The link between massive flood basalt volcanism and the end-Triassic (201 million years ago) mass-extinction is commonly accepted. However, exactly how volcanism led to the collapse of ecosystems and the extinction of entire families of organisms is difficult to establish. Extreme climate change from the release of carbon dioxide, degradation of the ozone layer due to the injection of damaging chemicals, and the emissions of toxic pollutants, are all seen as contributing factors. One toxic element stands out: mercury (Hg). As one of the most toxic elements on Earth, Hg is a metal that is emitted from volcanoes in gaseous form, and thus has the capacity to cause worldwide impact for ecosystems.
Recently, Prof. Wang Zheng from the School of Earth System Science at Tianjin University collaborated with Prof. Bas van de Schootbrugge from Utrecht University and an international team of Dutch, Chinese, Danish, British, and Czech scientists, and published a new study in Nature Communications. This study added new compelling evidence for the combined effects of global warming and widespread Hg pollution that continued to stress plants long after volcanic activity had ceased. This study also provides new insights for Hg cycling in modern environment: Hg released by human activity is undergoing re-emission and is expected to continue to cause long term stress for ecosystems even though the primary emission by industrial activities has been decreasing. Thus understanding the re-emission of Hg and its ecological impact is a major challenge in mitigating Hg pollution in the future.
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant 41973009).
Citation: Bos R.*, Zheng W.*, Lindström S., Sanei H., Waajen I., Fendley I. M., Mather T. A., Wang Y., Rohovec J., Navrátil T., Sluijs A. and van de Schootbrugge B. (2024) Climate-forced Hg-remobilization associated with fern mutagenesis in the aftermath of the end-Triassic extinction. Nat Commun 15, 3596. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47922-0
For more details, please refer to the following press release:
https://www.uu.nl/en/news/climate-change-and-mercury-pollution-stressed-plants-for-millions-of-years
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1043010
