Paleophysiology and End-Permian Mass Extinction

By Andrew H. Knoll, R. Bambach, Jonathan L. Payne, S. Pruss, Woodward W. Fischer. 2007

639 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Physiological research aimed at understanding current global change provides a basis for evaluating selective survivorship associated with Permo-Triassic mass extinction. Comparative physiology links paleontological and paleoenvironmental observations, supporting the hypothesis that an end-Permian trigger, most likely Siberian Trap volcanism, touched off a set of physically-linked perturbations that acted synergistically to disrupt the metabolisms of latest Permian organisms. Global warming, anoxia, and toxic sulfide probably all contributed to end-Permian mass mortality, but hypercapnia (physiological effects of elevated PCO2) best accounts for the selective survival of marine invertebrates. Paleophysiological perspectives further suggest that persistent or recurring hypercapnia/global warmth also played a principal role in delayed Triassic recovery. More generally, physiology provides an important way of paleobiological knowing in the age of Earth system science. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Subfields: Oceanography, Paleontology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/886e406ac5abd7e8c1dc2891875f232dddefda67

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Citations in the corpus

Ecosystem effects of ocean acidification in times of ocean warming: a physiologist’s view (2008, background): “…adapt to elevated CO2 concentrations, is illustrated through current discussions of a pivotal role played by CO2 and temperature oscillations in mass extinction events, e.g. during the Permian–Triassic (Knoll et al. 1996, 2007, Bambach et al. 2002, Berner 2002, Pörtner 2004, Pörtner et al. 2005).”
Mass extinctions and ocean acidification: biological constraints on geological dilemmas (2008, background): “Recently, a comprehensive palaeophysiological study clearly implicates CO2 ( Knoll et al. 2007 ), perhaps associated with the Siberian Traps, the biggest volcanic outpouring of all time.”
Integrating climate-related stressor effects on marine organisms: unifying principles linking molecule to ecosystem-level changes (2012, background): “Such categorization has been carried out by Knoll et al. (1996, 2007) and Knoll & Fischer (2011), for the Permian Triassic mass extinction event, indicating an apparent role for CO2 in line with functional differentiations between affected groups.”
Impact of CO 2 -driven ocean acidification on invertebrates early life-history - What we know, what we need to know and what we can do (2009, background): “…the predicted sensitivity based on physiology (presence/absence of calcareous skeleton and physiological buffering capacities) during the dramatic environmental changes15 suggested to be responsible for the end-Permian mass extinction (see Knoll et al., 2007), the predictors were not 100% accurate.”
Physiological basis for high CO2 tolerance in marine ectothermic animals: pre-adaptation through lifestyle and ontogeny? (2009, background): “An analogy from the past exempliﬁes this point: Knoll et al. (2007) state that selectively, more hypo-metabolic, heavily calciﬁed taxa suffered higher species losses during the Permian-Triassic mass extinction than high-metabolic taxa with more advanced circulatory systems and respiratory surfaces.”
Predicting the impact of ocean acidification on benthic biodiversity: What can animal physiology tell us? (2008, background): “Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology”
Impacts of climate change on marine organisms and ecosystems. (2009, background): “The ability of scleractinian corals to adapt to change is unclear, but modern genotypes and phenotypes probably do not have the capacity to adapt quickly enough to global climate change to guarantee local persistence [47,124] (but see [125]).”