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(American Journal of Botany. 2009;96:1108-1115.) doi: 10.3732/ajb.0800361 © 2009 Botanical Society of America, Inc.

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A climatic and taxonomic comparison between leaf litter and standing vegetation from a Florida swamp woodland¹

² Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611-7800 USA ³ Center for Wood Anatomy Research, USDA Forest Service Products Laboratory, Madison, Wisconsin 53705-2398 USA ⁴ Laboratorio de Sistemática y Ecología Vegetal, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile ⁵ Instituto Milenio de Ecología y Biodiversidad, Santiago, Chile

ABSTRACT

One method to determine past climate has been the use of leaf morphological characteristics of fossil leaves quantified using modern climate and canopy leaf characteristics. Fossil assemblages are composed of abscised leaves, and climate may be more accurately determined by using leaves from leaf litter instead of the canopy. To better understand whether taphonomic processes make a difference in this relationship, a north-central Florida woodland was sampled to determine the morphologically based climate estimates from these leaves. Leaves from woody, dicotyledonous plants were collected and identified, then compared using presence/absence data and analyzed using several linear regression equations and the CLAMP data set. Although the majority of standing vegetation was reflected in leaf litter, some inconsistencies were observed, which may reflect plant community structure or sampling technique. Mean annual temperature (MAT) and growing season precipitation (GSP) were estimated from leaf litter morphological characters and living leaves. Overall, values for MAT estimated from litter and living leaves were cooler than actual MATs, although several accurate and high estimates were obtained depending on the predictive method used. Estimated GSP values were higher than actual GSPs. Statistically, no difference was observed between MAT and GSP estimates derived from leaf litter vs. estimates derived from living leaves, with one exception.

Key Words: CLAMP • climate • leaf litter • dicotyledons • Florida • warm temperate woodland

Received for publication 23 October 2008. Accepted for publication 11 February 2009.

FOOTNOTES

¹ The authors thank T. Devanzo, L. Uriarte, D. Jimenez, and R. Dupont for sorting and measuring the specimens from the leaf litter; M. Shardell for assistance in the statistical analysis; and R. Burnham, B. Jacobs, B. Tiffney, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (INT 9724122 and EAR 9615755). L. F. Hinojosa was partially financed by FONDECYT 1060041. This report is number 528 in the series University of Florida Contributions to Paleontology.

⁶ Author for correspondence (e-mail: dilcher{at}flmnh.ufl.edu)

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