Do Southeast Asia's paleo‐Antarctic trees cool the planet?

• Published in: The New phytologist 2023-09, Vol.239 (5), p.1556-1566
• Main Authors: Wilf, Peter, Kooyman, Robert M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acidic soils; Acidification; Antarctic Regions; Asia, Southeastern; Bedrock; Biodiversity; biogeography; Biomass; Carbon Dioxide; Carbon sequestration; Cities; climate change; Conifers; Deforestation; Drawdown; Forests; Fossils; Global cooling; Gondwana; Heat islands; Highlands; Hot Temperature; Ice ages; Neogene; paleoconservation; Planets; Soil acidification; Southeast Asia; Southern Hemisphere; Trees; Tropical environments; Weathering
• ISSN: 0028-646X; 1469-8137
• DOI: 10.1111/nph.19067

Summary Many tree genera in the Malesian uplands have Southern Hemisphere origins, often supported by austral fossil records. Weathering the vast bedrock exposures in the everwet Malesian tropics may have consumed sufficient atmospheric CO2 to contribute significantly to global cooling over the past 15 Myr. However, there has been no discussion of how the distinctive regional tree assemblages may have enhanced weathering and contributed to this process. We postulate that Gondwanan‐sourced tree lineages that can dominate higher‐elevation forests played an overlooked role in the Neogene CO2 drawdown that led to the Ice Ages and the current, now‐precarious climate state. Moreover, several historically abundant conifers in Araucariaceae and Podocarpaceae are likely to have made an outsized contribution through soil acidification that increases weathering. If the widespread destruction of Malesian lowland forests continues to spread into the uplands, the losses will threaten unique austral plant assemblages and, if our hypothesis is correct, a carbon sequestration engine that could contribute to cooler planetary conditions far into the future. Immediate effects include the spread of heat islands, significant losses of biomass carbon and forest‐dependent biodiversity, erosion of watershed values, and the destruction of tens of millions of years of evolutionary history.