Global coal gap between Permian–Triassic extinction and Middle Triassic recovery of peat-forming plants

Retallack, Gregory J.; Veevers, J. J.; Morante, Richard

doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1996)108<0195:gcgbpt>2.3.co;2

Cited by 351 publications

(191 citation statements)

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“…Also, the 7 Myr 'coal gap' is the result of an insufficient amount of plant material to form coal deposits, and hence little food for large browsing animals. Permian levels of plant diversity were not reached again until the Late Triassic (230 Myr ago; Retallack et al 1996). Tracking diet proportions through the first five stages of the Triassic shows a clear trend towards reaching a pre-extinction balance of communities dominated by predators and browsers with a smaller proportion of piscivores and insectivores ( figure 3b).…”

Section: Across the Permo-triassic Boundary: Ecosystem Restructuring mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Globally, this type of recovery happened quickly after the end-Permian event by the Olenekian (250-245 Myr ago), but then the diversity fell again (figure 1), either as a result of displaced disaster taxa that had filled empty guilds or the devastation caused by another extinction pulse at the end of the Olenekian. In contrast, the ecological recovery of tetrapods and plants was slow, and lost guilds and trophic levels were not readily refilled (Retallack et al 1996;Benton et al 2004;Grauvogel-Stamm & Ash 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Recovery from the most profound mass extinction of all time

2008

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The end-Permian mass extinction, 251 million years (Myr) ago, was the most devastating ecological event of all time, and it was exacerbated by two earlier events at the beginning and end of the Guadalupian, 270 and 260 Myr ago. Ecosystems were destroyed worldwide, communities were restructured and organisms were left struggling to recover. Disaster taxa, such as Lystrosaurus, insinuated themselves into almost every corner of the sparsely populated landscape in the earliest Triassic, and a quick taxonomic recovery apparently occurred on a global scale. However, close study of ecosystem evolution shows that true ecological recovery was slower. After the end-Guadalupian event, faunas began rebuilding complex trophic structures and refilling guilds, but were hit again by the end-Permian event. Taxonomic diversity at the alpha (community) level did not recover to pre-extinction levels; it reached only a low plateau after each pulse and continued low into the Late Triassic. Our data showed that though there was an initial rise in cosmopolitanism after the extinction pulses, large drops subsequently occurred and, counter-intuitively, a surprisingly low level of cosmopolitanism was sustained through the Early and Middle Triassic.

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Section: Across the Permo-triassic Boundary: Ecosystem Restructuring mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recovery from the most profound mass extinction of all time

2008

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“…In conjunction with the end-Permian ecological crisis, extinction among dominant gymnosperms appears to be a global event that dramatically affected terrestrial ecosystems. Justified by worldwide changes in vegetation structure and soil characteristics, as well as by strongly increased fungal activity, dieback of woody vegetation caused an unparalleled loss of standing biomass irrespective of floral provinciality and climatic zonation (29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34). However, because of the condensed or otherwise incomplete nature of most end-Permian palynological records, vegetation development at the climax of ecological crisis could be inferred only in very general terms.…”

Section: End-permian Floral Extinction Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life in the end-Permian dead zone

Looy

Twitchett²,

Dilcher³

et al. 2001

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

237

112

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The fossil record of land plants is an obvious source of information on the dynamics of mass extinctions in the geological past. In conjunction with the end-Permian ecological crisis, Ϸ250 million years ago, palynological data from East Greenland reveal some unanticipated patterns. We document the significant time lag between terrestrial ecosystem collapse and selective extinction among characteristic Late Permian plants. Furthermore, ecological crisis resulted in an initial increase in plant diversity, instead of a decrease. Paradoxically, these floral patterns correspond to a ''dead zone'' in the end-Permian faunal record, characterized by a paucity of marine invertebrate megafossils. The time-delayed, end-Permian plant extinctions resemble modeled ''extinction debt'' responses of multispecies metapopulations to progressive habitat destruction.

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“…The occurrence of these substantial coal deposits 200 million years after the undisputed evolution of wood-rotting fungi sharply conflicts with the evolutionary lag model (132). Although at least some coal has accumulated at nearly all times since the evolution of vascular plants (133), the only time a wet tropics has coincided with globally extensive low-latitude foreland basin-like depositional systems over the last 400 million years has been during the Carboniferous assembly of Pangea. The magnitude of Carboniferous−Permian coal production was not a product of increased plant lignin content coupled with the delayed evolution of lignin-degrading fungi but rather a unique confluence of climate and tectonics.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delayed fungal evolution did not cause the Paleozoic peak in coal production

Nelsen

DiMichele

Peters

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

114

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Organic carbon burial plays a critical role in Earth systems, influencing atmospheric O 2 and CO 2 concentrations and, thereby, climate. The Carboniferous Period of the Paleozoic is so named for massive, widespread coal deposits. A widely accepted explanation for this peak in coal production is a temporal lag between the evolution of abundant lignin production in woody plants and the subsequent evolution of lignin-degrading Agaricomycetes fungi, resulting in a period when vast amounts of lignin-rich plant material accumulated. Here, we reject this evolutionary lag hypothesis, based on assessment of phylogenomic, geochemical, paleontological, and stratigraphic evidence. Lignin-degrading Agaricomycetes may have been present before the Carboniferous, and lignin degradation was likely never restricted to them and their class II peroxidases, because lignin modification is known to occur via other enzymatic mechanisms in other fungal and bacterial lineages. Furthermore, a large proportion of Carboniferous coal horizons are dominated by unlignified lycopsid periderm with equivalent coal accumulation rates continuing through several transitions between floral dominance by lignin-poor lycopsids and lignin-rich tree ferns and seed plants. Thus, biochemical composition had little relevance to coal accumulation. Throughout the fossil record, evidence of decay is pervasive in all organic matter exposed subaerially during deposition, and high coal accumulation rates have continued to the present wherever environmental conditions permit. Rather than a consequence of a temporal decoupling of evolutionary innovations between fungi and plants, Paleozoic coal abundance was likely the result of a unique combination of everwet tropical conditions and extensive depositional systems during the assembly of Pangea.lignin | carbon cycle | wood rot | fungi | lignin degradation

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Global coal gap between Permian–Triassic extinction and Middle Triassic recovery of peat-forming plants

Cited by 351 publications

References 0 publications

Recovery from the most profound mass extinction of all time

Recovery from the most profound mass extinction of all time

Life in the end-Permian dead zone

Delayed fungal evolution did not cause the Paleozoic peak in coal production

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