Marine siliceous ecosystem decline led to sustained anomalous Early Triassic warmth. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • In the wake of rapid CO2 release tied to the emplacement of the Siberian Traps, elevated temperatures were maintained for over five million years during the end-Permian biotic crisis. This protracted recovery defies our current understanding of climate regulation via the silicate weathering feedback, and hints at a fundamentally altered carbon and silica cycle. Here, we propose that the development of widespread marine anoxia and Si-rich conditions, linked to the collapse of the biological silica factory, warming, and increased weathering, was capable of trapping Earth's system within a hyperthermal by enhancing ocean-atmosphere CO2 recycling via authigenic clay formation. While solid-Earth degassing may have acted as a trigger, subsequent biotic feedbacks likely exacerbated and prolonged the environmental crisis. This refined view of the carbon-silica cycle highlights that the ecological success of siliceous organisms exerts a potentially significant influence on Earth's climate regime.

published proceedings

  • Nat Commun

altmetric score

  • 74.1

author list (cited authors)

  • Isson, T. T., Zhang, S., Lau, K. V., Rauzi, S., Tosca, N. J., Penman, D. E., & Planavsky, N. J.

citation count

  • 3

complete list of authors

  • Isson, Terry T||Zhang, Shuang||Lau, Kimberly V||Rauzi, Sofia||Tosca, Nicholas J||Penman, Donald E||Planavsky, Noah J

publication date

  • January 2022