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Relationship between climatic conditions and the relative abundance of modern C<inf>3</inf> and C<inf>4</inf> plants in three regions around the North Pacific

Rao, ZG and Zhu, ZY and Jia, GD and Chen, FH and Barton, L and Zhang, JW and Qiang, MR (2010) Relationship between climatic conditions and the relative abundance of modern C<inf>3</inf> and C<inf>4</inf> plants in three regions around the North Pacific. Chinese Science Bulletin, 55 (18). 1931 - 1936. ISSN 1001-6538

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Abstract

Using -24‰ and -14‰ as the endpoints of stable carbon isotopic composition of total organic carbon (δ13CTOC) of surface soil under pure C3 and C4 vegetation, and surface soil δ13CTOC data from eastern China, Australia and the Great Plains of North America, we estimate the relative abundance of C3/C4 plants (i. e., the ratio of C3 or C4 biomass to local primary production) in modern vegetation for each region. The relative abundance of modern C3/C4 vegetation from each region is compared to the corresponding climatic parameters (mean annual temperature and precipitation) to explore the relationship between relative C4 abundance and climate. The results indicate that temperature controls the growth of C4 plants. However, even where temperature is high enough for the growth of C4 plants, they will only dominate the landscape when precipitation declines as temperatures increase. Our results are consistent with those of other investigations of the geographic distribution of modern C4 plant species. Therefore, our results provide an important reference for interpretation of past C3/C4 relative abundance records in these three regions. © 2010 Science China Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.


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Details

Item Type: Article
Status: Published
Creators/Authors:
CreatorsEmailPitt UsernameORCID
Rao, ZG
Zhu, ZY
Jia, GD
Chen, FH
Barton, Lloukas@pitt.eduLOUKAS0000-0003-1519-4226
Zhang, JW
Qiang, MR
Centers: Other Centers, Institutes, Offices, or Units > Center for Comparative Archaeology
Date: 1 June 2010
Date Type: Publication
Journal or Publication Title: Chinese Science Bulletin
Volume: 55
Number: 18
Page Range: 1931 - 1936
DOI or Unique Handle: 10.1007/s11434-010-3101-z
Schools and Programs: Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Anthropology
Refereed: Yes
ISSN: 1001-6538
Date Deposited: 23 Oct 2014 19:38
Last Modified: 22 Jun 2021 12:56
URI: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/23337

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