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Recent climate and societal changes have increased wildfire activity and prolonged the fire season in many regions of the world. The precision of fire seasonality analysis from tree-ring records can be improved by complementing the subjectively determined intra-ring position of fire scars with more precise studies of wood formation. With this aim, we monitored the wood formation dynamics of Pinus nigra J.F. Arnold (black pine) trees along a climatic gradient in western Anatolia to better understand the wood formation for the interpretation of fire seasonality. Wood microcores were collected from April to November 2021 from trees at four sites across (from north; the Black Sea climate in Bolu to the south; and the Mediterranean climate in Isparta) the areas where previous fire history reconstructions were conducted. These previous studies showed that most fires occurred during the latewood formation period. We found that matured latewood tracheids were observed between September (August) and November, thus suggesting that these fires occurred during late summer and fall. Our results show the importance of temperature and water availability for the timing of earlywood and latewood formations. These findings can be used to better inform planning activities for fire management and as a proxy to reconstruct past fire seasonality.

Previous paleobotanical work concluded that Paleogene elements of the sclerophyllous subhumid vegetation of western Eurasia and western North America were endemic to these disjunct regions, suggesting that the southern areas of the Holarctic flora were isolated at that time. Consequently, molecular studies invoked either parallel adaptation to dry climates from related ancestors, or long-distance dispersal in explaining disjunctions between the two regions, dismissing the contemporaneous migration of dry-adapted lineages via land bridges as unlikely. We report Vauquelinia (Rosaceae), currently endemic to western North America, in Cenozoic strata of western Eurasia. Revision of North American fossils previously assigned to Vauquelinia confirmed a single fossil-species of Vauquelinia and one of its close relative Kageneckia. We established taxonomic relationships of fossil-taxa using diagnostic character combinations shared with modern species and constructed a time-calibrated phylogeny. The fossil record suggests that Vauquelinia, currently endemic to arid and subdesert environments, originated under seasonally arid climates in the Eocene of western North America and subsequently crossed the Paleogene North Atlantic land bridge (NALB) to Europe. This pattern is replicated by other sclerophyllous, dry-adapted and warmth-loving plants, suggesting that several of these taxa potentially crossed the North Atlantic via the NALB during Eocene times.

The position of Turkey between Europe and Asia makes this region interesting for palaeobotanical investigations. We investigated plant macrofossils from early Miocene deposits of W Turkey (Soma, Manisa) and compiled a catalogue of revised and new plant taxa. We documented 100 fossil-taxa, of which several are new for Turkey (Mahonia aff. pseudosimplex, Ziziphus paradisiaca, Comptonia longirostris, Carya denticulata, Viscum, Fatsia, Pungiphyllum cruciatum). Some previous records are rejected (e.g. Apocynophyllum, Cassia, Castanea, Ficus, Illicium, Liriodendron, Vaccinium). Using modern ecology and taphonomy, we reconstructed palaeoenvironments. We found evidence for a belt of drier, more open habitats with cycads, Dracaena, Mahonia, Smilax miohavanensis, and others. Other vegetation units comprise swamp and riparian forest with few dominants (expressed in highabundance of leaf specimens). On well-drained soils, lowland forest with large-leaved Lauraceae vel Fagaceae and rare elements (Fatsia) was present, while humid temperate broadleaf-deciduous and conifer forest flourished higher up. To infer palaeoclimate we used the Climate Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program (CLAMP) and compared the results with other Miocene localities of Turkey. Early Miocene floras had warm climates (mean annual temperature, MAT, and coldest month temperature, CMMT) with weak precipitation seasonality. MAT and CMMT were cooler during the early middle Miocene. Several fossil-taxa at Soma have biogeographic links with older/coeval localities in C Europe and/or the W Mediterranean region (cycads, Torreya, Dracaena, Smi-lax miohavanensis, Mahonia aff. pseudosimplex, Carya denticulata, Ilex miodipyrena, Pungiphyllum). Few taxa have clear links to C Asian floras (Comptonia longirostris). True E Mediterranean endemics are even rarer (Mahoniaspp., Quercus sosnowskyi).

Ecosystems are defined by the community of living organisms and how they interact together and with theirenvironment. Insects and plants are key taxa in terrestrial ecosystems and their network determines the trophicstructure of the environment. However, what drives the interactions between plants and insects in modern andfossil ecosystems is not well understood. In this study, we analyzed insect damage richness and frequency in 5000 fossil leaves deposited during the early Miocene at 20–17 Ma along a latitudinal gradient from Europe (twolocalities in Czech Republic) to Turkey (one locality) in a temperate climate setting. Damage frequency wasmainly linked with abiotic factors (temperature, precipitation seasonality) whereas damage richness was mainlylinked with biotic factors (plant richness, biome). Univariate analysis of insect damage types consistently suggested closer trophic similarity between the Mediterranean and either the one or the other Central European plant assemblage. In contrast, multivariate analysis of all insect damage types indicated closer similarity between the two Central European sites highlighting the importance of biogeographic legacy and geographic closeness to the plant-insect interaction patterns. Our results underscore the high complexity of the herbivory network andcall for careful interpretations of plant-insect interaction patterns in palaeoecological studies. Finally, comparing the trophic similarity between different localities using total evidence plots as done in this work might be apromising complementary method in comparative studies of plant-insect interactions.

The early Miocene was a period of major palaeogeographic reorganization in the eastern Mediterranean region, during which time the Anatolian Plateau became subaerial and several intracontinental basins intermittently became connected to the Paratethys and Mediterranean seas. In this paper, we analyse early Miocene vegetation and climate using leaf records, palynological assemblages, and fossil wood at 36 localities from western and central Turkey, most of which have precise age control based on radiometric dating and mammal faunal ages. Using the leaf flora of Güvem (Beş Konak, Keseköy), Climate Leaf-Analysis Multivariate Program (CLAMP) analyses and Köppen signatures were employed to infer a palaeoclimate typical of modern laurel forest regions. Based on the palynological records, abundance of various pollen-taxa was used as a measure of openness of vegetation and regional presence of major tree taxa. Most pollen floras are dominated by tree pollen (ranging from 85 to 98%) and indicated widespread afforestation. In the pollen diagrams, shifts in dominance from swamp forest elements (Taxodioideae) to well-drained forests (Pinaceae) indicate changes in lake levels or phases of basin development. Such shifts may have been associated with the development of more xeric forest vegetation. Wood anatomical features such as false tree rings further may indicate seasonal climate. Pollen diagrams and macrofossils reflect zonal and azonal broadleaf and needleleaf forest and extrazonal open vegetation. The latter occurred in areas with shallow soils on volcanic rocks or limestone (e.g. cycads, Dracaena), or coastal areas (herb dominance). Taxonomic composition and biogeographic affinities suggest laurel forest as a major forest biome on well-drained soils and ecotones between laurel forest and broadleaf deciduous forest biomes. A comparison with younger floras shows that these are neither more diverse nor more warmth-loving despite an increase in global temperature (Mid-Miocen