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Climate change drove Late Miocene to Pliocene rise and fall of C<sub>4</sub> vegetation at the crossroads of Africa and Eurasia (Anatolia; Türkiye)
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DOI：10.5194/cp-22-975-2026.png)
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Abstract
En 中文
Abstract. Life on Earth has been capitalizing on the C3 photosynthetic pathway for 2.8 billion years. However; in the world's grasslands that emerged since the Paleogene; C4 vegetation expanded dramatically between 8 and 3 Ma in response to climatic changes. Here we present the first comprehensive Late Miocene to Holocene δ13C soil carbonate record from the Eastern Mediterranean region (Anatolia) to reconstruct long-term geographic distributions of C3 and C4 plants; a region with patchy records compared to parts of Africa and Asia. Our results show a colonization of Anatolian floodplains by C4 biomass by 9.9 Ma; similar to regions in NW and E Africa; followed by a transition from this mixed C3–C4 vegetation to C4 dominance between ca. 7.1 and 4.9 Ma. The transition to C4 in Anatolia coincides with a similar shift from C3 to C4 vegetation in southern Asia and is generally attributed to the Late Miocene Cooling in response to decreasing atmospheric pCO2. However; the Anatolian paleoecosystem patterns are unique due to a rapid and permanent return to C3 dominance in the Early Pliocene; which is not observed elsewhere and occurs simultaneously with the disappearance of the open environment-adapted large mammal Pikermian chronofauna. We propose that this return to C3 vegetation was caused by paleoclimatic processes that regionally shifted precipitation from the warm to the cool season; resembling the modern Mediterranean climate. In conclusion; changes in rainfall seasonality under subhumid climate; rather than increased aridity; drove the demise of C4-dominated floodplains and the open-environment adapted Pikermian chronofauna at the Eurasian-African crossroads.
Keywords:
C4 vegetation
climate change
δ13C soil carbonate
Anatolia
paleoclimatic processes
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