'Great Dying' wiped out 90% of life, then came 5M years of lethal heat
10 months ago
- #carbon cycle
- #mass extinction
- #climate change
- The 'Great Dying' mass extinction event occurred around 252 million years ago, wiping out 90% of life on Earth.
- The planet remained lethally hot for 5 million years after the event, a phenomenon that puzzled scientists.
- Researchers attribute the prolonged heat to the collapse of tropical forests, which reduced the planet's ability to store carbon.
- The study used fossil data from China to reconstruct past climate conditions and vegetation maps.
- Loss of vegetation during the extinction event significantly reduced carbon storage, leaving high levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.
- Forests play a crucial role in carbon cycling and silicate weathering, processes that remove carbon from the atmosphere.
- The research suggests a climate tipping point where forest loss becomes irreversible on ecological time scales.
- The findings warn of potential future consequences if current rainforests collapse due to global warming.
- Even if human carbon emissions stop, the Earth may not cool, and warming could accelerate.
- Current tropical forests might be more resilient to high temperatures than those before the Great Dying, offering some hope.