Climate warming, euxinia and carbon isotope perturbations during the Carnian (Triassic) Crisis in South China

The Carnian Humid Episode (CHE), also known as the Carnian Pluvial Event, and associated biotic changes are major enigmas of the Mesozoic record in western Tethys. We show that the CHE also occurred in eastern Tethys (South China), suggestive of a much more widespread and probably global climate perturbation. Oxygen isotope records from conodont apatite indicate a double-pulse warming event. The CHE coincided with an initial warming of 4 °C. This was followed by a transient cooling period and then a prolonged ~7 °C warming in the later Carnian (Tuvalian 2). Carbon isotope perturbations associated with the CHE of western Tethys occurred contemporaneously in South China, and mark the start of a prolonged period of carbon cycle instability that persisted until the late Carnian. The dry-wet transition during the CHE coincides with the negative carbon isotope excursion and the temperature rise, pointing to an intensification of hydrologic cycle activities due to climatic warming. While carbonate platform shutdown in western Tethys is associated with an influx of siliciclastic sediment, the eastern Tethyan carbonate platforms are overlain by deep-water anoxic facies. The transition from oxygenated to euxinic facies was via a condensed, manganiferous carbonate (MnO content up to 15.1 wt%), that records an intense Mn shuttle operating in the basin. Significant siliciclastic influx in South China only occurred after the CHE climatic changes and was probably due to foreland basin development at the onset of the Indosinian Orogeny. The mid-Carnian biotic crisis thus coincided with several phenomena associated with major extinction events: a carbonate production crisis, climate warming, δ 13 C oscillations, marine anoxia, biotic turnover and flood basalt eruptions (of the Wrangellia Large Igneous Province)

Early Carnian conodont fauna at Yongyue, Zhenfeng area and its implication for Ladinian-Carnian subdivision in Guizhou, South China

The subdivision of Ladinian and Carnian strata in Guizhou, South China has been a matter of intense debate because of the paucity of age-diagnostic faunas. Here we have carried out a detailed conodont biostratigraphic investigation on the Yangliujing, Zhuganpo and Wayao formations in the Yongyue section of western Guizhou Province. Conodonts are only prolific in the Zhuganpo and Wayao formations. Three genera and twenty species are identified, including two new species Quadralella wanlanensis n. sp. and Quadralella yongyueensis n. sp. They represent a rather endemic fauna of latest Ladinian to early Carnian age. Four conodont zones are established. They are, in the ascending order, the Paragondolella foliata, Quadralella polygnathiformis, Quadralella tadpole, and Quadralella aff. praelindae zones. Thus in the study area, the Zhuganpo Formation is generally of early Carnian (Julian 1) age whilst the Wayao Formation probably extends from the Julian 2 into the late Carnian (Tuvalian substage). The Ladinian–Carnian boundary (LCB) cannot be precisely defined due to the absence of the ammonoid Daxatina Canadensis and the paucity of conodonts. However, the LCB is unlikely lower than the Yangliujing–Zhuganpo formation contact. The Julian 1–Julian 2 (early Carnian) substages boundary is defined in the uppermost Zhuganpo Formation by the occurrence of basal Julian 2 ammonoid Austrotrachyceras ex gr. A. austriacum and is also evidenced by the disappearance of most short-range Julian 1 conodonts in the overlying Wayao Formation

Stabile Isotope (C, O) und Geochemie der Purbeck-Mikrite in Abhaengigkeit von Fazies und Diagenese (Berriasian/Schweiz und Franzoesischer Jura, Suedengland)

Available from TIB Hannover: RN 3773(119) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

Palaeoecology of Late Triassic conodonts: Constraints from oxygen isotopes in biogenic apatite

The oxygen isotopic composition of conodont apatite derived from the Late Triassic (Carnian to lower Norian), Pignola 2 and Sasso di Castalda sections in the Lagonegro Basin (Southern Apennines, Italy) was studied in order to constrain the habitat of Late Triassic conodont animals. Oxygen isotope ratios of conodonts range from 18.5 to 20.8‰ V−SMOW, which translate to palaeotemperatures ranging from 22 to 31ºC, assuming a δ18O of Triassic subtropical sea water of −0.12‰ V−SMOW. These warm temperatures, which are well comparable to those of modern subtropical−tropical oceans, along with the body features of the conodont animal suggest that conodont δ18O values reflect surface water temperatures, that the studied conodont taxa lived in near−surface waters, and that δ18O values of Late Triassic conodonts can be used for palaeoclimatic reconstructions

Vertebrate diversity reveals perturbations in faunal communities prior to the Hangenberg event in the Montagne Noire (France)

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Physical and biological events across the Frasnian\u2013Famennian boundary in oxic carbonate successions in the Carnic Alps (Italy\u2013Austria)

Two continuous carbonate sequences across the Frasnian\u2013Famennian boundary in the Carnic Alps (Italy and Austria) have been studied intensively. According to conodont data, the sampled part of the Pramosio A section (Italy), ranges from Frasnian Zone 12 to Upper trachytera Zone. Around the F\u2013F boundary this sequence, which is easily accessible for sampling, reflects a rather high sedimentation rate (centimetric scale per thousand years) in facies typical of an open shallow marine environment (shelf\u2013shore) with a well ventilated bottom. The Freikofel T section (Austria\u2013Italy border), ranging from Frasnian Zone 13a to Middle crepida Zone, is characterized by shallow-water to pelagic facies. Oxygen isotopes\u2014measured on whole-rock and on conodont apatite\u2014display conspicuous variations up-sequence conceivably corresponding to shortand medium-term climate changes

Water column anoxia, enhanced productivity, and concomitant changes in δ13C and δ34S across the Frasnian-Famennian boundary (Kowala - Holy Cross Mountains/Poland)

The investigation of the trace element and organic geochemistry of the Frasnian Famennian boundary section at Kowala (Holy Cross Mountains/Poland) shows that the lower water column was oxygen-deficient during late Frasnian and early Famennian times. The abundance and carbon isotopic composition of diaryl isoprenoids, biomarkers indicative for green sulfur bacteria, prove that euxinic waters reached into the photic zone, at least episodically. Total organic carbon (TOC) contents show two maxima that are time-equivalent to the Kellwasser horizons deposited in shallower water settings. Enhanced TOC concentrations are explained by a higher primary productivity, presumably as a consequence of an enhanced nutrient supply from the continent. The increase in the abundance of hopanes and bituminite suggests that the bacterial contribution to TOC increased at the Frasnian Famennian transition. The sulfur isotopic composition of pyritic- and organically bound sulfur shows a +27 excursion across the boundary. The observation that the 34S values of organic-bound sulfur closely resemble that of pyrite sulfur indicates a common sulfur source, likely early diagenetic sulfide. A change in the 13C of total dissolved inorganic carbon as a consequence of an enhanced burial of 12C-enriched organic carbon is indicated by a +3 excursion measured for TOC as well as for individual n-alkanes and isoprenoids. The burial of large amounts of organic carbon is expected to result in a decrease in pCO2 and should affect the photosynthetic carbon isotope fractionation (p). The fact that we observe no change in p can be explained by the circumstance that p was most probably at maximum values, as a consequence of high atmospheric and oceanic-dissolved CO2 concentrations during the Devonian