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Abstract
<p class="first" id="d1678503e151">Contents 1333 I. 1334 II. 1335 III. 1339 IV. 1344
V. 1347 VI. 1347 1348 1348 References
1348 SUMMARY: The Carboniferous, the time of Earth's penultimate icehouse and widespread
coal formation, was dominated by extinct lineages of early-diverging vascular plants.
Studies of nearest living relatives of key Carboniferous plants suggest that their
physiologies and growth forms differed substantially from most types of modern vegetation,
particularly forests. It remains a matter of debate precisely how differently and
to what degree these long-extinct plants influenced the environment. Integrating biophysical
analysis of stomatal and vascular conductivity with geochemical analysis of fossilized
tissues and process-based ecosystem-scale modeling yields a dynamic and unique perspective
on these paleoforests. This integrated approach indicates that key Carboniferous plants
were capable of growth and transpiration rates that approach values found in extant
crown-group angiosperms, differing greatly from comparatively modest rates found in
their closest living relatives. Ecosystem modeling suggests that divergent stomatal
conductance, leaf sizes and stem life span between dominant clades would have shifted
the balance of soil-atmosphere water fluxes, and thus surface runoff flux, during
repeated, climate-driven, vegetation turnovers. This synthesis highlights the importance
of 'whole plant' physiological reconstruction of extinct plants and the potential
of vascular plants to have influenced the Earth system hundreds of millions of years
ago through vegetation-climate feedbacks.
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