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- Nemchin, A.A., et al.
(författare)
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Record of the ancient martian hydrosphere and atmosphere preserved in zircon from a martian meteorite
- 2014
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Ingår i: Nature Geoscience. - 1752-0894 .- 1752-0908. ; 7, s. 638-642
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mars exhibits ample evidence for an ancient surfacehydrosphere. The oxygen isotope compositions of carbonateminerals and alteration products in martian meteoritessuggest that this ancient hydrosphere was not in isotopicequilibrium with the martian lithosphere1–4. Martian meteoriteNWA 7533 is composed of regolith breccia from the heavilycratered terrains of ancient Mars and contains zircon grainsfor which U–Pb ages have been reported5. Here we reportvariations between the oxygen isotopic compositions offour zircon grains from NWA 7533. We propose that thesevariations can be explained if the mantle melts from whichthe zircon crystallized approximately 4.43Gyr ago hadassimiliated 17O-enriched regolith materials, and that someof the zircon grains, while in a metamict state, were lateraltered by low-temperature fluids near the surface less than1.7Gyr ago. Enrichment of the martian regolith in 17O beforethe zircon crystallized, presumably through exchange withthe 17O-enriched atmosphere or hydrosphere during surfacealteration, suggests that the thick primary atmosphere ofMars was lost within the first 120Myr after accretion. Weconclude that the observed variation of 17O anomalies in zirconfrom NWA 7533 points to prolonged interaction between themartian regolith, atmosphere and hydrosphere.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Finch, B. W., et al.
(författare)
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Disjunct resident population of Melodious Lark Mirafra cheniana discovered in East Africa
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Ornithology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2193-7192 .- 2193-7206. ; 164, s. 55-71
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We describe the discovery of a previously unknown population of Melodious Lark Mirafra cheniana from northern Tanzania and southern Kenya, some 2000 km north of what was previously thought to be its northern limit in central Zimbabwe. The identification of this population as M. cheniana is based primarily on analyses of mitochondrial DNA and song. We also clarify relationships within this genus by sequencing material of White-tailed Lark Mirafra albicauda for the first time; although its relationships with other species in the group remain unclear, our analyses clearly show it to be different from M. cheniana in the newly discovered population. The discovery of a population of M. cheniana in East Africa conforms to a known pattern for closely related lark species to have disjunct distributions in southern and eastern Africa.
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| 4. |
- Hutchinson, David K., et al.
(författare)
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The Eocene-Oligocene transition: a review of marine and terrestrial proxy data, models and model-data comparisons
- 2021
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Ingår i: Climate of the Past. - : European Geosciences Union (EGU). - 1814-9324 .- 1814-9332. ; 17:1, s. 269-315
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Eocene–Oligocene transition (EOT) was a climate shift from a largely ice-free greenhouse world to an icehouse climate, involving the first major glaciation of Antarctica and global cooling occurring ∼ 34 million years ago (Ma) and lasting ∼ 790 kyr. The change is marked by a global shift in deep-sea δ18O representing a combination of deep-ocean cooling and growth in land ice volume. At the same time, multiple independent proxies for ocean tempera- ture indicate sea surface cooling, and major changes in global fauna and flora record a shift toward more cold-climate- adapted species. The two principal suggested explanations of this transition are a decline in atmospheric CO2 and changes to ocean gateways, while orbital forcing likely influenced the precise timing of the glaciation. Here we review and synthesise proxy evidence of palaeogeography, temperature, ice sheets, ocean circulation and CO2 change from the marine and terrestrial realms. Furthermore, we quantitatively com- pare proxy records of change to an ensemble of climate model simulations of temperature change across the EOT. The simulations compare three forcing mechanisms across the EOT: CO2 decrease, palaeogeographic changes and ice sheet growth. Our model ensemble results demonstrate the need for a global cooling mechanism beyond the imposition of an ice sheet or palaeogeographic changes. We find that CO2 forcing involving a large decrease in CO2 of ca. 40 % (∼ 325 ppm drop) provides the best fit to the available proxy evidence, with ice sheet and palaeogeographic changes play- ing a secondary role. While this large decrease is consistent with some CO2 proxy records (the extreme endmember of decrease), the positive feedback mechanisms on ice growth are so strong that a modest CO2 decrease beyond a critical threshold for ice sheet initiation is well capable of triggering rapid ice sheet growth. Thus, the amplitude of CO2 decrease signalled by our data–model comparison should be consid- ered an upper estimate and perhaps artificially large, not least because the current generation of climate models do not in- clude dynamic ice sheets and in some cases may be under- sensitive to CO2 forcing. The model ensemble also cannot exclude the possibility that palaeogeographic changes could have triggered a reduction in CO2.
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| 5. |
- Kennedy, Jonathan D., et al.
(författare)
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Diversification and community assembly of the world’s largest tropical island
- 2022
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Ingår i: Global Ecology and Biogeography. - : Wiley. - 1466-822X .- 1466-8238. ; 31:6, s. 1078-1089
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- AimThe species diversity and endemism of tropical biotas are major contributors to global biodiversity, but the factors underlying the formation of these systems remain poorly understood.LocationThe world's largest tropical island, New Guinea.Time periodMiocene to present.Major taxa studiedPasserine birds.MethodsWe first generated a species-level phylogeny of all native breeding passerine birds to analyse spatial and elevational patterns of species richness, species age and phylogenetic diversity. Second, we used an existing dataset on bill morphology to analyse spatial and elevational patterns of functional diversity.ResultsThe youngest New Guinean species are principally distributed in the lowlands and outlying mountain ranges, with the lowlands also maintaining the majority of non-endemic species. In contrast, many species occurring in the central mountain range are phylogenetically distinct, range-restricted, endemic lineages. Centres of accumulation for the oldest species are in montane forest, with these taxa having evolved unique bill forms in comparison to the remaining New Guinean species. For the morphological generalists, attaining a highland distribution does not necessarily represent the end to dispersal and diversification, because a number of new species have formed in the outlying mountain ranges, following recent colonization from the central range.Main conclusionsWe conclude that a general model of tropical montane diversification is that lineages commonly colonize the lowlands, shifting their ranges upslope through time to become range-restricted montane forest endemics, attaining novel functional adaptations to these environments.
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