title: Flourishing ocean drives the end-Permian marine mass extinction.
abstract: The end-Permian mass extinction, the most severe biotic crisis in the Phanerozoic, was accompanied by climate change and expansion of oceanic anoxic zones. The partitioning of sulfur among different exogenic reservoirs by biological and physical processes was of importance for this biodiversity crisis, but the exact role of bioessential sulfur in the mass extinction is still unclear. Here we show that globally increased production of organic matter affected the seawater sulfate sulfur and oxygen isotope signature that has been recorded in carbonate rock spanning the Permian-Triassic boundary. A bifurcating temporal trend is observed for the strata spanning the marine mass extinction with carbonate-associated sulfate sulfur and oxygen isotope excursions toward decreased and increased values, respectively. By coupling these results to a box model, we show that increased marine productivity and successive enhanced microbial sulfate reduction is the most likely scenario to explain these temporal trends. The new data demonstrate that worldwide expansion of euxinic and anoxic zones are symptoms of increased biological carbon recycling in the marine realm initiated by global warming. The spatial distribution of sulfidic water column conditions in shallow seafloor environments is dictated by the severity and geographic patterns of nutrient fluxes and serves as an adequate model to explain the scale of the marine biodiversity crisis. Our results provide evidence that the major biodiversity crises in Earth's history do not necessarily implicate an ocean stripped of (most) life but rather the demise of certain eukaryotic organisms, leading to a decline in species richness.
authors.affiliation: Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, D-10115 Berlin, Germany; schobbenmartin@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schobben
authors.affiliation: School for the Environment, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA 02125;
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stebbins
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology, Faculty of Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, 9177948974 Mashhad, Iran;
authors.forename: Abbas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghaderi
authors.affiliation: Institut für Geologie und Paläontologie, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, D-48149 Münster, Germany;
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Strauss
authors.affiliation: Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, D-10115 Berlin, Germany;
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Korn
authors.affiliation: Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, DK-1350, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Korte
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa; D044822:Biodiversity; D002119:Calcium Carbonate; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry; D057486:Carbon Cycle; D002980:Climate; D057231:Climate Change; D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment; D053476:Extinction, Biological; D005246:Feedback; D005580:Fossils; D005843:Geography; D007448:Invertebrates; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D010100:Oxygen / Q000737:chemistry; D012623:Seawater / Q000737:chemistry; D013431:Sulfates / Q000737:chemistry; D013440:Sulfides / Q000737:chemistry; D013455:Sulfur / Q000737:chemistry; D014887:Weather
chemical_list: D013431:Sulfates; D013440:Sulfides; D013455:Sulfur; D002244:Carbon; D002119:Calcium Carbonate; D010100:Oxygen
keywords: end-Permian mass extinction; primary productivity; sulfur cycle