Quick
Search: 		  
advanced search
 GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help 
  Geological Magazine   Signup for GSW Email News
JOURNAL HOME HELP CONTACT PUBLISHER SUBSCRIBE ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Geological Magazine; May 2007; v. 144; no. 3; p. 417-448; DOI: 10.1017/S0016756807003330
© 2007 Cambridge University Press (CUP)
This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (7)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by OPLUSTIL, S.
Right arrow Articles by CLEAL, C. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
GeoRef
Right arrow GeoRef Citation

A comparative analysis of some Late Carboniferous basins of Variscan Europe

STANISLAV OPLUSTIL* and CHRISTOPHER J. CLEAL{dagger},{dagger}

* Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Science, Albertov 6, 128 43 Praha 2, Czech Republic
{dagger} Department of Biodiversity & Systematic Biology, National Museum Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NP, UK

{dagger} Author for correspondence: chris.cleal{at}museumwales.ac.uk

Vegetation diversity and pattern changes, and their relation to tectono-sedimentary histories are compared between selected Euramerican Late Palaeozoic coalfields, to understand better the controls on the dynamics of the Pennsylvanian terrestrial ecosystems and to demonstrate the problems with comparing data from various basins. The analysis is based on data from the following basins of different geotectonic and palaeogeographical positions: the cratonic Pennines Basin, the foreland South Wales and Upper Silesia basins, and the fault-related Intra Sudetic and Central and Western Bohemia basins. The analysis indicates that complex factors are responsible for changes in plant diversity and vegetation patterns. These are related to climate, tectonics, preservation potential, sampling biases and the current state of revision of the flora in each basin. Plant diversity patterns in the basins differ because of local controls and/or the character and detail of the available data. Maximum diversity varies among the basins within the Langsettian and Duckmantian substages. Two apparent step-like drops in diversity were detected within coal-bearing strata of most basins: at the Duckmantian/Bolsovian boundary and at the Bolsovian/Asturian boundary. Further and more prominent falls are related to transitions from coal-bearing to non-coal-bearing (mostly red bed) strata or vice versa during Stephanian times. Interpretation of climatic signals recorded in the sedimentary successions indicates that Westphalian and middle Stephanian times were wet intervals, whereas early and late Stephanian times were drier.

Key Words: Pennsylvanian • palaeobotany • biodiversity • Variscan Foreland




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Eur J MineralHome page
P. Matysova, J. Leichmann, T. Grygar, and R. Rossler
Cathodoluminescence of silicified trunks from the Permo-Carboniferous basins in eastern Bohemia, Czech Republic
European Journal of Mineralogy, April 1, 2008; 20(2): 217 - 231.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


JOURNAL HOME HELP CONTACT PUBLISHER SUBSCRIBE ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2009 by Cambridge University Press (CUP)