Earth system instability amplified biogeochemical oscillations following the end-Permian mass extinction
Zi-Heng Li,
Timothy M. Lenton,
Fei-Fei Zhang,
Zhong-Qiang Chen () and
Stuart J. Daines
Additional contact information
Zi-Heng Li: China University of Geosciences
Timothy M. Lenton: University of Exeter
Fei-Fei Zhang: Nanjing University
Zhong-Qiang Chen: China University of Geosciences
Stuart J. Daines: University of Exeter
Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-9
Abstract:
Abstract After the end-Permian mass extinction, the Earth system underwent extreme ecological and environmental fluctuations, including high temperatures, recurrent oceanic anoxia, and carbon cycle oscillations as demonstrated by the geochemical isotope proxy records. However, the underlying mechanism behind these oscillations remains poorly understood. Here we propose that they were produced by a coupled oscillation mode of marine phosphorus (P) and atmosphere–ocean carbon (A), driven by nonlinear redox controls on marine phosphorus burial. Our modeling demonstrates that the initial emplacement of the Siberian Traps and the mass extinction (on land and in the ocean) directly led to an early Triassic greenhouse. More importantly, it homogenized the ocean floor redox condition towards anoxia, activating amplifying feedbacks and destabilizing the system. The internal dynamics of an unstable system—rather than recurrent volcanic shocks—triggered the periodic oscillations (limit cycles) of serial excursions in carbonate carbon and uranium isotopes during the early Triassic.
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59038-0 Abstract (text/html)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-59038-0
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-59038-0
Access Statistics for this article
Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie
More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().