How did tectonics and climate shape terrestrial ecosystems during the Neogene, and can their coupled effects be disentangled? This session examines how tectonic processes such as orogeny, rifting, and ocean gateway reorganization, together with gradual or abrupt climate change, influenced terrestrial hydroclimate, vegetation, and fauna across continents. These interacting forcings affected dispersal, adaptation, extinction, and diversification of both plants and animals, but deconvolving their contributions with models or geological and fossil records remains a major challenge. The Late Cenozoic, spanning roughly 23 million years ago to the present, offers an exceptional interval for addressing these questions, given its major tectonic events, long-term climatic cooling, grassland expansion, and faunal changes across continents. We invite contributions from any part of the Neogene to present that integrate modeling, geological, paleontological, paleoecological, and laboratory approaches to develop a more globally informed understanding of Earth–life system dynamics and evolutionary change on land.

• A - Atmospheric Sciences
• B - Biogeosciences
• GC - Global Environmental Change
• OS - Ocean Sciences