Rapid recovery of life at ground zero of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.

Autor: Lowery CM; Institute for Geophysics, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA. cmlowery@utexas.edu., Bralower TJ; Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA., Owens JD; Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science and National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA., Rodríguez-Tovar FJ; Departamento de Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain., Jones H; Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA., Smit J; Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences (FALW), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands., Whalen MT; Department of Geosciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA., Claeys P; Analytical, Environmental and Geo-Chemistry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium., Farley K; Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, MS 170-25, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA., Gulick SPS; Institute for Geophysics, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA., Morgan JV; Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK., Green S; British Geological Survey, Edinburgh, UK., Chenot E; Biogéosciences Laboratory, Université de Bourgogne-Franche Comté, Dijon, France., Christeson GL; Institute for Geophysics, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA., Cockell CS; UK Centre for Astrobiology, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK., Coolen MJL; School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, WA-Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre (WA-OIGC), Curtin University, Bentley, Western Australia, Australia., Ferrière L; Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria., Gebhardt C; Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre of Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany., Goto K; International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan., Kring DA; Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX, USA., Lofi J; Géosciences Montpellier, CNRS, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France., Ocampo-Torres R; Groupe de Physico-Chimie de l´Atmosphère, L'Institut de Chimie et Procédés pour l'Énergie, l'Environnement et la Santé (ICPEES), Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France., Perez-Cruz L; Instituto de Geofísica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma De México, Mexico City, Mexico., Pickersgill AE; School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.; Argon Isotope Facility, Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC), East Kilbride, UK., Poelchau MH; Department of Geology, University of Freiburg, Frieburg, Germany., Rae ASP; Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK., Rasmussen C; Institute for Geophysics, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA., Rebolledo-Vieyra M; Independent consultant, Cancun, Mexico., Riller U; Institut für Geologie, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany., Sato H; Ocean Resources Research Center for Next Generation, Chiba Institute of Technology, Chiba, Japan., Tikoo SM; Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA., Tomioka N; Kochi Institute for Core Sample Research, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Kochi, Japan., Urrutia-Fucugauchi J; Instituto de Geofísica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma De México, Mexico City, Mexico., Vellekoop J; Analytical, Environmental and Geo-Chemistry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium., Wittmann A; LeRoy Eyring Center for Solid State Science, Physical Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA., Xiao L; Planetary Science Institute, School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China., Yamaguchi KE; Department of Chemistry, Toho University, Chiba, Japan.; NASA Astrobiology Institute, Mountain View, CA, USA., Zylberman W; CNRS, Institut pour la Recherche et le Développement, Aix Marseille University, Marseille, France.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Nature [Nature] 2018 Jun; Vol. 558 (7709), pp. 288-291. Date of Electronic Publication: 2018 May 30.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0163-6
Abstrakt: The Cretaceous/Palaeogene mass extinction eradicated 76% of species on Earth 1,2 . It was caused by the impact of an asteroid 3,4 on the Yucatán carbonate platform in the southern Gulf of Mexico 66 million years ago 5 , forming the Chicxulub impact crater 6,7 . After the mass extinction, the recovery of the global marine ecosystem-measured as primary productivity-was geographically heterogeneous 8 ; export production in the Gulf of Mexico and North Atlantic-western Tethys was slower than in most other regions 8-11 , taking 300 thousand years (kyr) to return to levels similar to those of the Late Cretaceous period. Delayed recovery of marine productivity closer to the crater implies an impact-related environmental control, such as toxic metal poisoning 12 , on recovery times. If no such geographic pattern exists, the best explanation for the observed heterogeneity is a combination of ecological factors-trophic interactions 13 , species incumbency and competitive exclusion by opportunists 14 -and 'chance' 8,15,16 . The question of whether the post-impact recovery of marine productivity was delayed closer to the crater has a bearing on the predictability of future patterns of recovery in anthropogenically perturbed ecosystems. If there is a relationship between the distance from the impact and the recovery of marine productivity, we would expect recovery rates to be slowest in the crater itself. Here we present a record of foraminifera, calcareous nannoplankton, trace fossils and elemental abundance data from within the Chicxulub crater, dated to approximately the first 200 kyr of the Palaeocene. We show that life reappeared in the basin just years after the impact and a high-productivity ecosystem was established within 30 kyr, which indicates that proximity to the impact did not delay recovery and that there was therefore no impact-related environmental control on recovery. Ecological processes probably controlled the recovery of productivity after the Cretaceous/Palaeogene mass extinction and are therefore likely to be important for the response of the ocean ecosystem to other rapid extinction events.
Databáze: MEDLINE
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