Climate change, plant extinctions and vegetational recovery during the Middle-Late Pennsylvanian transition: The case of tropical peat-forming environments in North America

A major extinction of terrestrial plants occurred at the end of the Westphalian (Middle Pennsylvanian) in the lowland tropics of North America. Approximately 67% of the species in peat-forming mires, and at least half the species in clastic wetlands were eliminated by changing climatic conditions, probably protracted moisture deficits or exaggeration of seasonal dryness. Independent studies suggest that the end of the Westphalian was marked by deglaciation in Gondwana and increase in global temperature. In peat-forming habitats major fioristic changes followed the extinction. Earliesta Stephanian (Late Pennsylvanian) dominance-diversity patterns were highly variable temporally; several different plant groups that were of minor importance in Westphalian mires became major framework dominants, with high coal to coal variability. Ultimately opportunistic tree ferns, previously subdominant, became the dominant elements. Westphalian tree ferns were mostly small, cheaply constructed colonists with massive reproductive outputs and broad ecological amplitudes. Stephanian tree ferns were much larger and appear to have occupied sites for extended periods; they retained the cheap construction of earlier forms but added massive root mantles, which permitted greater height and girth. The 'marsh'-forming lycopsid Chaloncria also became common in Stephanian mires. These elements formed mire landscapes that had few analogues in the older Westphalian mire forests, dominated by tree lycopsids. Generic dominance patterns in the Stephanian became fairly consistent after the initial period of irregularity; however, the species composition of Stephanian mires was highly variable within generic themes. Ecological assemblages were persistent during most of the Westphalian and Stephanian. Patterns at the end-Westphalian suggest that high levels of species extinction disrupt self-regulatory properties of groups of species and create intervals of lottery-like ecological dynamics. Opportunists may have an advantage during these periods, but ultimately they must give rise to species capable of site occupation. Thus the size of the extinction, and the proximity of existing species that can recolonize vacated resource space, will dictate whether speciation or colonization will rebuild the new landscapes.