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Persistent late Permian to Early Triassic warmth linked to enhanced reverse weathering

Nature Geoscience volume 15, pages 832–838 (2022)Cite this article

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A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 26 October 2022

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Abstract

In the Precambrian, reverse weathering—a process consuming oceanic silica, metal cations and alkalinity to form marine clays—was a key control of the long-term carbon cycle. However, the appearance of marine silicifiers decreased the importance of this process in regulating climate in the Phanerozoic eon. Here, we present seawater lithium and strontium isotope records derived from bulk carbonates and fossil brachiopods spanning the Permian to Early Triassic, an interval of pronounced climatic fluctuations and widespread extinctions. We show that the lithium isotope composition of seawater remained constant for most of the Permian until a sharp decrease in the late Permian (~254 Myr ago) with low seawater Li isotope values (~10‰) persisting throughout the Early Triassic. Based on box modelling, changes in chemical weathering and hydrothermal fluxes are unable to explain the abrupt decline in seawater Li isotopes. Rather, increased lithium output fluxes through enhanced reverse weathering are required to produce the low Li isotope values of the late Permian and Early Triassic (253–247 Myr ago). Increased reverse weathering rates could explain the failure of chemical weathering to draw down atmospheric CO2 levels during the Early Triassic, leading to protracted biotic recovery from the Permian–Triassic mass extinction.

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Fig. 1: Palaeogeographic maps of study areas.
Fig. 2: Strontium and lithium isotope compositions in seawater reconstructed in this study and compiled from the literature with chronology of tectonic, climatic and biological events occurring during the Permian and Early Triassic.
Fig. 3: Conceptual reconstruction of the marine Li isotope budget during five critical time periods when large δ7Li fluctuations occurred.

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Acknowledgements

We thank W. Li for help with Li chromatography and L. Godfrey for assisting with part of Li isotope analysis at the Rutgers University. We thank R. Mills, Q. Zhong Y. An for their help with Sr isotope analysis. We also appreciate M. Liu and Z. Zhu for helping with modelling learning, and S. Shen for helpful discussion. C.C. acknowledges funding from NSFC (grant 41991321) and the Martin Graduate Research Fund from the Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. X.-M.L. acknowledges funding support from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. H.S. acknowledges funding provided by the NSFC (grant 41821001). Z.Z. acknowledges funding provided by the NSFC (grant 41873002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Cheng Cao & Xiao-Ming Liu

  2. Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Surficial Geochemistry, School of Geological Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

    Cheng Cao

  3. Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Clément P. Bataille

  4. State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China

    Haijun Song

  5. School of Earth Sciences, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Matthew R. Saltzman

  6. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

    Kate Tierney Cramer

  7. School of Ocean Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, China

    Huaichun Wu

  8. State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing, China

    Huaichun Wu

  9. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Christoph Korte

  10. International Center for Planetary Science, College of Earth Sciences, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, China

    Zhaofeng Zhang

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Contributions

X-M.L. and C.P.B. designed the research; H.S., H.W, K.T.C., C.K. and M.R.S. provided rock samples; C.C., C.P.B. and Z. Z. performed geochemical analysis; C.C., X-M. L. and C.P.B. wrote the paper with contributions from all co-authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiao-Ming Liu.

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Nature Geoscience thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary Handling Editor(s): James Super, in collaboration with the Nature Geoscience team.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Stratigraphic record of the five studied sections with associated age model and geochemical records (δ7Li, δ13C).

The stratigraphy and biozones in the sections Ninemile, Rockland Ridge, Tieqiao are from34,35,81. Stratigraphy, U-Pb ages and carbon isotope record in the Shangsi section are from36. Stratigraphy of the Shanggang section are unpublished data from29. Error bars represent long term precision (2 SD) of 1.1‰ for δ7Li measurements at UNC-Chapel Hill and calculated 2 SD for repeatedly measured δ7Li values (Supplementary Data Table 1). Skull and crossbone silhouette extracted from www.flaticon.com.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–12 and Supplementary Discussion.

Supplementary Table 1

Geochemical data generated in this study.

Supplementary Table 2

Compiled Sr isotope ratios reported in conodonts and brachiopods.

Supplementary Table 3

Long-term Li isotope measurement of geologic reference materials NIST-1d and JG-2.

Supplementary Table 4

Semi-quantitative mineralogy of samples analysed in this study based on XRD.

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Cao, C., Bataille, C.P., Song, H. et al. Persistent late Permian to Early Triassic warmth linked to enhanced reverse weathering. Nat. Geosci. 15, 832–838 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-01009-x

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