Tibet, the Himalaya, Asian monsoons and biodiversity - In what ways are they related?

Plant Diversity
Robert A Spicer

Abstract

Prevailing dogma asserts that the uplift of Tibet, the onset of the Asian monsoon system and high biodiversity in southern Asia are linked, and that all occurred after 23 million years ago in the Neogene. Here, spanning the last 60 million years of Earth history, the geological, climatological and palaeontological evidence for this linkage is reviewed. The principal conclusions are that: 1) A proto-Tibetan highland existed well before the Neogene and that an Andean type topography with surface elevations of at least 4.5 km existed at the start of the Eocene, before final closure of the Tethys Ocean that separated India from Eurasia. 2) The Himalaya were formed not at the start of the India-Eurasia collision, but after much of Tibet had achieved its present elevation. The Himalaya built against a pre-existing proto-Tibetan highland and only projected above the average height of the plateau after approximately 15 Ma. 3) Monsoon climates have existed across southern Asia for the whole of the Cenozoic, and probably for a lot longer, but that they were of the kind generated by seasonal migrations of the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone. 4) The projection of the High Himalaya above the Tibetan Plateau at about 15 Ma coincides with the...Continue Reading

Citations

Mar 7, 2019·Journal of Plant Research·Natalia P MaslovaJianhua Jin
Mar 12, 2019·Science Advances·T SuZ-K Zhou
Oct 11, 2020·Science Advances·N BarboliniC Hoorn
Dec 9, 2020·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Tao SuZhe-Kun Zhou
Aug 16, 2021·Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution·Jian-Li ZhaoQing-Jun Li
Aug 10, 2021·Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution·Lian-Sheng Xu, You-Sheng Chen
Jan 13, 2022·The New Phytologist·Shengdan WuJianquan Liu

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Software Mentioned

SAM

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Cell Migration

Cell migration is involved in a variety of physiological and pathological processes such as embryonic development, cancer metastasis, blood vessel formation and remoulding, tissue regeneration, immune surveillance and inflammation. Here is the latest research.