Journal
PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY
Volume 392, Issue -, Pages 272-280Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.09.008
Keywords
Mass extinction; Atmospheric oxygen; Combustion; Soil erosion; Devonian
Funding
- Global Center of Excellence Program on Global Education and Research Center for Earth and Planetary Dynamics at Tohoku University
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [12J07767, 25247084] Funding Source: KAKEN
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The Late Devonian mass extinction occurred in a stepwise manner and culminated close to the Frasnian-Famennian (F-F) boundary (372 million years ago). Organic-molecular indices from marine sedimentary rocks at the Sinsin section, Belgium, indicate that the sequence of combustion of land vegetation, soil erosion, and anoxia-euxinia occurred close to this boundary. The increased concentrations of biomarkers indicating forest fire and soil erosion measured in the Sinsin section suggest that fire became widespread at this time, leading to various damaging consequences (increased runoff and oceanic anoxia) that caused marine extinctions. Magnetic susceptibility data in the Sinsin section indicate a relatively dry climate spanning the F-F boundary, which would have encouraged forest fires. The study of organic biomarkers presents several lines of evidence to link forest fire and soil erosion to the Late Devonian mass extinction. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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