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Full chemostratigraphy of all three sections Biostratigraphy, lithostratigraphy, and chemostratigraphy for Opal Creek (a), Gujo-Hachiman (b), and Ubara (c). Chemostratigraphy includes carbon isotopes (black line), manganese concentrations (red line), vanadium concentrations (purple line), molybdenum concentrations (green line), and thallium isotopes (blue line). Biostratigraphy, lithostratigraphy, and trace metal concentrations are from previous sources18,19,39,40, as well as carbon isotopes of Opal Creek⁴⁰. For Opal Creek, biozones 1–4 represent Mesogondolella bitteri and M. rosenckrantzi (1), M. sheni (2), Clarkina hauschkei and C. meishanensis (3), and Hindeodus parvus (4). Lithostratigraphic columns are present on the left adjacent to height. Separate patterns are used to distinguish lithologies, including chert (rounded bricks), shale (dashed lines), and silty mudstones (dashed and dotted lines), with approximate colour of the rocks. All three trace metal concentration charts have upper continental crust concentrations marked with a dashed vertical line, with arrow pointing towards more reducing conditions. The Tl isotope plots have a dashed vertical line indicating modern seawater values, with more positive values representing greater extent of anoxia. All three sites are correlated with the EPME (red dashed line) and PTB (light blue dashed line) using both biostratigraphy and carbon isotope stratigraphy. Thallium plotted with error bars (2σ). Opal Creek features an Upper Permian19,40 unconformity near the base of the described section (wavy line), below the EPME. Opal Creek here features a more extensive section up to 43m as compared to Fig. 2. Trace metal concentrations generally indicate reducing conditions at all three sections, though each trace metal responds in a different manner for each locality due to fluctuating local redox18,19. Global similarity in thallium isotopes despite this indicates little local explanation for the excursion.
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The end-Permian mass extinction (EPME) represents the largest biocrisis in Earth’s history, a result of environmental perturbations following volatiles released during Siberian Traps magmatism. A leading hypothesis links the marine mass extinction to the expansion of oceanic anoxia, although uncertainties exist as to the timing and extent. Thallium...
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Climate change is a critical factor affecting biodiversity. However, the quantitative relationship between temperature change and extinction is unclear. Here, we analyze magnitudes and rates of temperature change and extinction rates of marine fossils through the past 450 million years (Myr). The results show that both the rate and magnitude of tem...
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... Some studies have identified sporadic occurrences of oxygen-rich shallow-marine refugia during the EPME and its immediate aftermath (e.g., Beatty et al., 2008;Twitchett et al., 2004). In deeper marine settings, oxygenation events have been documented based on thallium isotope records, pyrite framboid distributions, and iron phase partitioning proxies (e.g., Y. Z. Ge & Bond, 2022;Newby et al., 2021;Xiang et al., 2016). ...
Ocean anoxia is considered a key driver of the end‐Permian mass extinction (EPME). However, it is much debated whether there was an ocean reoxygenation phase during, and in the aftermath, of the EPME. Evidence for ocean reoxygenation is often inferred from the absence of framboidal pyrite in some boundary marine sediments (termed the “framboid gap”). To reconstruct ocean redox evolution across the EPME, we investigated the carbon isotopic, sedimentological, and redox records of the Ruichang and Ehtan sections in South China. These documents two negative δ¹³Ccarb excursions and the development of anoxia associated with deepening leading up to the Permian‐Triassic boundary. Above the level at which most siliceous organisms became extinct, pyrite framboid and iron proxies indicate that water column redox conditions were predominantly oxygenated but sporadically anoxic/ferruginous [non‐sulfidic, free Fe(II) in the water] at Ruichang, while ferruginous conditions were more widely developed at Ehtan. These contrasting redox states are characteristic of a dynamic ocean redox landscape in the extinction interval. The “framboid gap” is seen in strata deposited under both oxic and ferruginous conditions, suggesting that the availability of decomposable organic matter for sulfate reduction additionally controlled framboid genesis. Our data confirm that oxygenated conditions were developed in some deep water basins during the EPME.
... Unraveling the mechanisms for this biocrisis is crucial for understanding the relationships between environmental changes and biological macroevolution. Numerous studies suggest that widespread marine anoxia likely drove the marine mass extinction [4][5][6][7] . A shift toward more dysoxic conditions at the EPME has been implicated in most global oceanic settings based on biomarkers 8 , iron speciation 9,10 , and geochemical and isotopic proxies 4,6,7,11 . ...
... Numerous studies suggest that widespread marine anoxia likely drove the marine mass extinction [4][5][6][7] . A shift toward more dysoxic conditions at the EPME has been implicated in most global oceanic settings based on biomarkers 8 , iron speciation 9,10 , and geochemical and isotopic proxies 4,6,7,11 . Depending on their empirical calibration to modern marine sediments, these redox proxies provide understanding of significant insights into short-term redox history across the EPME. ...
Expansion of oceanic anoxia is a prevailing hypothesis for driving the marine end-Permian mass extinction and is mainly based on isotopic geochemical proxies. However, long-term oceanic redox conditions before the end-Permian mass extinction remain unresolved. Here we report a secular redox trend based on rock magnetic experiments and cerium anomalies through the Changhsingian and across the Permian-Triassic boundary at the Meishan section, China. Magnetic mineral assemblages changed dramatically at ca. 252.8 million years age (Ma), which indicates that oceanic deoxygenation started about 0.9 million years earlier than the end-Permian mass extinction. The magnetite-dominant post end-Permian mass extinction interval suggests a ferruginous dysoxic conditions with enhanced weathering in the earliest Triassic. Also, a gradual magnetite abundance decrease to pre-extinction levels is observed at ca. 251.5 Ma, coinciding temporally with the waning of Siberian Trap and arc volcanism. All of these observations demonstrate that environmental deterioration began much earlier than the end-Permian mass extinction and finally collapsed in the end-Permian.
... The end-Permian mass extinction (EPME) was the most severe biotic and environmental crisis in the Phanerozoic and severely devastated terrestrial and marine ecosystems (Burgess et al., 2014;Dal Corso et al., 2022;Fan et al., 2020). This catastrophic environmental deterioration is thought to have been driven by spikes in emissions of massive greenhouse and poisonous gases (Chen et al., 2022a;Joachimski et al., 2022) from the Siberian Traps large igneous province (STLIP) and intensive continental arc volcanism (Burgess and Bowring, 2015;Chapman et al., 2022;Vajda et al., 2020;Zhang et al., 2021), which resulted in global warming Sun et al., 2012), aridification and widespread wildfires Jiao et al., 2023;Shen et al., 2011a;Song et al., 2022), ocean acidification (Garbelli et al., 2017;Jurikova et al., 2020), and oceanic euxinia and anoxia (Grice et al., 2005;Newby et al., 2021;Wignall and Twitchett, 1996;Zhang et al., 2018). Wildfire combustion, as a response to climatic changes, has been extensively reported during the Late Paleozoic owing to its widespread occurrence (Bergman et al., 2004;Bond and Scott, 2010). ...
The Siberian Traps large igneous province and intensive continental arc volcanism are regarded as the primary drivers of the severe environmental changes that triggered the end-Permian mass extinction. However, detailed correlations between volcanism and the collapse of terrestrial ecosystems remain ambiguous. This study used polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) records and mercury spikes from the terrestrial Dalongkou section as refined proxies for volcanic combustion events. The mercury anomalies, PAH concentrations, and PAH ratios provide insight into the terrestrial ecosystem collapse during the Permian–Triassic (P–T) transition. Based on the multiple PAH ratios, the source and composition of PAHs exhibit obvious pyrolytic-derived origins during the late Permian. Combined with the biostratigraphic records and our PAH proxies in the Dalongkou section, terrestrial ecosystems experienced stepwise crisis and change owing to volcanic effects and frequent high-temperature combustion events during the P–T transition. During the main terrestrial P–T crisis interval, the increased PAH concentrations indicate that the combustion events were gradually enhanced under worse climatic conditions. Based on the PAH records, enhanced soil erosion accompanied by frequent wildfires was found to occur under extremely high-temperature climatic conditions caused by intensive volcanic activity during the P–T transition.
... For instance, uranium isotopes have been extensively employed in tracing marine anoxia in deep geological time over the past decade (Song et al., 2017;Bartlett et al., 2018;. Moreover, unconventional isotopes of metal elements, including chromium, thorium, vanadium, and tungsten isotopes, are being utilized to reconstruct paleo-oceanic redox perturbations during the Phanerozoic (Fang et al., 2021;Kurzweil et al., 2021;Newby et al., 2021). ...
Climatic and environmental conditions play a pivotal role in the evolution of the biosphere, serving as the primary natural factors influencing biological evolution and the development of human civilization. The study of the evolution of Earth’s habitability primarily revolves around the reconstruction of climatic and oceanic conditions in geohistorical periods, shedding light on their dynamic changes. This paper collates classic geological indicators and geochemical proxies associated with paleo-climatic and oceanic environmental conditions. The latest “big data” analyses and simulations made possible by the availability of previously unimagined massive datasets reveal several key findings: During the early Paleozoic, atmospheric oxygen levels were low, and widespread oceanic anoxia was prevalent; the Devonian era witnessed a greenhouse climate, followed by the Carboniferous ice age characterized by higher oceanic oxidation levels and alkalinity. The latest Paleozoic deglaciation occurred under high pCO2 conditions, extending into much of the Mesozoic and early Cenozoic, marked by multiple hyperthermal and anoxia expansion events, until the resurgence of global glaciation in the middle-late stages of the Cenozoic, ultimately bringing environmental and climatic conditions closer to modern levels. By correlating the aforementioned long-term trends with major geological events, we can delineate the co-evolution of paleoclimate and oceanic environments in tandem with the development of Tethys tectonics as follows. (1) During the Proto-Tethys stage, global paleo-elevations were relatively low, and atmospheric oxygen levels were also relatively modest. Despite the occurrence of significant tectonic movements that led to noticeable transgressive-regressive cycles, their effects on climate and oceanic environments were somewhat limited due to the relatively weak interactions. (2) The emergence of the Paleo-Tethys was a significant event that coincided with the formation of the supercontinent Pangaea. Intensive orogenic movements during this period increased the global land area and elevation. This, in turn, led to enhanced terrestrial weathering, which elevated sea surface productivity and resulted in massive nutrient input into the oceans. Consequently, this process contributed to the rise of oxygen levels in the atmosphere and a decrease in atmospheric pCO2. These changes are considered potential driving mechanisms for late Paleozoic glaciation and oceanic oxygenation. (3) The transition from the Paleo-Tethys to the Neo-Tethys was closely linked to the breakup of Pangaea. During this period, the terrestrial weathering processes were relatively weak due to decreased continental elevations. This resulted in a long-term greenhouse climate and intermittent global oceanic events, which were responses to the high atmospheric pCO2 levels during the Mesozoic and early Cenozoic eras. (4) The Neo-Tethys stage ended with the dramatic uplift of the Alps-Himalaya Mountain ranges due to the collision of India and Asia. This uplift had a profound global impact, significantly increasing continental elevations. As a result, weathering and carbon burial processes intensified, leading to a reduction in atmospheric pCO2. Concurrently, this uplift played a crucial role in the establishment of the East Asian monsoon and North Atlantic deep-water circulations, both of which played a part in triggering the late Cenozoic ice age. These models suggest that the teleconnections between land and sea (orogeny-terrestrial weathering-marine carbon burial) span over the whole Phanerozoic and might have played a key role in balancing the Earth surface system. Combined, the tectonic, volcanic, paleo-climatic, as well as paleoenvironmental events recorded in the Tethys oceans and adjunct continents represent valuable natural experiments and lessons for understanding the present and the future of Earth’s habitability.
... Redox condition is an essential factor in maintaining aquatic lives on Earth, and anoxia may have played a key role in biological mass extinctions in geological history, in which the redox state changed dramatically (Clarkson et al., 2016;Shen et al., 2011), either in the transient or episodic way (Newby et al., 2021;Zhang et al., 2020). In addition, rapid mineralization of organisms is a key factor in the exceptional preservation of fossils, and this is highly dependent on the depositional environment Garson et al., 2012;Janssen et al., 2022;Muscente et al., 2019). ...
... Each of these mass extinction events may have reduced microbial diversity, thus constraining contemporary microbial richness, as a large portion of bacterial diversity is likely host-associated (Hernández-Hernández et al., 2021;Thompson et al., 2017;Xie et al., 2005). The same factors causing the mass extinction of macroorganisms may also have elevated free-living microbial extinction (Newby et al., 2021), though it is reasonable to assume that the diversity of host-associated taxa should have been most greatly reduced. Models accounting for these phenomena may minimize uncertainty about the number of modern-day microbial taxa, and also address questions pertaining to the upper limits of global diversity. ...
Biologists have long sought to quantify the number of species on Earth. Often missing from these efforts is the contribution of microorganisms, the smallest but most abundant form of life on the planet. Despite recent large‐scale sampling efforts, estimates of global microbial diversity span many orders of magnitude. It is important to consider how speciation and extinction over the last 4 billion years constrain inventories of biodiversity. We parameterized macroevolutionary models based on birth–death processes that assume constant and universal speciation and extinction rates. The models reveal that richness beyond 10 ¹² species is feasible and in agreement with empirical predictions. Additional simulations suggest that mass extinction events do not place hard limits on modern‐day microbial diversity. Together, our study provides independent support for a massive global‐scale microbiome while shedding light on the upper limits of life on Earth.
... Sedimentary Tl isotopic compositions are an emerging paleoredox proxy that has been utilized to elucidate changes in global Mn-oxide burial flux (Ostrander et al., , 2019(Ostrander et al., , 2020Them et al., 2018;Bowman et al., 2019;Fan et al., 2020;Newby et al., 2021). Tl isotopic compositions (reported as ε 205 Tl = ( 205/203 Tl sample -205/203 Tl NIST-997 )/ 205/203 Tl NIST-997 × 10 4 ) of modern seawater are homogenous (ε 205 Tl seawater = − 6 ± 0.3), reflecting its long residence time of ~18.5 kyr compared to ocean mixing of ~1-2 kyr Owens, 2019). ...
... Our study interval encompasses ~11 Myr (middle of the H. lentus to the top of the N. gracilis biozone), with the detailed graptolite biostratigraphy from Maletz et al. (2020) and age calibrations of these specific biozones based upon the latest Geologic Time Scale from Goldman et al. (2020). Therefore, AOC may play a greater role in controlling Tl isotopic trends than studies focused on singular, short lived events (i.e., ≤ 1Myr) in Earth history Them et al., 2018;Fan et al., 2020;Newby et al., 2021). AOC is generally associated with low temperature alteration of crustal material at mid ocean ridges; however, unambiguous proxies that can be used for determining the relative strength of this flux are underdeveloped. ...
... EPME were the Siberian Traps large igneous province (STLIP) and large-scale continental arc volcanism (Chapman et al., 2022;Vajda et al., 2020;Zhang et al., 2021). Intensive volcanic activities triggered the massive release of greenhouse and poisonous gases (Burgess and Bowring, 2015;Shen et al., 2011a), global warming (Sun et al., 2012), aridification and wildfires Song et al., 2022), ocean acidification (Garbelli et al., 2017;Jurikova et al., 2020), oceanic anoxia or euxinia (Grice et al., 2005;Newby et al., 2021;Wignall and Twitchett, 1996;Zhang et al., 2018), enhanced terrestrial weathering (Lu et al., 2020;Song et al., 2015), and rapid sea level changes (Yin et al., 2014), which eventually resulted in the mass extinction of marine and terrestrial life. Based on paleoatmospheric oxygen estimates, wildfires have been ubiqui- Fig. 1. ...
The end-Permian mass extinction (EPME) caused significant changes in the marine and terrestrial realms because of global environmental deterioration caused by intensive volcanic activities. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sediments are powerful proxies indicating the frequency and intensity of wildfires during the Permian–Triassic (P–T) transition, providing critical information on floral turnovers and paleoclimatic conditions associated with P–T deforestation. In this study, we investigated high-resolution PAHs in a non-marine P–T transitional sequence from the HK-1 drill core at the Lengqinggou section of Southwest China. The consistency of the PAH distribution patterns as well as the positive correlation between the PAH contents in the whole sequence indicates that they are derived from the same source or process. Similarly, multiple PAH ratios [e.g., fluoranthene/(fluoranthene + pyrene)] changed dramatically with generally higher values in the Lopingian, indicating that the PAHs were more likely derived from a pyrogenic source (i.e., high-temperature wildfire events) compared to those in the Lower Triassic. The enrichment of PAHs at the HK-1 drill core in the terrestrial EPME interval indicates that the paleotropical rainforest ecosystem provided sufficient fuel for large-scale high-temperature wildfire combustion events. Furthermore, the extremely low PAH contents in the Lower Triassic indicated a fuel shortage after the mass deforestation, the highly diversified rainforest assemblage disappeared and was replaced with herbaceous, hinterland-like vegetation. The high coronene/phenanthrene ratio and coronene index indicated that although vegetation was scarce, high-temperature burning events were still common in the Lower Triassic, this evidence further supports the vegetation changeover during the P–T transition. These results indicate that intensified high-temperature wildfire combustion events in the paleotropical rainforest in Southwest China occurred because of global warming and aridity caused by intensive volcanic activities during the P–T transition.
... This agrees well with the presented U record and potentially explains the oxic-dysoxic Ce/Ce* signal in the H. parvus Zone of the shallower Chanakhchi section. Similarly, fluctuating redox conditions were also inferred using Tl isotopes with negative shifts in ε 205 Tl indicating transient oxygenation (Newby et al., 2021). ...
... this interval. However, a trend towards more positive values in stable Tl isotope records of sedimentary pyrite well below the extinction horizon indicates that ocean deoxygenation has already occurred earlier than suggested by studies using carbonate U concentrations and isotopes (Newby et al., 2021). This might be related to the less sensitive response threshold of the latter proxy and serve as an explanation for the positive Ce-anomalies reported from the C. bachmanni Zone at Chanakhchi. ...
Ocean anoxia was one of the key killing mechanisms responsible for the end-Permian mass extinction (∼252 Ma). However, the temporal evolution and the triggering mechanisms of the end-Permian anoxia are controversial, with the current view being that the water column deoxygenation was a spatially and temporally heterogeneous event. Here, we use cerium-anomalies, uranium contents and rare earth element and yttrium (REY) compositions measured on the carbonate fraction of samples from two marine sections in Armenia and South China to constrain the evolution of end-Permian marine anoxia. In particular, we attempt to identify intervals of manganous redox conditions (i.e., Mn²⁺-rich water column). These are characterized by the reduction of Mn(IV)-oxides at a redox potential lower than of nitrate and higher than of Fe(III)-oxide reduction. Most of our samples yield REY patterns with seawater characteristics suggesting the dominance of hydrogenous REYs. While decreasing U concentrations in the C. yini Zone suggest an overall intensification of global marine anoxia in the latest Permian, Ce-anomalies shift from negative to positive above the C. yini Zone, implying a deterioration in the oxygen content of the local water columns. Highly positive Ce-anomalies (Ce/Ce* > 1.3) are firstly reported for the P-T interval, indicating enrichment of Ce in the water column and the establishment of manganous redox conditions at both locations. This change coincided globally with climatic warming, the onset of the marine extinction interval as well as locally with the disappearance of sponge spicules and radiolarians (South China) and the appearance of microbialites (Armenia).
... Shen et al., 2020S. Shen et al., 2020); Newby et al., 2021). The Permian Junggar Basin in northwestern China records the gradual withdrawal of seawater from northwest to southeast (Bian et al., 2010;Alexeiev et al., 2019), but there is still controversy about the tectonic attributes of the basin. ...
The Permian clastic sediments in the Mahu sag offer outstanding conditions to test the control of tectonism and paleoclimate on sedimentation in a rift basin. A synthesis of petrological and geochemical analyses of sandstones, zircon U-Pb geochronology of granitic conglomerates, and principal component analysis have been used to investigate the source composition and chemical weathering indices. The rare earth and trace element compositions of 16 sandstone samples are consistent with first cycle sources from the Carboniferous-Lower Permian mafic and felsic igneous rocks in West Junggar. Lower Permian sandstones contain abundant volcanic lithic clasts and plagioclase grains, and have high Na 2 O, CaO, Sr and V, suggesting a coeval proximal volcanic source in Central West Junggar during the syn-rift stage. Middle Permian sandstones consist of trachyte and rhyolite clasts, and quartz and albite grains, and show a gradual increase of Th, U and SiO 2 , indicating an expansion of source areas to more distant Southern and Northern West Junggar during the post-rift stage. In the Lower Triassic, an abrupt increase in the percentages of quartz and K-feldspar, as well as the zircon U-Pb geochronology of granite-clast conglomerates (290-330 Ma), all indicate regional uplift and unroofing of Carboniferous-Permian granitic plutons in West Junggar during the tectonic inversion stage at the Permian-Triassic boundary. Various chemical weathering indices indicate cold and arid climate conditions during the early Permian, followed by a transition to warm and humid climatic conditions. Comprehensive analysis of petrography and geochemistry sheds a new light for studying the source-to-sink evolution of a rift basin, and has further implication for paleoclimate fluctuation and change.