CO ₂ -Forced Climate and Vegetation Instability During Late Paleozoic Deglaciation

Abstract

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Atmospheric CO2concentrations during ancient greenhouse climates were similar to those predicted for A.D. 2100

“…Many recent studies indicate that ½CO 2 atm has controlled or strongly amplified Phanerozoic (542 Ma-present) climate variations (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8) and therefore understanding the relationship between ½CO 2 atm and climate over geologic time provides crucial empirical constraints on the magnitude of future global warming (1,9). Estimates of Paleozoic and Mesozoic ½CO 2 atm are largely based on the soil carbonate CO 2 paleobarometer (10), which is the most temporally continuous proxy (indicator) for ½CO 2 atm over the past 400 million years.…”

“…The CO 2 paleobarometer is also considered the most reliable provider of ½CO 2 atm estimates for times when ½CO 2 atm was significantly above modern values (11). The CO 2 paleobarometer suggests that ½CO 2 atm values exceeded 3,000 parts per million by volume (ppmV) during Permian (289-251 Ma) and Mesozoic (251-65 Ma) greenhouse climates (5,8,12). However, other ½CO 2 atm proxies, which are either considered to be less reliable at high ½CO 2 atm (stomatal index) or are newly developed and therefore less widely utilized (e.g., fossil bryophytes), typically result in ½CO 2 atm estimates for greenhouse climates that are much lower than estimates from soil carbonate (5, 6).…”

When horsetails became giants

“…As the Euramerican climate increasingly became more seasonal and dry through the late Palaeozoic in response to tectonic activity, these rainforests collapsed, eventually being replaced by seasonally dry Permian biomes [18,19]. Although the causes of this aridification remain a matter of controversy, the consensus is that this climate shift led to the fragmentation of the coal-forming forests into isolated rainforest islands surrounded by xerophytic scrubs [9,[20][21][22][23].…”

Role of sea-level change in deep water deposition along a carbonate shelf margin, Early and Middle Permian, Delaware Basin: implications for reservoir characterization

“…The stratigraphic chart was adapted from (Hawley 1983;Cohen et al 2013). International Chronostratigraphic Chart; Global sea level changes are taken from (Haq & Schutter 2008); Relative sea level changes in the Delaware Basin come from (Montanez et al 2007). …”