A systems analysis of the physiological and geochemical processes involved was presented, …

• Abstract
• A Systems Analysis of Plants and CO2
• Paleozoic Carbon Cycle Feedbacks
• End-Triassic Carbon Cycle Feedbacks
• Conclusions
• References
• Figures

Biology Articles » Evolutionary Biology » Feedbacks and the coevolution of plants and atmospheric CO2 » End-Triassic Carbon Cycle Feedbacks

End-Triassic Carbon Cycle Feedbacks

- Feedbacks and the coevolution of plants and atmospheric CO2

End-Triassic Carbon Cycle Feedbacks 

Our identified PFLs also likely enhanced rising CO₂ levels during the Triassic–Jurassic boundary carbon cycle perturbation (22–25) (200 million years ago), associated with the eruption of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province. End-Triassic to earliest Jurassic ultra-greenhouse conditions drove the global replacement of large-leaved forest taxa with those possessing narrow or highly dissected leaves (26, 27), as the former suffered probable thermal damage due to an inability to effectively shed excess latent heat to the atmosphere (24) (pathway a-b-c-d). The very hot, arid climate and physiologically challenging CO₂ levels (several thousand ppm) (24, 25) conceivably then curbed primary production and limited organic carbon burial, leading to further increases in atmospheric CO₂. Under these circumstances, stabilization of the rise in CO₂ depends on the greenhouse-weathering negative feedback, as reflected in a marked negative osmium isotope shift in marine strata (23).