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The global vegetation pattern across the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction interval: A template for other extinction events

Vajda, Vivi LU and Bercovici, Antoine LU (2014) In Global and Planetary Change 122. p.29-49
Abstract
Changes in pollen and spore assemblages across the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary elucidate the vegetation response to a global environmental crisis triggered by an asteroid impact in Mexico 66 Ma. The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary clay, associated with the Chicxulub asteroid impact event, constitutes a unique, global marker bed enabling comparison of the world-wide palynological signal spanning the mass extinction event. The data from both hemispheres are consistent, revealing diverse latest Cretaceous assemblages of pollen and spores that were affected by a major diversity loss as a consequence of the K-Pg event. Here we combine new results with past studies to provide an integrated global perspective of the terrestrial vegetation... (More)
Changes in pollen and spore assemblages across the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary elucidate the vegetation response to a global environmental crisis triggered by an asteroid impact in Mexico 66 Ma. The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary clay, associated with the Chicxulub asteroid impact event, constitutes a unique, global marker bed enabling comparison of the world-wide palynological signal spanning the mass extinction event. The data from both hemispheres are consistent, revealing diverse latest Cretaceous assemblages of pollen and spores that were affected by a major diversity loss as a consequence of the K-Pg event. Here we combine new results with past studies to provide an integrated global perspective of the terrestrial vegetation record across the K-Pg boundary. We further apply the K-Pg event as a template to asses the causal mechanism behind other major events in Earths history. The end-Permian, end-Triassic, and the K-Pg mass-extinctions were responses to different causal processes that resulted in essentially similar succession of decline and recovery phases, although expressed at different temporal scales. The events share a characteristic pattern of a bloom of opportunistic "crisis" tax followed by a pulse in pioneer communities, and finally a recovery in diversity including evolution of new taxa. Based on their similar extinction and recovery patterns and the fact that the Last and First Appearance Datums associated with the extinctions are separated in time, we recommend using the K-Pg event as a model and to use relative abundance data for the stratigraphic definition of mass-extinction events and the placement of associated chronostratigraphic boundaries. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. (Less)
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author
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organization
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type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Biostratigraphy, Palynology, Asteroid, CAMP, Siberian traps, End-Triassic, End-Permian, P-T boundary, Tr-j boundary
in
Global and Planetary Change
volume
122
pages
29 - 49
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • wos:000345488600004
  • scopus:84906508150
ISSN
1872-6364
DOI
10.1016/j.gloplacha.2014.07.014
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
fe670478-52ad-4f63-8ac1-1788f9599469 (old id 4979612)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 11:03:32
date last changed
2022-04-20 08:39:58
@article{fe670478-52ad-4f63-8ac1-1788f9599469,
  abstract     = {{Changes in pollen and spore assemblages across the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary elucidate the vegetation response to a global environmental crisis triggered by an asteroid impact in Mexico 66 Ma. The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary clay, associated with the Chicxulub asteroid impact event, constitutes a unique, global marker bed enabling comparison of the world-wide palynological signal spanning the mass extinction event. The data from both hemispheres are consistent, revealing diverse latest Cretaceous assemblages of pollen and spores that were affected by a major diversity loss as a consequence of the K-Pg event. Here we combine new results with past studies to provide an integrated global perspective of the terrestrial vegetation record across the K-Pg boundary. We further apply the K-Pg event as a template to asses the causal mechanism behind other major events in Earths history. The end-Permian, end-Triassic, and the K-Pg mass-extinctions were responses to different causal processes that resulted in essentially similar succession of decline and recovery phases, although expressed at different temporal scales. The events share a characteristic pattern of a bloom of opportunistic "crisis" tax followed by a pulse in pioneer communities, and finally a recovery in diversity including evolution of new taxa. Based on their similar extinction and recovery patterns and the fact that the Last and First Appearance Datums associated with the extinctions are separated in time, we recommend using the K-Pg event as a model and to use relative abundance data for the stratigraphic definition of mass-extinction events and the placement of associated chronostratigraphic boundaries. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.}},
  author       = {{Vajda, Vivi and Bercovici, Antoine}},
  issn         = {{1872-6364}},
  keywords     = {{Biostratigraphy; Palynology; Asteroid; CAMP; Siberian traps; End-Triassic; End-Permian; P-T boundary; Tr-j boundary}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{29--49}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Global and Planetary Change}},
  title        = {{The global vegetation pattern across the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction interval: A template for other extinction events}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2014.07.014}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.gloplacha.2014.07.014}},
  volume       = {{122}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}