Stable ocean redox during the main phase of the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event
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The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE) represents the greatest increase in marine animal biodiversity ever recorded. What caused this transformation is heavily debated. One hypothesis states that rising atmospheric oxygen levels drove the biodiversification based on the premise that animals require oxygen for their metabolism. Here, we present uranium isotope data from a Middle Ordovician marine carbonate succession that shows the steepest rise in generic richness occurred with global marine redox stability. Ocean oxygenation ensued later and could not have driven the biodiversification. Stable marine anoxic zones prevailed during the maximum increase in biodiversity (Dapingian–early Darriwilian) when the life expectancy of evolving genera greatly increased. Subsequently, unstable ocean redox conditions occurred together with a marine carbon cycle disturbance and a decrease in relative diversification rates. Therefore, we propose that oceanic redox stability was a factor in facilitating the establishment of more resilient ecosystems allowing marine animal life to radiate.
Originalsprog | Engelsk |
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Artikelnummer | 220 |
Tidsskrift | Communications Earth & Environment |
Vol/bind | 3 |
Antal sider | 7 |
DOI | |
Status | Udgivet - 2022 |
Bibliografisk note
Funding Information:
We thank Xuefang Wu for laboratory assistance at Yale University during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also thank Anders Lindskog for his work and discussions on the conodont biostratigraphy. AdR and TWD acknowledge financial support from the Carlsberg Foundation through its Distinguished Associate Professor program to TWD (CF16–0876). TWD thanks the Danish Council for Independent Research (7014-00295B and 8102-00005B). CMØR is grateful for funding from GeoCenter Denmark (2015-5 and 3-2017). This is a contribution to the IGCP Project 735 ‘Rocks and the Rise of Ordovician life (Rocks n’ ROL)’. MC and RW acknowledge the Crafoord foundation (20140806) and the Royal Physiographic Society of Lund, respectively, for funding the recovery of the Kinnekulle-1 drillcore. The Department of Geology at Lund University made the drillcore available for sampling.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
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