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Rapid marine oxygen variability : Driver of the Late Ordovician mass extinction

Kozik, Nevin P. ; Young, Seth A. ; Newby, Sean M. ; Liu, Mu ; Chen, Daizhao ; Hammarlund, Emma U. LU ; Bond, David P.G. ; Them, Theodore R. and Owens, Jeremy D. (2022) In Science Advances 8(46).
Abstract

The timing and connections between global cooling, marine redox conditions, and biotic turnover are underconstrained for the Late Ordovician. The second most severe mass extinction occurred at the end of the Ordovician period, resulting in ~85% loss of marine species between two extinction pulses. As the only “Big 5” extinction that occurred during icehouse conditions, this interval is an important modern analog to constrain environmental feedbacks. We present a previously unexplored thallium isotope records from two paleobasins that record global marine redox conditions and document two distinct and rapid excursions suggesting vacillating (de)oxygenation. The strong temporal link between these perturbations and extinctions highlights... (More)

The timing and connections between global cooling, marine redox conditions, and biotic turnover are underconstrained for the Late Ordovician. The second most severe mass extinction occurred at the end of the Ordovician period, resulting in ~85% loss of marine species between two extinction pulses. As the only “Big 5” extinction that occurred during icehouse conditions, this interval is an important modern analog to constrain environmental feedbacks. We present a previously unexplored thallium isotope records from two paleobasins that record global marine redox conditions and document two distinct and rapid excursions suggesting vacillating (de)oxygenation. The strong temporal link between these perturbations and extinctions highlights the possibility that dynamic marine oxygen fluctuations, rather than persistent, stable global anoxia, played a major role in driving the extinction. This evidence for rapid oxygen changes leading to mass extinction has important implications for modern deoxygenation and biodiversity declines.

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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Science Advances
volume
8
issue
46
article number
eabn8345
publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
external identifiers
  • pmid:36399571
  • scopus:85142386768
ISSN
2375-2548
DOI
10.1126/sciadv.abn8345
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Funding Information: This research was funded by the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (ACS-PRF #57487-DNI1 to S.A.Y.) and the National Science Foundation (EAR-1748635 to S.A.Y. and J.D.O.), the Sloan Research Foundation (FG-2020–13552 to J.D.O.), and the Geological Society of America, Graduate Student Research grant (to N.P.K.). D.P.G.B. acknowledges funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/J01799X/1). E.U.H. acknowledges funding from the Swedish Research Council (2019-05254). D.C. acknowledges financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 91755210). Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2022 The Authors, some rights reserved;
id
afd92df0-3bb4-4f9d-bec9-2c897debb504
date added to LUP
2022-12-30 12:55:37
date last changed
2025-03-04 07:06:59
@article{afd92df0-3bb4-4f9d-bec9-2c897debb504,
  abstract     = {{<p>The timing and connections between global cooling, marine redox conditions, and biotic turnover are underconstrained for the Late Ordovician. The second most severe mass extinction occurred at the end of the Ordovician period, resulting in ~85% loss of marine species between two extinction pulses. As the only “Big 5” extinction that occurred during icehouse conditions, this interval is an important modern analog to constrain environmental feedbacks. We present a previously unexplored thallium isotope records from two paleobasins that record global marine redox conditions and document two distinct and rapid excursions suggesting vacillating (de)oxygenation. The strong temporal link between these perturbations and extinctions highlights the possibility that dynamic marine oxygen fluctuations, rather than persistent, stable global anoxia, played a major role in driving the extinction. This evidence for rapid oxygen changes leading to mass extinction has important implications for modern deoxygenation and biodiversity declines.</p>}},
  author       = {{Kozik, Nevin P. and Young, Seth A. and Newby, Sean M. and Liu, Mu and Chen, Daizhao and Hammarlund, Emma U. and Bond, David P.G. and Them, Theodore R. and Owens, Jeremy D.}},
  issn         = {{2375-2548}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{46}},
  publisher    = {{American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)}},
  series       = {{Science Advances}},
  title        = {{Rapid marine oxygen variability : Driver of the Late Ordovician mass extinction}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abn8345}},
  doi          = {{10.1126/sciadv.abn8345}},
  volume       = {{8}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}