|
It was previously thought Southern Tibet and the Himalaya were instrumental in turning the once barren land of eastern Asia into lush forests and abundant coastal regions which became home to a rich array of plant, animal and marine life, including some of the world's rarest species. But new findings, published today in the journal Science Advances, conversely show Northern Tibet played the more influential role in this transformation which began more than 50 million years ago.
Scientists from a UK-China partnership, including the University of Exeter, used an innovative climate model to simulate vegetation and plant diversity, combined with spectacular new fossil finds, to discover how this unique biodiversity hotspot evolved.
Lead author, Dr Shufeng Li, a visiting scientist at the University of Bristol in the UK and associate professor at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) Institute in Yunnan, China, said: "Until now it was unknown why the climate changed from that of a dry, arid, almost desert-like ecosystem to that of a lush, wet ecosystem where a vast array of plant, animal, and marine life can be found, including some of the world's rarest species.
"We conducted 18 sensitivity experiments using different Tibetan topographies representing various late Paleogene to early Neogene conditions, which test almost all possible Tibetan growth evolution scenarios."
The findings showed that from the late Paleogene to the early Neogene age, some 23-40 million years ago, the growth of the north and northeastern portion of Tibet was the most important factor because it increased rainfall, especially winter rainfall, over eastern Asia where dry winter conditions existed before.
advertisement
|
