In the late Miocene, grasslands spread across the forested floodplains of the Himalayan foreland, but the causes of the ecological transition are still debated. Recent seafloor drilling by the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) provides an opportunity to study the transition across a larger region as archived in the Indus submarine fan. We present a multiproxy study of past vegetation change based on analyses of the carbon isotopic composition (δ13C) of bulk organic carbon, plant wax
Modern tropical and subtropical C4grasslands and savannas were established during the late‐Miocene and Pliocene, over 20 Myr after evolutionary originations of the C4photosynthetic pathway. This lag suggests environmental factors first limited and then favored C4plants. Here, we examine the timing and drivers for the establishment of C4grasslands on the Indian Subcontinent using carbon and hydrogen isotope signatures of plant‐wax
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10387491
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology
- Volume:
- 36
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 2572-4517
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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