Quantitative climate reconstructions of the late Miocene Xiaolongtan megaflora from Yunnan, southwest China

The late Miocene Xiaolongtan megaflora from Kaiyuan in southeast Yunnan (23 degrees 48'45 '' N, 103 degrees 11'52 '' E, 1050 m a.s.l.) was chosen for palaeoclimatic reconstruction using three quantitative techniques, i.e. the Coexistence Approach (CA), Leaf Margin Analysis (LMA), and the Climate-Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program (CLAMP). The reconstructed climatic parameters are also compared with those of the two adjacent Miocene floras currently available in Yunnan, i.e. the early to middle Miocene carpological Mangdan flora (24 degrees 24'N, 97 degrees 49'E, 1620 m a.s.l.) and the late Miocene Luhe palynoflora (25 degrees 10'N, 101 degrees 22'E, 1930 m a.s.l.). Quantitative analyses of the Xiaolongtan flora supports the previous qualitative results of a southern, humid subtropical climate, being more humid and having a slightly higher mean annual temperature (MAT) than today. The MATs calculated by CA, LMA, and CLAMP overlap (16.7-19.2 degrees C, 22.3 +/- 2.05 degrees C, 18.1 +/- 1.2 degrees C, respectively) and are close to the present day value (19.7 degrees C). The overlapping of temperatures derived using the three techniques is unusual and probably related to the low latitude of the Xiaolongtan area and the southern subtropical nature of its vegetation. Both the mean temperatures of the warmest month (WMT) and of the coldest month (CMT) reconstructed by CA (WMT=25.4-26.0 degrees C, CMT=7.7-8.7 degrees C) and CLAMP (WMT=25.9 +/- 1.6 degrees C, CMT=10.8 +/- 1.9 degrees C) are similar to those of today (WMT=24.3 degrees C, CMT=12.8 degrees C), but great changes appear in the mean annual precipitation (MAP). The CLAMP results suggest a higher precipitation (1964 +/- 335.9 mm) than CA (1215-1639 mm), but they are much higher than the present MAP (820.5 mm). This is consistent with results from the Luhe palynoflora, which also developed under a warmer subtropical climate with higher precipitation (803.6-1254.7 mm) than that of today (815.9 mm). In contrast, the Mangdan flora, situated in a more complicated topographic region to the west of Xiaolongtan and near the Sino-Myanmar border, implies a slightly lower precipitation (1170-1300 mm) than that of today (1300-1400 mm). Overall, the wetter climate during the late Miocene around the Xiaolongtan area suggests that the Himalayas had not yet uplifted to its present altitudes at that time. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.