Longer-term terrestrial responses in the aftermath of the end-Cretaceous
mass extinction
Abstract
Mass-extinction with instantaneous and short-term effects on extreme
climate and deteriorated ocean environment across the
Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary (K/PgB) has been verified by an array of
geological records, however, a longer-term (~100−1000
Kyr) post-K/PgB variation remain poorly understood, particularly due to
the scarcity of terrestrial records. This study presents carbon isotope
analyses of pedogenic carbonates in the Nanxiong Basin, South China to
reconstruct carbon cycles and atmospheric CO2 concentrations (pCO2)
spanning 70.0–62.0 Ma. Combined with data from Songliao Basin (China)
and Tornillo Basin (USA), δ13C displays a post-K/PgB (66.0-64.5 Ma)
vibration that is correlative to the surface ocean but mirroring to the
bottom ocean. The vibration shows a pattern of collapse and smooth
towards rebound, constituting a process of ~400 Kyr
(millennia) deterioration, ~300 Kyr stabilization and
~800 Kyr recovery for the longer-term ecosystem and
environment. A similar pattern is observed for the reconstructed pCO2,
correlating to changes of sea surface temperature (SST) but contrasting
bottom water temperature (BWT). With the discrepancy of longer-term
proxy variations, it is proposed that ecosystems and environments in
terrestrial and surface ocean had experienced a more unstable, difficult
and erratic recovery process and were much more sensitive to climatic
changes than in deep ocean for ~1.5 million years in the
aftermath of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. In addition, the
decoupling of proxy variations from expected effects implies Deccan
volcanism and Chicxulub impact may not have played a key role in the
longer-term CO2 perturbation and environmental change following the
K/PgB.