TY - JOUR
T1 - A forest fire and soil erosion event during the Late Devonian mass extinction
AU - Kaiho, Kunio
AU - Yatsu, Susumu
AU - Oba, Masahiro
AU - Gorjan, Paul
AU - Casier, Jean Georges
AU - Ikeda, Masayuki
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by a Global Center of Excellence Program on Global Education and Research Center for Earth and Planetary Dynamics at Tohoku University (Leader E. Ohtani) financed by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan . We thank B.S. Cramer for measuring magnetic susceptibility and T.J. Algeo and the other referees for comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.
PY - 2013/12/15
Y1 - 2013/12/15
N2 - The Late Devonian mass extinction occurred in a stepwise manner and culminated close to the Frasnian-Famennian (F-F) boundary (372. million years ago). Organic-molecular indices from marine sedimentary rocks at the Sinsin section, Belgium, indicate that the sequence of combustion of land vegetation, soil erosion, and anoxia-euxinia occurred close to this boundary. The increased concentrations of biomarkers indicating forest fire and soil erosion measured in the Sinsin section suggest that fire became widespread at this time, leading to various damaging consequences (increased runoff and oceanic anoxia) that caused marine extinctions. Magnetic susceptibility data in the Sinsin section indicate a relatively dry climate spanning the F-F boundary, which would have encouraged forest fires. The study of organic biomarkers presents several lines of evidence to link forest fire and soil erosion to the Late Devonian mass extinction. We find a forest fire and soil erosion event during the Devonian mass extinction.
AB - The Late Devonian mass extinction occurred in a stepwise manner and culminated close to the Frasnian-Famennian (F-F) boundary (372. million years ago). Organic-molecular indices from marine sedimentary rocks at the Sinsin section, Belgium, indicate that the sequence of combustion of land vegetation, soil erosion, and anoxia-euxinia occurred close to this boundary. The increased concentrations of biomarkers indicating forest fire and soil erosion measured in the Sinsin section suggest that fire became widespread at this time, leading to various damaging consequences (increased runoff and oceanic anoxia) that caused marine extinctions. Magnetic susceptibility data in the Sinsin section indicate a relatively dry climate spanning the F-F boundary, which would have encouraged forest fires. The study of organic biomarkers presents several lines of evidence to link forest fire and soil erosion to the Late Devonian mass extinction. We find a forest fire and soil erosion event during the Devonian mass extinction.
KW - Atmospheric oxygen
KW - Combustion
KW - Devonian
KW - Mass extinction
KW - Soil erosion
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U2 - 10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.09.008
DO - 10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.09.008
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84885718743
SN - 0031-0182
VL - 392
SP - 272
EP - 280
JO - Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
JF - Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
ER -
