scholarly journals Massive and rapid predominantly volcanic CO2 emission during the end-Permian mass extinction

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (37) ◽  
pp. e2014701118
Author(s):  
Ying Cui ◽  
Mingsong Li ◽  
Elsbeth E. van Soelen ◽  
Francien Peterse ◽  
Wolfram M. Kürschner
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Isotope ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Higher Plant ◽  
Surface Ocean ◽  
Siberian Traps ◽  
Carbon Burial ◽  
Organic Carbon Burial ◽  
Mass Extinction Event ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction

The end-Permian mass extinction event (∼252 Mya) is associated with one of the largest global carbon cycle perturbations in the Phanerozoic and is thought to be triggered by the Siberian Traps volcanism. Sizable carbon isotope excursions (CIEs) have been found at numerous sites around the world, suggesting massive quantities of 13C-depleted CO2 input into the ocean and atmosphere system. The exact magnitude and cause of the CIEs, the pace of CO2 emission, and the total quantity of CO2, however, remain poorly known. Here, we quantify the CO2 emission in an Earth system model based on new compound-specific carbon isotope records from the Finnmark Platform and an astronomically tuned age model. By quantitatively comparing the modeled surface ocean pH and boron isotope pH proxy, a massive (∼36,000 Gt C) and rapid emission (∼5 Gt C yr−1) of largely volcanic CO2 source (∼−15%) is necessary to drive the observed pattern of CIE, the abrupt decline in surface ocean pH, and the extreme global temperature increase. This suggests that the massive amount of greenhouse gases may have pushed the Earth system toward a critical tipping point, beyond which extreme changes in ocean pH and temperature led to irreversible mass extinction. The comparatively amplified CIE observed in higher plant leaf waxes suggests that the surface waters of the Finnmark Platform were likely out of equilibrium with the initial massive centennial-scale release of carbon from the massive Siberian Traps volcanism, supporting the rapidity of carbon injection. Our modeling work reveals that carbon emission pulses are accompanied by organic carbon burial, facilitated by widespread ocean anoxia.

Enhanced paleo-wildfire occurrences caused by marine organic carbon burial during the Late Devonian Frasnian–Famennian mass extinction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Man Lu ◽  
YueHan Lu ◽  
Takehitio Ikejiri ◽  
Richard Carroll
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Atmospheric Oxygen ◽  
Burial Rate ◽  
Carbon Burial ◽  
Chattanooga Shale ◽  
Chemical Index ◽  
Organic Carbon Burial ◽  
Polycyclic Aromatic ◽  
Extinction Events

<p>The Frasnian–Famennian (F–F) boundary is characterized by worldwide depositions of organic-rich strata, a series of marine anoxia events and one of the biggest five mass extinction events of the Phanerozoic. Due to the enhanced burial of organic matter, a coeval positive carbon isotope (δ<sup>13</sup>C) excursion occurred around the F–F boundary, raising questions about carbon cycle feedbacks during the mass extinction. In this study, we test the hypothesis that enhanced burial organic carbon during the F–F mass extinction led to the rise of paleo-wildfire occurrences. Here, we reconstructed paleo-wildfire changes across the F–F boundary via analyzing fossil charcoal (inertinites) and pyrogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from an Upper Devonian Chattanooga Shale in the southern Appalachian Basin. Our data show low abundances of inertinites and pyrogenic PAHs before the F–F transition and an increasing trend during the F–F transition, followed by a sustained enhancement through the entire Famennian interval. The changes in paleo-wildfire proxies suggest a rise of wildfires starting from the F–F transition. Furthermore, we quantified the amount of organic carbon burial required to drive the observed δ<sup>13</sup>C excursion using a forward box model. The modeling results show an increased carbon burial rate after the onset of the F–F transition and peaking during its termination. The comparison of the carbon burial rate and wildfire proxies indicates that widespread organic carbon burial during the F–F transition might cause elevated atmospheric oxygen levels and hence increased occurrences of wildfires. In addition, chemical index alteration index and plant biomarkers suggest a drying climate initiated during the F–F transition, implying that the enhanced carbon burial probably result in the climate change and amplify the wildfire occurrences.</p>

scholarly journals Rapid ocean acidification and protracted Earth system recovery followed the end-Cretaceous Chicxulub impact

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (45) ◽  
pp. 22500-22504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Henehan ◽  
Andy Ridgwell ◽  
Ellen Thomas ◽  
Shuang Zhang ◽  
Laia Alegret ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Cycle ◽  
Ocean Acidification ◽  
Carbon Isotope ◽  
Primary Productivity ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
System Modeling ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Ph Gradients ◽  
Chicxulub Impact

Mass extinction at the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary coincides with the Chicxulub bolide impact and also falls within the broader time frame of Deccan trap emplacement. Critically, though, empirical evidence as to how either of these factors could have driven observed extinction patterns and carbon cycle perturbations is still lacking. Here, using boron isotopes in foraminifera, we document a geologically rapid surface-ocean pH drop following the Chicxulub impact, supporting impact-induced ocean acidification as a mechanism for ecological collapse in the marine realm. Subsequently, surface water pH rebounded sharply with the extinction of marine calcifiers and the associated imbalance in the global carbon cycle. Our reconstructed water-column pH gradients, combined with Earth system modeling, indicate that a partial ∼50% reduction in global marine primary productivity is sufficient to explain observed marine carbon isotope patterns at the K-Pg, due to the underlying action of the solubility pump. While primary productivity recovered within a few tens of thousands of years, inefficiency in carbon export to the deep sea lasted much longer. This phased recovery scenario reconciles competing hypotheses previously put forward to explain the K-Pg carbon isotope records, and explains both spatially variable patterns of change in marine productivity across the event and a lack of extinction at the deep sea floor. In sum, we provide insights into the drivers of the last mass extinction, the recovery of marine carbon cycling in a postextinction world, and the way in which marine life imprints its isotopic signal onto the geological record.

scholarly journals Subsequent biotic crises delayed marine recovery following the late Permian mass extinction event in northern Italy

PLoS ONE ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. e0172321 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Foster ◽  
Silvia Danise ◽  
Gregory D. Price ◽  
Richard J. Twitchett
Keyword(s):  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
Late Permian ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
Mass Extinction Event ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction

Rapid marine recovery after the end-Permian mass-extinction event in the absence of marine anoxia

Geology ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 32 (9) ◽  
pp. 805 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.J. Twitchett ◽  
L. Krystyn ◽  
A. Baud ◽  
J.R. Wheeley ◽  
S. Richoz
Keyword(s):  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
Mass Extinction Event ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction

Earliest Silurian faunal survival and recovery after the end Ordovician glaciation: evidence from the brachiopods

2007 ◽  
Vol 98 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 291-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Robin M. Cocks ◽  
Rong Jia-yu
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Recovery Rate ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Benthic Assemblages ◽  
Ice Cap ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
Mass Extinction Event ◽  
Permian Mass Extinction ◽  
Ecological Recovery

ABSTRACTEarliest Silurian (basal Llandovery) brachiopod faunas are surveyed and listed from around the globe, and divided between Lower Rhuddanian and Upper Rhuddanian occurrences. 60 genera are known from the Lower Rhuddanian within 20 superfamilies and there are 87 genera in 25 superfamilies in the Upper Rhuddanian. The 29 areas surveyed span the globe, both latitudinally and longitudinally. Only six superfamilies are Lazarus taxa which are known both from the Ordovician and Middle Llandovery (Aeronian) and later rocks but have not been recorded from the Rhuddanian. These are surprising results, since many previous studies have inferred that the Rhuddanian was a time of very sparse faunas. The global warming that followed the latest Ordovician (Hirnantian) ice age did not proceed quickly, with an ice-cap probably present through at least the Llandovery. There is a marked absence of Lower Rhuddanian bioherms even at low palaeolatitudes; however, the ecological recovery rate was far faster than that following the end-Permian mass extinction event. The partitioning of the Rhuddanian shelf faunas into well-defined benthic assemblages progressed slowly over the interval.

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