Chu, D, Grasby, SE, Song, H et al. (8 more authors) (2020) Ecological disturbance in tropical peatlands prior to marine Permian-Triassic mass extinction. Geology, 48 (3). pp. 288-292. ISSN 0091-7613
Abstract
The Permian-Triassic mass extinction is widely attributed to the global environmental changes caused by the eruption of the Siberian Traps. However, the precise temporal link between marine and terrestrial crises and volcanism is unclear. Here, we report anomalously high mercury (Hg) concentrations in terrestrial strata from southwestern China, synchronous with Hg anomalies in the marine Permian-Triassic type section. The terrestrial sediments also record increased abundance of fossil charcoal coincident with the onset of a negative carbon isotope excursion and the loss of tropical rainforest vegetation, both of which occurred immediately before the peak of Hg concentrations. The organic carbon isotope data show an ∼5‰–6‰ negative excursion in terrestrial organic matter (bulk organic, cuticles, and charcoal), reflecting change in atmospheric CO2 carbon-isotope composition coincident with enhanced wildfire indicated by increased charcoal. Hg spikes provide a correlative tool between terrestrial and marine records along with carbon isotope trends. These data demonstrate that ecological deterioration occurred in tropical peatlands prior to the main marine mass extinction.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 The Authors This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Institute for Applied Geosciences (IAG) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 13 May 2020 12:59 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 22:16 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Geological Society of America |
Identification Number: | 10.1130/g46631.1 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:160623 |