Multiple Organic Carbon Isotope Reversals across the Permo‐Triassic Boundary of Terrestrial Gondwana Sequences: Clues to Extinction Patterns and Delayed Ecosystem Recovery

• Published in: The Journal of geology 2002-03, Vol.110 (2), p.227-240
• Main Authors: de Wit, Maarten J., Ghosh, Joy G., de Villiers, Stephanie, Rakotosolofo, Nicolas, Alexander, James, Tripathi, Archana, Looy, Cindy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Atmospherics; Biomass production; Carbon dioxide; Carbon isotopes; Carbonates; Coal; Methane; Oceans; Oxidation; Palynology
• ISSN: 0022-1376; 1537-5269
• DOI: 10.1086/338411

Organic materials across the palynologically defined Permian‐Triassic (P‐T) boundary from five major terrestrial basins in the interior of the former Gondwana Supercontinent show large to very large (5‰–15‰) multiple negative spikes of δ13C, separated in places by sharp reversals of up to 20‰. Large oscillations of δ13Corgbetween −36‰ and −15‰ from mean values of ∼ \documentclass{aastex} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{bm} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pifont} \usepackage{stmaryrd} \usepackage{textcomp} \usepackage{portland,xspace} \usepackage{amsmath,amsxtra} \usepackage[OT2,OT1]{fontenc} \newcommand\cyr{ \renewcommand\rmdefault{wncyr} \renewcommand\sfdefault{wncyss} \renewcommand\encodingdefault{OT2} \normalfont \selectfont} \DeclareTextFontCommand{\textcyr}{\cyr} \pagestyle{empty} \DeclareMathSizes{10}{9}{7}{6} \begin{document} \landscape $24\pm 2$ \end{document} in India, ∼ \documentclass{aastex} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{bm} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pifont} \usepackage{stmaryrd} \usepackage{textcomp} \usepackage{portland,xspace} \usepackage{amsmath,amsxtra} \usepackage[OT2,OT1]{fontenc} \newcommand\cyr{ \renewcommand\rmdefault{wncyr} \renewcommand\sfdefault{wncyss} \renewcommand\encodingdefault{OT2} \normalfont \selectfont} \DeclareTextFontCommand{\textcyr}{\cyr} \pagestyle{empty} \DeclareMathSizes{10}{9}{7}{6} \begin{document} \landscape $26\pm 2$ \end{document} in Madagascar, and ∼ \documentclass{aastex} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{bm} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pifont} \usepackage{stmaryrd} \usepackage{textcomp} \usepackage{portland,xspace} \usepackage{amsmath,amsxtra} \usepackage[OT2,OT1]{fontenc} \newcommand\cyr{ \renewcommand\rmdefault{wncyr} \renewcommand\sfdefault{wncyss} \renewcommand\encodingdefault{OT2} \normalfont \selectfont} \DeclareTextFontCommand{\textcyr}{\cyr} \pagestyle{empty} \DeclareMathSizes{10}{9}{7}{6} \begin{document} \landscape $23\pm 2$ \end{document} in South Africa occur before and after the P‐T transition. The mean values are within the range of modern C3 plants (∼−25‰). The negative δ13Corgspikes of the terrestrial plant remains complement similar spikes of smaller amplitude recorded globally in marine carbonates across the P‐T boundary. Sensitivity analyses of carbon fluxes in a coupled atmosphere‐ocean system indicate that the sharp declines in terrestrial and ma