Palaeoecology articles within Nature Geoscience

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  • Article |

    Pulses of silicic arc magmatism—and associated volatile emissions—helped set the timing and magnitude of the environmental disruptions that caused the end-Permian mass extinction, according to U–Pb zircon dating of silicic volcanic and related tephra sequences in eastern Australia.

    • Timothy Chapman
    • , Luke A. Milan
    •  & Jim Crowley

  • Article |

    Pervasive drying over the last few centuries has reduced carbon storage in European peatlands, the result of climate change and human impacts, according to a continent-wide compilation of hydrological records derived from testate amoeba.

    • Graeme T. Swindles
    • , Paul J. Morris
    •  & Barry Warner

  • News & Views |

    The Toarcian oceanic anoxic event disrupted terrestrial ecosystems as well as the marine realm, according to analyses of microfossils derived from land plants. Changes in diversity and composition were initially more rapid in terrestrial ecosystems.

    • Luke Mander
    •  & Jennifer C. McElwain

  • Article |

    Microbial life colonized the land surface by 3.2 billion years ago, forming complex communities distinct from those in nearby marine environments, according to analyses of fossilized microbial mats in the Moodies Group, South Africa.

    • Martin Homann
    • , Pierre Sansjofre
    •  & Stefan V. Lalonde

  • News & Views |

    Rising oxygen levels may have facilitated the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event according to a reconstruction of atmospheric oxygen concentrations.

    • Alycia L. Stigall

  • Article |

    Dissolved inorganic carbon is buried in dryland basins that do not drain to the sea. Based on measurements of sediment chemistry in twelve of these sites, closed basins are estimated to store 0.15 Pg of dissolved inorganic carbon annually.

    • Yu Li
    • , Chengqi Zhang
    •  & Wangting Ye

  • Article |

    Reconstructions of Holocene summer temperatures differ between models and vegetation-based proxies. A quantitative reconstruction for the Mediterranean region based on fossil midge assemblages suggests warm summers, in line with climate models.

    • Stéphanie Samartin
    • , Oliver Heiri
    •  & Willy Tinner

  • News & Views |

    Large glacial–interglacial fluctuations occurred during the late Palaeozoic. Geochemical and fossil data show these cycles were marked by coincident shifts in the carbon cycle and terrestrial biosphere.

    • Timothy S. Myers

  • News & Views |

    The Cambrian evolution of burrowing species is thought to have facilitated sediment mixing. However, sediment fabrics suggest that bioturbation remained insignificant until the appearance of more efficient sediment mixers in the Silurian.

    • Murray Gingras
    •  & Kurt Konhauser

  • Feature |

    The Earth underwent two snowball glaciation events between 720 and 635 million years ago. The preceding expansion of eukaryotic algae and a consequent rise in emissions of organic cloud condensation nuclei may have contributed to the dramatic cooling.

    • Georg Feulner
    • , Christian Hallmann
    •  & Hendrik Kienert

  • Letter |

    Wrinkle structures in ancient sedimentary environments are enigmatic. Wave-tank experiments suggest that wrinkle structures are shaped by microbial mat fragments that are moved by waves over sandy-bed surfaces, and thus are morphological biosignatures.

    • G. Mariotti
    • , S. B. Pruss
    •  & T. Bosak

  • News & Views |

    Multicellular animals probably evolved at the seafloor after a rise in oceanic oxygen levels. Biogeochemical model simulations suggest that as these animals started to rework the seafloor, they triggered a negative feedback that reduced global oxygen.

    • Filip J. R. Meysman

  • Letter |

    The hydrological response to climate forcing during the past 25,000 years varied throughout the Indo-Pacific warm pool region. Marine sediment records suggest that during the Last Glacial Maximum, drying in northeast Borneo did not result in a vegetation shift, whereas the development of a severe dry season on Sumba led to water stress and the expansion of herby vegetation.

    • Nathalie Dubois
    • , Delia W. Oppo
    •  & Braddock K. Linsley

  • News & Views |

    The end-Permian extinction decimated marine life on an unprecedented scale. However, an analysis of the lifestyles of the surviving genera shows that very little functional diversity was lost at the sea floor.

    • Martin Aberhan

  • Article |

    At least two-thirds of marine genera died out during the end-Permian mass extinction about 252 million years ago. An analysis of extinct and surviving taxa shows no substantial loss in global functional diversity, although there were significant losses in some settings such as tropical reefs.

    • William J. Foster
    •  & Richard J. Twitchett

  • Letter |

    The pressures and temperatures experienced by material flung from craters following impact events are expected to preclude survival of organics. The preservation of biomarkers in impact glass from the Darwin crater in Tasmania suggests that organic matter can survive in the distal products of meteorite impact.

    • Kieren Torres Howard
    • , Melanie J. Bailey
    •  & Sasha Verchovsky

  • Letter |

    Modern grasslands are dominated by grasses that use the C4 photosynthetic pathway, and were established about 8 million years ago. A sediment record suggests that in southwestern Africa, the expansion of grasslands was associated with increasing aridity and fire activity, both of which favour grasses that use the C4 pathway.

    • Sebastian Hoetzel
    • , Lydie Dupont
    •  & Gerold Wefer

  • News & Views |

    About 5,500 years ago, there was a shift from savannah to desert vegetation in the Sahara. Conceptual modelling suggests that the transition was controlled by a climate–vegetation feedback that was also influenced by plant diversity.

    • Stefan C. Dekker

  • Editorial |

    The Pleistocene megafauna extinction erased a group of remarkable animals. Whether humans had a prominent role in the extinction remains controversial, but it is emerging that the disappearance of the giants has markedly affected the environment.

  • News & Views |

    The end of the Pleistocene epoch saw the extinction of large-bodied herbivores around the world. Numerical modelling suggests that continental-scale effects of this extinction on nutrient transport are ongoing.

    • Tanguy Daufresne

  • News & Views |

    The extinction of megafauna in Australia roughly coincided with shifts in vegetation and fire regimes. Sediment geochemistry shows that the vegetation shift followed the extinction, indicating that the loss of browsers promoted fire and altered plant composition.

    • Beverly Johnson

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