Testing the climatic estimates from different palaeobotanical methods: an example from the Middle Miocene Shanwang flora of China

Abstract

The Miocene Shanwang biota from eastern China contains exceptionally well-preserved plant fossils with abundant leaf fossils and palynomorphs co-occurring at several levels in the sedimentary succession. This has provided an ideal opportunity to undertake detailed comparative quantitative palaeoclimate reconstruction, based on both mega- and microfloral assemblages, using various approaches, namely the coexistence approach (CoA), leaf margin analysis (LMA) and Climate Leaf Analysis Multivariate Programme (CLAMP). By applying these approaches to the same dataset and using multiple fossil assemblages from different levels we are able to compare results from the different methods of climate prediction. CLAMP and LMA give consistently lower temperature (mean annual temperature, MAT) predictions than the CoA. Taking errors into account all methods indicate no overall climate change through the sequence studied. Results from CoA show overall agreement in the palaeoclimate parameters obtained using both pollen and leaf datasets indicating a high degree of internal consistency with this method.