Terrestrial Palaeoecology and Global Change

Introduction
v
CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................... xi
I.1. The idea of global change ................................................................................... xi
I.2. Global change: general ...................................................................................... xiii
I.3. Driving forces: state of the art ......................................................................... xiv
II. TAPHONOMY .......................................................................................................... 1
II.1. Dead mass fossilization as a condition of life .................................................... 1
II.2. Self-fossilization and taphonomic enrichment .................................................... 8
II.3. Taphonomic bias ............................................................................................... 11
II.4. Taphonomy and evolution ................................................................................. 15
II.5. Tectonic setting ................................................................................................. 16
II.5.1. Intracratonal basins .................................................................................. 17
II.5.2. Concurrent fold belt basins ...................................................................... 18
II.5.3. Transcurrent basins .................................................................................. 19
II.6. Tectonic style .................................................................................................... 21
II.7. Taphonomic cycles ........................................................................................... 21
II.7.1. Coal-bearing cyclothems .......................................................................... 23
II.7.2. Variegate cyclothems ............................................................................... 26
II.7.3. Lacustrine cyclothems.............................................................................. 28
II.7.4. Carbonate cyclothems and black shales .................................................. 32
III. PALAEOECOLOGY ............................................................................................. 37
III.1. Life forms ........................................................................................................ 37
III.1.1. Multifunctionality ..................................................................................... 37
III.1.2. Life form inference: examples ............................................................... 42
III.1.3. Direct and indirect environmental correlates ......................................... 47
III.2. Plant communities ........................................................................................... 50
III.2.1. Community records ................................................................................. 51
III.2.2. Palaeosyntaxonomy ................................................................................ 59