Sprecher
Beschreibung
This project investigates the interplay between climate forcing and ecosystem response during Middle Eocene hyperthermal events (48–47 Ma), brief periods of rapid warming with major carbon cycle and biological changes. These events offer insight into climate sensitivity and biological adaptation for evaluating future scenarios. The study is structured around two complementary components. First, we aim to reconstruct the background climate conditions of the hyperthermals by using the Messel Pit (a UNESCO World Heritage site in Germany) as a terrestrial archive, relying on stomatal density measurements and the application of a gas exchange model to fossil plants (Konrad et al., 2008). While GDGT-based temperature reconstructions are already available for Messel, independent constraints on atmospheric CO₂ are lacking. To address this, based on published protocols (Harper et al., 2024), we will generate a high-resolution CO₂ curve from boron-isotope (δ¹¹B) analyses of foraminifera from ODP Site 1263, which represents a marine counterpart to the Messel sequence. Second, we will assess the biological response of plants to these climatic perturbations. A systematic morphometric analysis of Messel fossil plants will be used to track adaptive changes and evaluate how plant functional traits responded to changes in CO₂ concentrations. By integrating marine geochemistry with terrestrial palaeobotany, this multi-proxy approach will provide a more complete picture of the environmental context and biotic responses during Eocene hyperthermals.