Articles | Volume 18, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-209-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-209-2022
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04 Feb 2022
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 04 Feb 2022

Vegetation change across the Drake Passage region linked to late Eocene cooling and glacial disturbance after the Eocene–Oligocene transition

Nick Thompson, Ulrich Salzmann, Adrián López-Quirós, Peter K. Bijl, Frida S. Hoem, Johan Etourneau, Marie-Alexandrine Sicre, Sabine Roignant, Emma Hocking, Michael Amoo, and Carlota Escutia

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Cited articles

Anderson, J. B., Warny, S., Askin, R. A., Wellner, J. S., Bohaty, S. M., Kirshner, A. E., Livsey, D. N., Simms, A. R., Smith, T. R., Ehrmann, W., Lawver, L. A., Barbeau, D., Wise, S. W., Kulhanek, D. K., Weaver, F. M., and Majewski, W.: Progressive Cenozoic cooling and the demise of Antarctica's last refugium, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 108, 11356–11360, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1014885108, 2011. 
Anderson, R. F., Ali, S., Bradtmiller, L. I., Nielsen, S. H. H., Fleisher, M. Q., Anderson, B. E., and Burckle, L. H.: Wind-driven upwelling in the Southern Ocean and the deglacial rise in atmospheric CO2, Science, 323, 1443–1448, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1167441, 2009. 
Arias, L. C.: Terrestrial ecosystems on a Greenhouse Earth: Climate and vegetation in the high southern latitudes during the early Paleogene, PhD thesis, Faculty of Geosciences and Geography, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 2015. 
Askin, R. A.: Late Cretaceous–early Tertiary Antarctic outcrop evidence for past vegetation and climates, Antarct. Paleoenviron. a Perspect. Glob. Chang. Part One, 56, 61–74, https://doi.org/10.1029/AR056p0061, 1992. 
Askin, R. A.: Spores and Pollen from the Mcmurdo Sound Erratics, Antarctica, in: Paleobiology and Paleoenvironments of Eocene Rocks: McMurdo Sound, East Antarctica, 76, edited by: Stilwell, J. D. and Feldmann, R. M., American Geophysical Union, United States, 161–181, https://doi.org/10.1029/AR076p0161, 2000. 
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Short summary
New pollen and spore data from the Antarctic Peninsula region reveal temperate rainforests that changed and adapted in response to Eocene climatic cooling, roughly 35.5 Myr ago, and glacially related disturbance in the early Oligocene, approximately 33.5 Myr ago. The timing of these events indicates that the opening of ocean gateways alone did not trigger Antarctic glaciation, although ocean gateways may have played a role in climate cooling.
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