Prolonged and gradual recovery of metazoan-algal reefs following the end-Permian mass extinction

The tempo of biotic recovery following extinction reflects the time scales of evolutionary processes and the long-term consequences of degraded ecosystems, but recovery patterns are poorly resolved. In this study, we investigated the tempo of biotic recovery by evaluating metazoan-algal reef assembl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geology (Boulder) 2023-08, Vol.51 (11), p.1011-1016
Main Authors: Kelley, Brian M, Yu Meiyi, Yu Meiyi, Lehrmann, Daniel J, Altiner, Demir, Payne, Jonathan L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algae
algal blooms
Asia
Biodiversity
Biostratigraphy
calcareous algae
carbon
Carbon cycle
carbonate platforms
Carbonates
China
Conservation
Corals
degradation
Ecosystem degradation
Ecosystem recovery
Ecosystems
Environmental conditions
Extinction
Far East
geochemical cycle
Great Bank of Guizhou
Lower Triassic
Marine ecosystems
marine environment
Marine invertebrates
Mass extinctions
Mesozoic
Metazoa
microfossils
Nanpanjiang Basin
Permian
Perturbation
Petrography
Petrology
Platforms (geology)
Recovery
Reefs
Satellite imagery
shallow-water environment
South China Block
Spathian
Stratigraphy
Triassic
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Summary:The tempo of biotic recovery following extinction reflects the time scales of evolutionary processes and the long-term consequences of degraded ecosystems, but recovery patterns are poorly resolved. In this study, we investigated the tempo of biotic recovery by evaluating metazoan-algal reef assembly following the end-Permian mass extinction. We combined satellite imagery analysis, field mapping, biostratigraphy, and quantitative petrography to assess recovery in the oldest-known and most stratigraphically extensive Lower to Middle Triassic platform-margin reef. The reef occurs in upper Spathian (upper Lower Triassic) to upper Anisian (lower Middle Triassic) strata of the Great Bank of Guizhou (GBG) isolated carbonate platform in south China. Previous work suggests that metazoan-algal reefs were absent for 8-10 m.y. following extinction but were biologically diverse from their Pelsonian (middle Anisian) initiation. This pattern implies that reefs can reassemble rapidly (
ISSN:0091-7613
1943-2682
DOI:10.1130/G51058.1