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To heat, or not to heat, that is the question: Cretaceous environmental crises and their links to climate change
Lawrence Percival1, Philippe Claeys2, Steven Goderis2, Olivia Graham3, Emma Ownsworth4, David Naafs3, Stuart Robinson5, David Selby6, Jeroen van der Lubbe1
1Department of Earth Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands; 2Archaeology, Environmental Changes and Geo-Chemistry (AMGC), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium; 3Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, UK; 4Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, UK; 5Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, UK; 6Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, UK
The Cretaceous Period was marked by numerous episodes of transient environmental perturbation, several of which profoundly impacted global ecosystems. These events included one of the ‘Big Five’ Phanerozoic mass extinctions at the end of the Cretaceous, multiple intervals of globally widespread marine oxygen depletion (Oceanic Anoxic Events, or OAEs), and a range of other episodes of profound Earth surface change. A common factor that appears to have linked all of those times is that the environmental change was related to geologically rapid change(s) in climate. However, the nature and/or rate of climate change varied between events, and they remain debated in many cases.
This presentation gives an overview of new and published work pertaining to some of the outstanding questions and issues regarding how changes in global climate related to environmental (and/or ecosystem) degradation during the Cretaceous. A key focus is placed on events that occurred during the early–middle part of the period, and the extent and nature of their link with major volcanic activity. For example, how did carbon emissions vs basalt weathering impact global climate during the early Valanginian? Were the major Cretaceous OAEs driven by volcanic CO2 emissions and warming, or volcanic nutrients intensifying primary productivity? And either way, what was the primary source? Establishing the nuances in how Earth’s climate changed during these intervals of environmental change is key to resolving the similarities and differences of those events, and understanding the interactions between different phenomena across the Earth system during the Cretaceous Period.
