Influence of temporally varying weatherability on CO2-climate coupling and ecosystem change in the late Paleozoic

Climate of the past

article_type

Jon D. Richey¹  Isabel P. Montañez¹  Yves Goddéris²  Cindy V. Looy³  Neil P. Griffis¹  William A. DiMichele⁵ 

[1] Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California;Géosciences Environnement Toulouse, CNRS – Université Paul Sabatier;Department of Integrative Biology and Museum of Paleontology, University of California;Berkeley Geochronology Center;Department of Paleobiology

DOI  :  10.5194/cp-16-1759-2020

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Copernicus Publications

【 摘 要 】

Earth's penultimate icehouse period, the late Paleozoic ice age (LPIA), was a time of dynamic glaciation and repeated ecosystem perturbation, which was under conditions of substantial variability in atmospheric pCO2 and O2. Improved constraints on the evolution of atmospheric pCO2 and O2∕CO2 ratios during the LPIA and its subsequent demise to permanent greenhouse conditions are crucial for better understanding the nature of linkages between atmospheric composition, climate, and ecosystem perturbation during this time. We present a new and age-recalibrated pCO2 reconstruction for a 40 Myr interval (∼313 to 273 Ma) of the late Paleozoic that (1) confirms a previously hypothesized strong CO2–glaciation linkage, (2) documents synchroneity between major pCO2 and O2∕CO2 changes and compositional turnovers in terrestrial and marine ecosystems, (3) lends support for a modeled progressive decrease in the CO2 threshold for initiation of continental ice sheets during the LPIA, and (4) indicates a likely role of CO2 and O2∕CO2 thresholds in floral ecologic turnovers. Modeling of the relative role of CO2 sinks and sources active during the LPIA and its demise on steady-state pCO2 using an intermediate-complexity climate–carbon cycle model (GEOCLIM) and comparison to the new multi-proxy CO2 record provides new insight into the relative influences of the uplift of the Central Pangean Mountains, intensifying aridification, and increasing mafic rock to granite rock ratio of outcropping rocks on the global efficiency of CO2 consumption and secular change in steady-state pCO2 through the late Paleozoic.

【 授权许可】

CC BY