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Early and late phases of the Permian–Triassic mass extinction marked by different atmospheric CO2 regimes

Nature Geoscience volume 15, pages 839–844 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

The Permian–Triassic mass extinction is characterized by a massive injection of carbon dioxide associated with Siberian Traps volcanism, pronounced global warming and ocean acidification. However, in the absence of high-resolution records of atmospheric CO2 (\(p_{{\mathrm{CO}}_2}\)), detailed changes in the carbon cycle and their relationship to biosphere perturbations remain unresolved. Here we present a continuous and high-resolution \(p_{{\mathrm{CO}}_2}\) record and quantitative estimates of marine phytoplankton community structure across this interval, using carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of chlorophyll degradation products from the Shangsi section, China. We find that the first extinction pulse in the latest Permian coincided with a minimum in \(p_{{\mathrm{CO}}_2}\), which was followed by a rapid rise to a prolonged high \(p_{{\mathrm{CO}}_2}\) interval that persisted through the second extinction pulse in the Early Triassic, and that cyanobacteria increasingly dominated marine export production between these two pulses. While the first extinction appears to have been associated with intense initial weathering that briefly suppressed the \(p_{{\mathrm{CO}}_2}\) rise and promoted eutrophy and anoxia-driven habitat loss, incorporating our observations into a biogeochemical model indicates the second extinction was sustained by reduced export production driven by the expansion of bacterial production in response to oligotrophic conditions. Such conditions were potentially caused by a long-term failure of the weathering feedback and may mark a catastrophic combination of food web collapse, hyperthermal climate and hypercapnia.

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Fig. 1: Permian–Triassic chronology, stable isotope and lipid biomarker stratigraphic records from Shangsi section, China.
Fig. 2: Estimates of atmospheric CO2 and the fraction of cyanobacterial versus eukaryotic export across the P–Tr mass extinction.
Fig. 3: Model Predictions.

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Data availability

All data reported in this study are available for download from the public data repository (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.20497263.v1) and are archived as a Supplementary Table file with the online version of this Article.

Code availability

Code used to perform LOSCAR simulations can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.20497296.v2.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge R. S. Robinson and B. Kim for their assistance with N-isotope analysis of nitrate samples and C-isotope analysis of phytane; S. J. Carter for logistical support at Harvard University; W. Zhou and X. Gao for their assistance with the fieldwork; R. E. Zeebe for sharing the LOSCAR code. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grants 42072034 and 41888101 to J.S.). A.P. received support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and from NASA Exobiology Grant NNX16AJ52G.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Jiaheng Shen

  2. Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Yi Ge Zhang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, Hubei Key Laboratory of Critical Zone Evolution, School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China

    Huan Yang

  4. State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, Hubei Key Laboratory of Critical Zone Evolution, School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China

    Shucheng Xie

  5. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Ann Pearson

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Contributions

J.S. designed the study and performed the biomarker/bulk sediment analyses, data calculations and model simulations. J.S., A.P. and Y.G.Z. interpreted data. J.S. and A.P. wrote the manuscript, with inputs from Y.G.Z., S.X. and H.Y.

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Correspondence to Jiaheng Shen.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Study area.

Global paleogeography during the Permian-Triassic boundary. The location of Shangsi section is indicated by a red star. Geographical sketch map is modified from ref. 15.

Extended Data Fig. 2

Correlation of Conodont zones and P-Tr boundaries of Meishan, GSSP and Shangsi section (modified from refs. 2,13).

Extended Data Fig. 3 Correlation of bulk organic and phytane carbon isotopic records (δ13Corg and δ13Cphy) from well-studied sections recording the Permian-Triassic mass extinction.

(a) Shangsi section, Sichuan, South China from our study. (b) Hovea-3, Perth Basin, Western Australia. Profiles of δ13Corg (solid triangle), δ13Ckerogen (hollow triangle) and δ13Cphy are from refs. 22,64,65. (c) Lusitaniadalen, Spitsbergen, Northern Norway63. All dashed lines in δ13Cphy represent the LOESS smoothing function. The P-Tr boundary in Hovea-3 is designated in22,64,65. The P-Tr boundary in Lusitaniadalen is not designated in ref. 63 and therefore the correlation is based on C-isotope chemostratigraphy with the δ13Corg negative excursion globally. Black arrows represent two phases of mass extinction. Asterisk indicates the P-Tr boundary based on the first occurrence of H. parvus for global correlation. C.s.—Clarkina subcarinata; C.ch—Clarkina changxingensis; C.y.—Clarkina yini; C.m.—Clarkina meishanensis; H.ch—Hindeodus changxingensis; H.p.—Hindeodus parvus; I.l—Isarcicella lobata; I.i—Isarcicella isarcica.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Comparison of δ13Corg, kerogen, δ13Cphy, and calculated εp between Shangsi section, Sichuan, South China (black, green and blue circles in each panel) and Hovea-3, Perth Basin, Western Australia (grey, light green and light blue triangles in each panel).

δ13Ckerogen data from Hovea-3 tuned to Shangsi Section using two tie-points (indicated by red arrows) to demonstrate the similarity in pattern and magnitude of their associated δ13Cphy and calculated εp. Error bars in (b) represent 1σ of the mean (n = 2). Error bars in (c) represent 1σ uncertainty in εp calculation based on Monte Carlo simulations with 10,000 times (See Methods). Asterisk indicates the P-Tr boundary based on the first occurrence of H. parvus for global correlation. C.w.—Clarkina wangi; C.s.—Clarkina subcarinata; C.ch—Clarkina changxingensis; C.y.—Clarkina yini; C.m.—Clarkina meishanensis; H.ch—Hindeodus changxingensis; H.p.—Hindeodus parvus; I.l—Isarcicella lobata; I.i—Isarcicella isarcica.

Extended Data Fig. 5 Permian-Triassic chronology and stable isotope stratigraphic records from Shangsi Section, China.

(a) Litho- and biostratigraphy, lithology and latest geochronology from ref. 13. (b) Bulk organic carbon isotopic compositions (δ13Corg, grey plus) and phytane carbon isotopic compositions (δ13Cphy, blue triangle). Horizontal error bars represent 1σ of the mean (n = 2). (c) total organic carbon (TOC, %, purple diamond). (d) Bulk nitrogen isotopic compositions (δ15NTN, pink hollow square). (e) Total nitrogen (TN, %, green solid square). (f) Cross-correlation of bulk nitrogen isotopic composition (δ15NTN, ‰), total organic carbon (TOC, %) and total nitrogen (TN, %) from Shangsi.

Extended Data Fig. 6 Comparison of pCO2 estimates based on εp from Shangsi Section, Sichuan, South China (pink circles) and seawater pH based on δ11B from Wadi Bih, Musandam Peninsula, United Arab Emirates7.

Data from Wadi Bih were tuned to Shangsi Section using five tie-points (indicated by red arrows), demonstrating the similarity of the pCO2 and pH records during the Permian-Triassic boundary interval. Shaded grey areas represent 68% (dark grey) and 95% (light grey) confidence intervals of pCO2 estimation based on Monte Carlo simulations. Both dashed lines represent the LOESS smoothing function. Asterisk indicates the P-Tr boundary based on the first occurrence of H. parvus for global correlation.

Extended Data Fig. 7 Sensitivity of b-value (a) and sea surface temperature (b) in pCO2 estimation.

(a) Percentage change in pCO2 associated with the uncertainty in b-value related to [PO43−] of 0.17–0.27 μmol/L. (b) Percentage change in pCO2 associated with the uncertainty in sea surface temperature of 4 °C SD.

Extended Data Fig. 8 Relationship between εp, phosphate and sea surface temperature.

Figure assume εf = 28%. Relationship between εp and pCO2 for a range of [PO43−] (0.1–0.6 μmol/L) and temperature (20–30 °C).

Extended Data Fig. 9 LOSCAR sensitivity analyses.

Sensitivity of atmospheric CO2 in response to three different total carbon emissions with the same emission rate in Emission-only mode (a, b) and Emission + biopump mode (c, d), and to three different emission rates with the same total carbon emission in Emission-only mode (e, f) and Emission + biopump mode (g, h). Scenarios 1, 2, and 3 are simulated by 2000, 5000, 10000 Pg C emissions with the same emission rate. Scenarios 4, 5, and 6 are simulated by three emission rates, which follow Gamma distributions. Scenario 4—shape parameter 1.5, scale parameter 15. Scenario 5—shape parameter 1.5, scale parameter 30. Scenario 6—shape parameter 3.0, scale parameter 30. Grey circles are the pCO2 estimates based on εp in our study. RMSE (X kyr): Root Mean Square Error between the pCO2 observation and model predictions from sensitivity analytical runs over the X kyrs starting from PTB.

Extended Data Fig. 10 LOSCAR sensitivity of atmospheric CO2 in response to different initial conditions of pCO2.

Grey circles are the pCO2 estimates based on εp in our study.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Table 2

Wavelength of maximum absorption and predicted porphyrin types detected by HPLC-MS

Supplementary Table 1

Raw data including bulk, \(p_{{\mathrm{CO}}_2}\), lipid biomarker and compound-specific carbon/nitrogen isotope data

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Shen, J., Zhang, Y.G., Yang, H. et al. Early and late phases of the Permian–Triassic mass extinction marked by different atmospheric CO2 regimes. Nat. Geosci. 15, 839–844 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-01034-w

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