Prelude of benthic community collapse during the end-Permian mass extinction in siliciclastic offshore sub-basin: Brachiopod evidence from South China

doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2018.02.010

Global and Planetary Change

Volume 163, April 2018, Pages 158-170

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2018.02.010 Get rights and content

Highlights

•
Palaeocommunity turnover of brachiopod from basinal facies occurred in the upper part of the Clarkina changxingensis Zone.
•
Palaeocommunity diversity and brachiopod body size decreased during this turnover.
•
The dominant taxa of brachiopod palaeocommunity changed to more competitive genus during this turnover.
•
The palaeocommunity turnover was triggered by the decreased marine primary productivity and increased volcanic activity.

Abstract

Analysis of the Permian–Triassic palaeocommunities from basinal facies in South China provides an insight into the environmental deterioration occurring in the prelude to the mass extinction event. Quantitative and multivariate analyses on three brachiopod palaeocommunities from the Changhsingian to the earliest Triassic in basinal facies in South China have been undertaken in this study. Although the end-Permian extinction has been proved to be a one-stepped event, ecological warning signals appeared in the palaeocommunities long before the main pulse of the event. A brachiopod palaeocommunity turnover occurred in the upper part of the Clarkina changxingensis Zone, associated with a significant decrease of palaeocommunity diversity and brachiopod body size. During this turnover the dominant genera changed from Fusichonetes and Crurithyris (or/and Paracrurithyris) to the more competitive genus Crurithyris (or/and Paracrurithyris). The brachiopod palaeocommunity turnover was supposed to be triggered by the decreased marine primary productivity and increased volcanic activity. Moreover, such early warning signals are found not only in the deep-water siliceous facies, but also in the shallow-water clastic facies and carbonate rock facies in South China.

Introduction

The end-Permian mass extinction, caused the demise of over 90% of all marine taxa and 70% of all terrestrial taxa (Sepkoski, 1981; Erwin, 1993, Erwin, 1994; Jin et al., 2000; Xiong and Wang, 2011). It also caused a significant change in palaeoecosystem structure – from the Palaeozoic-type communities to the Mesozoic–Cenozoic-type communities (e.g., dominance of marine benthonic organisms from brachiopod fauna to molluscan fauna) (Gould and Calloway, 1980; Sepkoski, 1981; Fraiser and Bottjer, 2007; Chen and Benton, 2012; Payne et al., 2014). A considerable, and still expanding, body of literature has been devoted to the causes, patterns and timing of the mass extinction event itself (e.g., Knoll et al., 2007; Shen et al., 2011; Yin et al., 2012; Sun et al., 2012; Burgess et al., 2014; Song et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2014) and ecosystem reconstruction in the aftermath (e.g., Twitchett et al., 2004; Payne, 2005; Chen et al., 2005a, Chen et al., 2007; Brayard et al., 2006; Chen et al., 2010; Pietsch and Bottjer, 2010; Algeo et al., 2011; Dineen et al., 2014; Foster and Twitchett, 2014; Petsios and Bottjer, 2016).

The end-Permian extinction has been proved to be a short-time event and happen between 251.941 ± 0.037 Mya and 251.880 ± 0.031 Mya (Shen et al., 2011; Burgess et al., 2014). There has been limited research on the palaeocommunities during the pre-extinction interval before the end-Permian mass extinction (Shen and Shi, 1996; Wang and Sugiyama, 2000). Recently, a section-based case study reported the benthic palaeocommunity transition in the pre-extinction interval (Changhsingian) in the nearshore clastic-shelf Zhongzhai section of South China (Zhang et al., 2017). This kind of study on the marine palaeocommunity change prior to the end-Permian mass extinction, especially on section-based quantitative fossil data from varied depositional environments, could provide a new perspective for the mechanism of the mass extinction event.

Herein, this study aims to investigate:

1)
if the pre-extinction benthic palaeocommunity transition also occurred in siliciclastic offshore sub-basin;
2)
when the pre-extinction benthic palaeocommunity transition occurred (in which conodont zone);
3)
the potential causes of pre-extinction benthic palaeocommunity transition in siliciclastic offshore sub-basin.

This section-based study presents the turnover of benthic brachiopod palaeocommunities from the Changhsingian (latest Permian) to the earliest Triassic at a high stratigraphic resolution (based on conodont and ammonoid biostratigraphy and eventostratigraphy). The comprehensive, statistical analyses of the brachiopod fossil data and the refined stratigraphic correlation contribute significantly to our understanding of the end-Permian mass extinction event. It also contributes to our knowledge on the environmental deterioration affecting the marine palaeocommunity transition prior to the mass extinction, and finally leading up to the major crisis itself.

Section snippets

Depositional setting and age correlation

Palaeogeographically, the South China Basin was divided into deep-water siliceous sub-basin, shallow-water carbonate platform and shallow-water clastic shelf in the Lopingian (Fig. 1.4; Yang et al., 1987; Feng et al., 1997). The deep-water sub-basin of South China is mainly distributed in Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangxi Province and Chongqing (Fig. 1.4), and is characterised by grey black thin-bedded siliceous mudstone and shale, intercalated with muddy limestone. It predominantly

Materials and methods

Brachiopods analysed in this paper were systematically sampled at regular stratigraphical intervals throughout the three studied sections. There were 3390 brachiopod specimens collected from the upper Dalong Formation to the lower Yinkeng Formation at MJS, 2209 brachiopod specimens collected from the upper Dalong Formation to the lower Daye Formation at RCP and 3598 brachiopod specimens collected from the upper Dalong Formation to the lower Luolou Formation at XM (Fig. 1, Fig. 2). When counting

Division of Changhsingian brachiopod associations in three studied sections

In the Q-mode cluster analysis, samples are grouped into clusters with similar occurrence and abundance of taxa. At MJS, three associations (A, B and C) are recognised (Fig. 3). The association A is represented by samples from beds 3 to 6 (equivalent to the ammonoid Tapashanites Zone). The association B is recognised in beds 12 to 16 (equivalent to the conodont Clarkina changxingensis Zone or/and C. yini Zone). The association C is recognised in beds 18 to 20 (equivalent to the conodont

Taphonomy of brachiopod faunas from the three studied sections

The pre-burial transportation of loose shells by strong ocean currents normally only occurs along shores and in the shallow-water part of marine environments (Fagerstrom, 1964). It has been also proved that long-distance transport of skeletal remains is not very common in the basin benthic environment (Stanton Jr., 1976; Warme et al., 1976). In the three studied sections, most of the thin-shelled single valves of the dominant taxa, Fusichonetes and Crurithyris, are still very complete and not

Conclusion

In summary, our evidence suggested that the brachiopod palaeocommunity changes occurred earlier than the end-Permian mass extinction, which is consistent with the environmental deterioration prior to the main pulse of crisis in the three main sedimentary facies (including shallow-water clastic shelf, shallow-water carbonate platform and deep-water siliceous rock sub-basin) in South China. In particular, the changes of brachiopod palaeocommunity present at least three main features, as follows:

Acknowledgement

We thank G. R. Shi and Z. Q. Chen for helpful suggestions on the paper, Y. Zhang for very constructive help on revising the paper, Matthew E. Clapham and anonymous reviewers for their helpful reviews. This paper is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41772016, 41372030, 41602017, 41730320), the Ministry of Education of China (B08030 of 111 Project), the Foundation of the Geological Survey of China (No. 121201102000150012).

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For this reason, they have been extensively sampled and systematically described around the world, leading to a wealth of literature on their taxonomy and biostratigraphy, as well as excellent illustrations of a range of morphological characteristics (e.g., Chen et al., 2006; Shen and Shi, 2007; Posenato, 2011; Zhang et al., 2014; He et al., 2014, 2019; Wu et al., 2018a), enabling the characterization and measurement of shell ornament on a large spatial scale. Not surprisingly, in addition to Zhang and He (2008), several other studies have also specifically addressed the global Changhsingian brachiopod fauna as a whole, respectively connected to their global paleobiogeography (Shen et al., 2001), global nearshore–offshore body-size change patterns (Shi et al., 2016), as well as extinction and survival patterns (Chen et al., 2005; Posenato, 2009; He et al., 2015; Zhang et al., 2016; Wu et al., 2018b), but none has specifically explored the latitudinal patterns of shell ornament. In this sense, the present study may be regarded as both a complementary and a supplementary contribution to the existing knowledge concerning the global Changhsingian brachiopod fauna.
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Prelude of benthic community collapse during the end-Permian mass extinction in siliciclastic offshore sub-basin: Brachiopod evidence from South China

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Depositional setting and age correlation

Materials and methods

Division of Changhsingian brachiopod associations in three studied sections

Taphonomy of brachiopod faunas from the three studied sections

Conclusion

Acknowledgement

Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

Glob. Planet. Chang.

Earth Sci. Rev.

Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.

Chem. Geol.

Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

Chem. Geol.

Earth Sci. Rev.

Earth Sci. Rev.

Earth Sci. Rev.

Lithos

Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

Changes in the communities of Paleozoic brachiopods due to their development of their filtering system

Paleontol. J.

Large extinctions of articulate brachiopods in the Paleozoic and their ecological and evolutionary consequences

Paleontol. J.

High-precision timeline for Earth's most severe extinction

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.

Abundance-based similarity indices and their estimation when there are unseen species in samples

Biometrics

The timing and pattern of biotic recovery following the end-Permian mass extinction

Nat. Geosci.

Biodiversity: concepts, patterns, and measurement

Princeton Guide Ecol.

Early warning of critical transitions in biodiversity from compositional disorder

Ecology

The great Paleozoic crisis: life and death in the Permian

The Permo–Triassic extinction

Nature

Fossil communities in paleoecology: their recognition and significance

Geol. Soc. Am. Bull.

Mobility of phosphorus during the weathering of volcanic ashes

Lithol. Miner. Resour.

Lithofacies Paleogeography of Permian of South China

Functional diversity of marine ecosystems after the Late Permian mass extinction event

Nat. Geosci.

When bivalves took over the world

Paleobiology

Fertilizing potential of volcanic ash in ocean surface water

Geology

Clams and brachiopods-ships that pass in the night

Paleobiology

PAST: paleontological statistics software package for education and data analysis

Palaeontol. Electron.

Controls on body size during the Late Permian mass extinction event

Geobiology

Systematics and palaeoecology of Changhsingian (Late Permian) Ambocoeliidae brachiopods from South China and implications for the end-Permian mass extinction

Alcheringa

Changhsingian (latest Permian) deep-water brachiopod fauna from South China

J. Syst. Palaeontol.

Late Permian marine ecosystem collapse began in deeper waters: evidence from brachiopod diversity and body size changes

Geobiology