Reconstructing vegetation biomass in the Middle Jurassic Yanliao Biota from insect fossil assemblages
Clicks: 1
ID: 315611
2026
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This
article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score —
reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
Reader Engagement
0.0
/100
1 views
0 readers
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal
Ranked #267 of 280 articles by views in national science review
Most read
Least read
Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 280 in total.
Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet mintedCreate a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.
5
SUSD
one-off · no wallet required
Abstract
Abstract Quantifying vegetation biomass is essential for understanding the structure and energy balance of terrestrial ecosystems, yet robust estimates for deep-time ecosystems remain elusive. Most palaeovegetation proxies provide qualitative or relative signals and lack a direct connection to ecosystem-scale energetics. Here, we present a probabilistic framework to reconstruct ancient vegetation biomass using fossil insect assemblages, treating insect biomass as a primary energy-based state variable. We estimated individual insect body mass from fossil morphological traits of insect fossils using relationships calibrated with modern insects, and inferred population densities based on metabolic scaling theory. These estimates were integrated to reconstruct fossil insect community biomass while explicitly accounting for sampling bias. Herbivorous insect biomass was then translated into vegetation biomass through a trophic transfer model incorporating realistic ranges of feeding rates, trophic efficiencies, and biomass accumulation ratios. All uncertainties were implemented by Monte Carlo simulations to generate full probability distributions of vegetation biomass. Sensitivity analyses reveal that insect biomass is the dominant contributor to variance in reconstructed vegetation biomass, with standardized regression coefficients substantially exceeding those of trophic transfer parameters. Ecological parameters primarily modulate vegetation biomass within constrained bounds but do not determine its order of magnitude. Comparisons with modern global vegetation datasets indicate that the reconstructed biomass corresponds to productive terrestrial ecosystems with identifiable modern biome analogues. Our results demonstrate that fossil insect assemblages encode fundamental energy-based constraints of ancient ecosystems and provide a quantitative pathway for reconstructing palaeovegetation biomass.
| Reference Key |
openalex_W7163161699
Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using
SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
|
|---|---|
| Authors | Liang Chen, Shilong Guo, Lifang Xiao, Nan Yang, Chungkun Shih, Conrad C Labandeira, Chaofan Shi, Dong Ren |
| Journal | national science review |
| Year | 2026 |
| DOI |
10.1093/nsr/nwag329
|
| URL | |
| Keywords | Keywords not found |
Citations
No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org
Comments
No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.