Reconstructions of Past Climatic Parameters from Plant Assemblages

The modern climatic estimates obtained for the xeric and Taiga assemblages illustrate both the possibilities and potential pitfalls of the MCR approach. If the climatic parameter under consideration has a controlling influence on the geographic distributions of taxa in a given assemblage, then it is likely that the MCR approach will provide a valid estimate of this parameter (as is the case with the xeric assemblage). On the other hand, if the parameter has less influence on the distributions of these taxa, then it is probable that the MCR approach will identify a broad range of possible values for this parameter (as is the case for MTCO for the Taiga assemblage). There are additional potential complications when this approach is applied to paleobotanical assemblages, especially when the number of taxa in an assemblage is small (Thompson and others, 2012).