Organic Carbon Fluxes and Ecological Recovery from the Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass Extinction

Differences between the carbon isotopic values of carbonates secreted by planktic and benthic organisms did not recover to stable preextinction levels for more than 3 million years after the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction. These decreased differences may have resulted from a smaller proportion...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 1998-10, Vol.282 (5387), p.276-279
Main Authors: D'Hondt, Steven, Donaghay, Percy, Zachos, James C., Luttenberg, Danielle, Lindinger, Matthias
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological production
Carbon
Carbonates
Cretaceous
Cretaceous period
Deep water
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Ecology
Evidence
Exact sciences and technology
Geology, Stratigraphic
Isotope geochemistry
Isotope geochemistry. Geochronology
Isotopes
Marine
Marine ecosystems
Mass extinction events
Oceanographic research
Oceans
Organic chemistry
Seas
Sediments
Species extinction
Stratigraphy
Water
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Summary:Differences between the carbon isotopic values of carbonates secreted by planktic and benthic organisms did not recover to stable preextinction levels for more than 3 million years after the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction. These decreased differences may have resulted from a smaller proportion of marine biological production sinking to deep water in the postextinction ocean. Under this hypothesis, marine production may have recovered shortly after the mass extinction, but the structure of the open-ocean ecosystem did not fully recover for more than 3 million years.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.282.5387.276