In ordination to better understand the evolutionary history of ecosystems and make more exact climate model , a team of paleobotonists have compared structures made by plant life 50 million eld ago to those that are made today . This provides information about how vegetation density and tree cover have changed over the eons . Regan Dunn of the University of Washington in Seattle was lead author of the paper , which was publish inScience .
Dunn ’s research focalize on phytoliths study from various soil internet site in Patagonia , Argentina . Phytolithsare glass - like structures created by plant life after they have taken up silica from the soil . After the plant dies and begins to decay on the background , the phytoliths remain behind and can become fossilized . It is n’t get laid why plants create phytoliths , but they are very utilitarian in understand what ancient ecosystems were like . Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree covering affects the amount of precipitation that reaches the primer coat and vegetation prevents erosion , so empathize the industrial plant concentration will help explicate environmental factors that could have influenced life .
" Knowing an area ’s flora structure and the musical arrangement of leaves on the Earth ’s surface is primal for understand the terrestrial ecosystem . It ’s the context in which all country - based organisms live , but we did n’t have a fashion to measure it until now , " Dunn said in apress release .
The late Patagonian phytolith sample were compare to some that were formed 49 - 11 million years ago , painting a picture of how those ecosystem have changed over metre . Radiometric dating was used to swan the timeline . While premature studies of fossilized pollen grains and prints of leaves can be used to reveal which specific industrial plant species were around at any given time , studying phytoliths can add on those findings by showing what the ecosystem looked like in oecumenical .
" The import of this work can not be overstated , " sum up atomic number 27 - writer Caroline Strömberg , also from the University of Washington . " botany structure connect all aspects of innovative ecosystem , from territory moisture to chief productivity to global climate . Using this method , we can finally quantify in detail how Earth ’s plant and beast residential area have responded to climate change over millions of age , which is full of life for prognosticate how ecosystems will convert under predicted succeeding climate scenarios . ”
The soma and size of it of the phytolith are determined by the plant and specific social system it was form in , which can be influenced by other gene such as the amount of sunshine and haste it receive . This allows the phytoliths to provide a snapshot of the flora density and tree diagram cover go through by the plant during its life . The extent of the botany ’s canopy is described as a leaf domain index , and the phytoliths can assist solve the index throughout story .
" Leaf surface area index number is a well - sleep with variable star for ecologists , clime scientist and modelers , but no one ’s ever been capable to think how you could reconstruct tree insurance coverage in the past — and now we can , " reason out conscientious objector - author Richard Madden from the University of Chicago . " We should be able-bodied to remodel leaf surface area index by using all kinds of fossil works preservation , not just phytoliths . Once that is establish , then the places in the macrocosm where we can reconstruct this will increase . ”
