Earth-Life Transitions: Linked geochemical/biotic response to massive volcanic CO2 injection during the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction

大气二氧化碳上升是最紧迫的社会和科学问题之一，但未来对系统行为的预测往往严重依赖于模型而不是数据。地球在2亿年前经历了一次非常相关的类比实验，这个项目试图从那次实验中学习和提炼。与三叠纪-侏罗纪(T-J)界线相关的二氧化碳释放估计以与现在相当的速度上升(由于中大西洋岩浆省火山作用，CAMP)，而且很明显，它与大灭绝有关。值得注意的是，与其他大规模灭绝相比，居住在今天海洋中的动物代表所谓的现代动物群优先受到T-J事件的负面影响，这使得T-J事件可能是与当今高二氧化碳水平对生物系统的影响最相关的大规模灭绝。T-J事件可以说是中生代大规模灭绝中研究最少的，它代表了一个没有得到充分利用的机会，可以研究在地质上迅速向地球系统注入二氧化碳的情况。这种二氧化碳脉冲的结果是可以量化的，并将有助于建立系统对间断扰动的反应的新模型。PI认为，使用新的地球化学示踪剂进行风化和氧化还原，再加上生物相分析，将导致我们对此类事件的认识发生范式转变。这些代理将提供一个新的模型，将固体地球模型、碳循环模型和生态模型联系起来。这个项目将有助于阐明影响现代动物的最重大的大灭绝的细节。此外，为T-J事件开发的新模型将与其他大灭绝相关，包括正在进行的人类世事件。

Atmospheric CO2 rise is one of the most pressing societal and scientific issues, but future projections ofsystem behavior often rely heavily on models rather than data. Earth underwent a very relevant analogexperiment 200 million years ago, and this project seeks to learn and abstract from that experiment. TheCO2 release associated with the Triassic-Jurassic (T-J) boundary is estimated to have risen at a ratecomparable to the present-day (as a result of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province volcanism, CAMP),and tellingly, it was associated with a mass extinction. Notably, representatives of the fauna that inhabitstoday's seas, the so-called modern fauna were preferentially negatively affected by the T-J event versus other mass extinctions, making the T-J perhaps the most relevant mass extinction with respect to the present-day impact of high CO2 levels on the biosystem. The T-J event is arguably the least studied of the mass extinctions that frame the Mesozoic, and itrepresents an underutilized opportunity to investigate a geologically rapid injection of CO2 into the Earthsystem. The results of this CO2 pulse are quantifiable, and will serve to establish new models of systemresponse to punctuated perturbations. The PIs believe that using novel geochemical tracers forweathering and redox, coupled with biofacies analysis, will result in a paradigm shift in our knowledge ofsuch an event. The proxies will inform a novel model that links a solid Earth model, carbon cycle model,and ecological model. This project will help to elucidate the details of the most significant mass extinctionto affect the modern fauna. Moreover, the new models developed for the T-J event will have relevance forother mass extinctions, including the ongoing Anthropocene event.