, one in the Aycross Formation (50–48.25 Ma) at the basin edge (WRE) and the second in the Wind River Formation in the interior of the basin (WRI). The WRI site is in stratigraphic proximity to a volcanic ash that is newly dated to 52.416 ± 0.016/0.028/0.063 (2σ). We compare the Wind River Basin assemblages to published data from a 52.65 Ma floodplain flora in the neighboring Bighorn (BH) Basin and find that only 5.6% of plant taxa occur at all three sites and approximately 10% occur in both basins. The dissimilar floras support distinct suites of insect herbivores, as recorded by leaf damage. The relatively low-diversity BH flora has the highest diversity of insect damage, contrary to hypotheses that insect herbivore diversity tracks floral diversity. The distinctiveness of the WRE flora is likely due to its younger age and cooler reconstructed paleotemperature, but these factors are nearly identical for the WRI and BH floras. Site-specific microenvironmental factors that cannot be measured easily in deep time may account for these differences. Alternatively, the Owl Creek Mountains between the two basins may have provided a formidable barrier to the thermophilic organisms that inhabited the basin interiors, supporting Janzen's hypothesis that mountain passes appear higher in tropical environments.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , August 2019 , pp. 421 - 439
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society. All rights reserved 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Data available from the Dryad Digital Repository: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fb821k5

References

Literature Cited

Abels, H. A., Clyde, W. C., Gingerich, P. D., Hilgen, F. J., Fricke, H. C., Bowen, G. J., and Lourens, L. J.. 2012. Terrestrial carbon isotope excursions and biotic change during Palaeogene hyperthermals. Nature Geoscience 5:326–329.Google Scholar
Adams, J. M., Ahn, S., Ainuddin, N., and Lee, M. L.. 2011. A further test of a palaeoecological thermometer: tropical rainforests have more herbivore damage diversity than temperate forests. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 164:60–66.Google Scholar
Archibald, S. B., Greenwood, D. R., and Mathewes, R. W.. 2013. Seasonality, montane beta diversity, and Eocene insects: testing Janzen's dispersal hypothesis in an equable world. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 371:1–8.Google Scholar
Arnone, J. A., and Gordon, J. C.. 1990. Effect of nodulation, nitrogen fixation and CO2 enrichment on the physiology, growth and dry mass allocation of seedlings of Alnus rubra Bong. New Phytologist 116:55–66.Google Scholar
Bernays, E. A., and Chapman, R. F.. 1994. Host-plant selection by phytophagous insects. Chapman and Hall, London.Google Scholar
Bijl, P. K., Schouten, S., Sluijs, A., Reichart, G.-J., Zachos, J. C., and Brinkhuis, H.. 2009. Early Palaeogene temperature evolution of the southwest Pacific Ocean. Nature 461:776–779.Google Scholar
Bröse, U. 2003. Bottom-up control of carabid beetle communities in early successional wetlands: mediated by vegetation structure or plant diversity? Oecologia 135:407–413.Google Scholar
Burnham, R. J., Wing, S. L., and Parker, G. G.. 1992. The reflection of deciduous forest communities in leaf litter—implications for autochthonous litter assemblages from the fossil record. Paleobiology 18:30–49.Google Scholar
Caballero, R., and Huber, M.. 2013. State-dependent climate sensitivity in past warm climates and its implications for future climate projections. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 110:14162–14167.Google Scholar
Calosi, P., Bilton, D. T., Spicer, J. I., Votier, S. C., and Atfield, A.. 2010. What determines a species’ geographical range? Thermal biology and latitudinal range size relationships in European diving beetles (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae). Journal of Animal Ecology 79:194–204.Google Scholar
Coley, P. D., and Barone, J. A.. 1996. Herbivory and plant defenses in tropical forests. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 27:305–335.Google Scholar
Currano, E. D. 2009. Patchiness and long-term change in early Eocene insect feeding damage. Paleobiology 35:484–498.Google Scholar
Currano, E. D., Labandeira, C. C., and Wilf, P.. 2010. Fossil insect folivory tracks paleotemperature for six million years. Ecological Monographs 80:547–567.Google Scholar
Currano, E. D., Laker, R., Flynn, A. G., Fogt, K. K., Stradtman, H., and Wing, S. L.. 2016. Consequences of elevated temperature and pCO2 on insect folivory at the ecosystem level: perspectives from the fossil record. Ecology and Evolution 6:4318–4331.Google Scholar
Davies-Vollum, K. S., and Wing, S. L.. 1998. Sedimentological, taphonomic, and climatic aspects of Eocene swamp deposits (Willwood Formation, Bighorn Basin, Wyoming). Palaios 13:28–40.Google Scholar
De Araújo, W. S., Vieira, M. C., Lewinsohn, T. M., and Almeida-Neto, M.. 2015. Contrasting effects of land use intensity and exotic host plants on the specialization of interactions in plant-herbivore networks. PLoS ONE 10: e0115606.Google Scholar
Dickinson, W. R., Klute, M. A., Hayes, M. J., Janecke, S. U., Lundin, E. R., McKittrick, M. A., and Olivares, M. D.. 1988. Paleogeographic and paleotectonic setting of the Laramide sedimentary basins in the central Rocky Mountain region. Geological Society of America Bulletin 100:1023–1039.Google Scholar
Diefendorf, A. F., Freeman, K. H., Wing, S. L., Currano, E. D., and Mueller, K. E.. 2015. Paleogene plants fractionated carbon isotopes similar to modern plants. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 429:33–44.Google Scholar
Doyle, J. A. 2007. Systematic value and evolution of leaf architecture across the angiosperms in light of molecular phylogenetic analyses. Courier Forschungs-Institut Senckenberg 258:21–37.Google Scholar
Dyer, L. A., Singer, M. S., Lill, J. T., Stireman, J. O., Gentry, G. L., Marquis, R. J., Ricklefs, R. E., Greeney, H. F., Wagner, D. L., Morais, H. C., Diniz, I. R., Kursar, T. A., and Coley, P. D.. 2007. Host specificity of Lepidoptera in tropical and temperate forests. Nature 448:696–700.Google Scholar
Eberle, J. J., and Greenwood, D. R.. 2012. Life at the top of the greenhouse Eocene world—a review of the Eocene flora and vertebrate fauna from Canada's High Arctic. Geological Society of America Bulletin 124:3–23.Google Scholar
Ellis, B., Daly, D. C., Hickey, L. J., Johnson, K. R., Mitchell, J. D., Wilf, P., and Wing, S. L.. 2009. Manual of leaf architecture. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, N.Y.Google Scholar
Ellis, B., and Johnson, K. R.. 2013. Comparison of leaf samples from mapped tropical and temperate forests: implications for interpretations of the diversity of fossil assemblages. Palaios 28:163–177.Google Scholar
Engemann, K., Sandel, B., Enquist, B. J., Jorgensen, P. M., Kraft, N., Marcuse-Kubitza, A., McGill, B., Morueta-Holme, N., Peet, R. K., Violle, C., Wiser, S., and Svenning, J. C.. 2016. Patterns and drivers of plant functional group dominance across the Western Hemisphere: a macroecological re-assessment based on a massive botanical dataset. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 180:141–160.Google Scholar
Erwin, T. L. 1982. Tropical forests: their richness in Coleoptera and other arthropod species. Coleopteris Bulletin 36:74–75.Google Scholar
Fan, M., DeCelles, P. G., Gehrels, G. E., Dettman, D. L., Quade, J., and Peyton, S. L.. 2011. Sedimentology, detrital zircon geochronology, and stable isotope geochemistry of the lower Eocene strata in the Wind River Basin, central Wyoming. Geological Society of America Bulletin 123:979–996.Google Scholar
Fan, M. J., and Carrapa, B.. 2014. Late Cretaceous–early Eocene Laramide uplift, exhumation, and basin subsidence in Wyoming: crustal responses to flat slab subduction. Tectonics 33:509–529.Google Scholar
Feeny, P. 1976. Plant apparency and chemical defense. Pp. 1–40 in Wallace, J. W. and Mansell, R. L., eds. Biochemical interaction between plants and insects. Plenum, New York.Google Scholar
Gaston, K. J. 2000. Global patterns in biodiversity. Nature 405:220–227.Google Scholar
Ghalambor, C. K., Huey, R. B., Martin, P. R., Tewksbury, J. J., and Wang, G.. 2006. Are mountain passes higher in the tropics? Janzen's hypothesis revisited. Integrative and Comparative Biology 46:5–17.Google Scholar
Gradstein, F. M., Ogg, J. G., Orr, G., and Smith, A. G., eds. 2012. The geologic time scale 2012. Elsevier, Oxford.Google Scholar
Grubb, P. J., Jackson, R. V., Barberis, I. M., Bee, J. N., Coomes, D. A., Dominy, N. J., de la Fuente, M. A. S., Lucas, P. W., Metcalfe, D. J., Svenning, J.-C., Turner, I. M., and Vargas, O.. 2008. Monocot leaves are eaten less than dicot leaves in tropical lowland rainforests: correlations with leaf toughness and leaf presentation. Annals of Botany 101:1379–1389.Google Scholar
Gunkel, S., and Wappler, T.. 2015. Plant-insect interactions in the upper Oligocene of Enspel (Westerwald, Germany), including an extended mathematical framework for rarefaction. Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments 95:55–75.Google Scholar
Hawkins, B. A., and Porter, E. E.. 2003. Does herbivore diversity depend on plant diversity? The case of the California butterflies. American Naturalist 161:40–49.Google Scholar
Heck, K. L., van Belle, G., and Simberloff, D.. 1975. Explicit calculation of the rarefaction diversity measurement and the determination of sufficient sample size. Ecology 56:1459–1461.Google Scholar
Heller, P. L., and Liu, L.. 2016. Dynamic topography and vertical motion of the US Rocky Mountain region prior to and during the Laramide orogeny. Geological Society of America Bulletin 128:973–988.Google Scholar
Hickey, L. J., and Wolfe, J. A.. 1975. The bases of angiosperm phylogeny: vegetative morphology. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 62:538–589.Google Scholar
Hillebrand, H. 2004. On the generality of the latitudinal diversity gradient. American Naturalist 163:192–211.Google Scholar
Huber, M., and Caballero, R.. 2011. The early Eocene equable climate problem revisited. Climate of the Past 7:603–633.Google Scholar
Jankowski, J. E., Ciecka, A. L., Meyer, N. Y., and Rabenold, K. N.. 2009. Beta diversity along environmental gradients: implications of habitat specialization in tropical montane landscapes. Journal of Animal Ecology 78:315–327.Google Scholar
Janzen, D. H. 1967. Why mountain passes are higher in tropics. American Naturalist 101:233–249.Google Scholar
Keefer, W. R. 1965. Stratigraphy and geologic history of the uppermost Cretaceous, Paleocene, and lower Eocene Rocks in the Wind River Basin, Wyoming. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 495-A:A1–A77.Google Scholar
Knops, J. M., Tilman, D., Haddad, N. M., Naeem, S., Mitchell, C. E., Haarstad, J., Ritchie, M. E., Howe, K. M., Reich, P. B., and Siemann, E.. 1999. Effects of plant species richness on invasion dynamics, disease outbreaks, insect abundances and diversity. Ecology Letters 2:286–293.Google Scholar
Kraus, M. J., and Aslan, A.. 1993. Eocene hydromorphic paleosols: significance for interpreting ancient floodplain processes. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 63:453–463.Google Scholar
Labandeira, C. C., Johnson, K. R., and Wilf, P.. 2002. Impact of the terminal Cretaceous event on plant-insect associations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 99:2061–2066.Google Scholar
Labandeira, C. C., Wilf, P., Johnson, K. R., and Marsh, F.. 2007. Guide to insect (and other) damage types on compressed plant fossils, Version 3.0. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Lande, R. 1996. Statistics and partitioning of species diversity, and similarity among multiple communities. Oikos 76:5–13.Google Scholar
Lewinsohn, T. M., and Roslin, T.. 2008. Four ways towards tropical herbivore megadiversity. Ecology Letters 11:398–416.Google Scholar
Lewinsohn, T. M., Novotny, V., and Basset, Y.. 2005. Insects on plants: diversity of herbivore assemblages revisited. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 36:597–620.Google Scholar
Loptson, C. A., Lunt, D. J., and Francis, J. E.. 2014. Investigating vegetation-climate feedbacks during the early Eocene. Climate of the Past 10:419–436.Google Scholar
Lynch, R. L., Chen, H., Brandt, L. A., and Mazzotti, F. J.. 2009. Old World climbing fern (Lygodium microphyllum) invasion in hurricane caused treefalls. Natural Areas Journal 29:210–215.Google Scholar
MacGinitie, H. D., Leopold, E. B., and Rohrer, W. L.. 1974. An early middle Eocene flora from the Yellowstone-Absaroka volcanic province, northwestern Wind River Basin, Wyoming. University of California Publications in Geological Sciences 108:1–103.Google Scholar
Malone, D. H., Craddock, J. P., Garber, K. L., and Trela, J.. 2017. Detrital zircon geochronology of the Aycross Formation (Eocene) near Togwotee Pass, western Wind River Basin, Wyoming. Mountain Geologist 54:69–85.Google Scholar
Novotny, V., Drozd, P., Miller, S. E., Kulfan, M., Janda, M., Basset, Y., and Weiblen, G. D.. 2006. Why are there so many species of herbivorous insects in tropical rainforests? Science 313:1115–1118.Google Scholar
Novotny, V., Miller, S. E., Baje, L., Balagawi, S., Basset, Y., Cizek, L., Craft, K. J., Dem, F., Drew, R. A. I., Hulcr, J., Leps, J., Lewis, O. T., Pokon, R., Stewart, A. J. A., Samuelson, G. A., and Weiblen, G. D.. 2010. Guild-specific patterns of species richness and host specialization in plant-herbivore food webs from a tropical forest. Journal of Animal Ecology 79:1193–1203.Google Scholar
Nyman, T. 2010. To speciate, or not to speciate? Resource heterogeneity, the subjectivity of similarity, and the macroevolutionary consequences of niche-width shifts in plant-feeding insects. Biological Reviews 85:393–411.Google Scholar
Pärtel, M., Bennett, J. A., and Zobel, M.. 2016. Macroecology of biodiversity: disentangling local and regional effects. New Phytologist 211:404–410.Google Scholar
Patzkowsky, M. E., and Holland, S. M.. 2007. Diversity partitioning of a Late Ordovician marine biotic invasion: controls on diversity in regional ecosystems. Paleobiology 33:295–309.Google Scholar
Payros, A., Ortiz, S., Millán, I., Arostegi, J., Orue-Etxebarria, X., and Apellaniz, E.. 2015. Early Eocene climatic optimum: environmental impact on the North Iberian continental margin. Geological Society of America Bulletin 127:1632–1644.Google Scholar
Pennings, S. C., and Silliman, B. R.. 2005. Linking biogeography and community ecology: Latitudinal variation in plant-herbivore interaction strength. Ecology 86:2310–2319.Google Scholar
Quispel, A. 1954. Symbiotic nitrogen-fixation in non-leguminous plants. I. Preliminary experiments on the root-nodule symbiosis of Alnus glutinosa. Acta Botanica Neerlandica 3:495–511.Google Scholar
Rasmann, S., and Agrawal, A. A.. 2009. Plant defense against herbivory: progress in identifying synergism, redundancy, and antagonism between resistance traits. Current Opinion in Plant Biology 12:473–478.Google Scholar
Royer, D. L., Sack, L., Wilf, P., Lusk, C. H., Jordan, G. J., Niinemets, U., Wright, I. J., Westoby, M., Cariglino, B., Coley, P. D., Cutter, A. D., Johnson, K. R., Labandeira, C. C., Moles, A. T., Palmer, M. B., and Valladares, F.. 2007. Fossil leaf economics quantified: calibration, Eocene case study, and implications. Paleobiology 33:574–589.Google Scholar
Seeland, D. A. 1978. Eocene fluvial drainage patterns and their implications for uranium and hydrocarbon exploration in the Wind River Basin, Wyoming. U.S. Geological Society Bulletin 1446:1–21.Google Scholar
Siemann, E., Tilman, D., and Haarstad, J.. 1996. Insect species diversity, abundance and body size relationships. Nature 380:704–706.Google Scholar
Smith, M. E., Singer, B. S., and Carroll, A. R.. 2004. Discussion: 40Ar/39Ar geochronology of the Eocene Green River Formation, Wyoming. Geological Society of America Bulletin 116:253–256.Google Scholar
Smith, M. E., Carroll, A. R., and Singer, B. S.. 2008. Synoptic reconstruction of a major ancient lake system: Eocene Green River Formation, western United States. Geological Society of America Bulletin 120:54–84.Google Scholar
Sokal, R. R. and Rohlf, F. J.. 1995. Biometry, 3rd ed. Freeman, New York.Google Scholar
Torres, V. 1985. Stratigraphy of the Eocene Willwood, Aycross, and Wapiti Formations along the North Fork of the Shoshone River, north-central Wyoming. Contributions to Geology, University of Wyoming 23:83–97.Google Scholar
Volin, J. C., Parent, J. R., and Dreiss, L. M.. 2013. Functional basis for geographical variation in growth among invasive plants. Pp. 29–43 in Jose, S., Singh, H. P., Batish, D. R., and Kohli, R. K., eds. Invasive plant ecology. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Fla.Google Scholar
Wilf, P., and Labandeira, C. C.. 1999. Response of plant-insect associations to Paleocene–Eocene warming. Science 284:2153–2156.Google Scholar
Wilf, P., Wing, S. L., Greenwood, D. R., and Greenwood, C. L.. 1998. Using fossil leaves as paleoprecipitation indicators: an Eocene example. Geology 26:203–206.Google Scholar
Wilf, P., Labandeira, C. C., Johnson, K. R., Coley, P. D., and Cutter, A. D.. 2001. Insect herbivory, plant defense, and early Cenozoic climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 98:6221–6226.Google Scholar
Willig, M. R., Kaufman, D. M., and Stevens, R. D.. 2003. Latitudinal gradients of biodiversity: pattern, process, scale, and synthesis. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 34:273–309.Google Scholar
Wing, S. L. 1981. A study of paleoecology and paleobotany in the Willwood Formation (early Eocene, Wyoming). Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Yale University, New Haven, Conn.Google Scholar
Wing, S. L., and Currano, E. D.. 2013. The response of plants to a global greenhouse event 56 million years ago. American Journal of Botany 100:1234–1524.Google Scholar
Wing, S. L., and Greenwood, D. R.. 1993. Fossils and fossil climate: the case for equable continental interiors in the Eocene. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 341:243–252.Google Scholar
Wing, S. L., Alroy, J., and Hickey, L. J.. 1995. Plant and mammal diversity in the Paleocene to early Eocene of the Bighorn basin. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 115:117–155.Google Scholar
Wing, S. L., Bao, H., and Koch, P. L.. 2000. An early Eocene cool period? Evidence for continental cooling during the warmest part of the Cenozoic. Pp. 197–237 in Huber, B. T., MacLeod, K. G., and Wing, S. L., eds. Warm climates in earth history. Oxford University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Winterfeld, G. F., and Conard, J. B.. 1983. Laramide tectonics and deposition, Washakie Range and northwestern Wind River basin, Wyoming. Pp. 137–148 in Lowell, J. D., ed. Rocky Mountain foreland basins and uplifts. Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, Denver.Google Scholar
Woodburne, M. O., Gunnell, G. F., and Stucky, R. K.. 2009. Climate directly influences Eocene mammal faunal dynamics in North America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 106:13399–13403.Google Scholar
Wright, M. G., and Samways, M. J.. 1998. Insect species richness tracking plant species richness in a diverse flora: gall-insects in the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa. Oecologia 115:427–433.Google Scholar