End Permian to Middle Triassic plant species richness and abundance patterns in South China: coevolution of plants and the environment through the Permian–Triassic transition

Zhen Xu, Jason Hilton, Jianxin Yu*, Paul Wignall, Hongfu Yin, Qing Xue, Weiju Ran, Hui Li, Jun Shen, Fansong Meng

*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

This study reviews plant species richness and abundance change from the End Permian to Middle Triassic in South China and examines the co-evolutionary relationship between the flora and the environment through this critical interval in the history of terrestrial biotas. A normalized macro-fossil plant record, that considers only one taxon per whole plant, is produced. This identifies four broad phases of plant evolution. Phase 1 is marked by pre-extinction floras that demonstrate a long-term decline of species richness beginning in the Late Permian (lower Changhsingian) that culminates in the distinct End Permian Plant Crisis (EPPC) at the end of the Changhsingian. Other evidence for the health of the flora, including palynology, biomarkers, wildfire proxies, soil erosion and weathering proxies show a drastic loss of plant abundance (biomass) and increase of wildfire frequency (suggestive of increasing seasonal aridity) during the EPPC. A Phase 2 survival interval, during the Changhsingian–Griesbachian transition, has a severely impoverished plant assemblage consisting of opportunistic lycopods and a short-lived holdover flora. Phase 3 (Late Griesbachian–Smithian) saw the modest recovery of species richness as several groups began to radiate, notably conifers and ferns. Diversity increases substantially and persistently during the succeeding Phase 4 and sees the dominant lycopods/herbaceous bryophytes of Phase 3 replaced by conifer-dominated floras. Plant abundance recovery began earlier than the resumption of coal formation which only initiated in the Anisian following its disappearance during the EPPC. Only in the Late Triassic did the flora recover to a level comparable to that seen in the Permian. The flora of South China thus took ~15 million years to completely recover from the profound environmental and climatic effects of the Permo-Triassic mass extinction.
Original languageEnglish
Article number104136
Number of pages29
JournalEarth Science Reviews
Volume232
Early online date22 Jul 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Xiao Shi, Wenchao Shu, Meijia Zhang, Xujie Wang, Yuyang Tian for fieldwork assistance, Professor Jean Broutin and Qisheng Huang for the plant fossil identifications, and Christopher J. Cleal for discussion on methods and species richness, and Jiri Bek for discussion on pollen and spore affinities, and Xin Sun, Bethany J. Allen for discussion on paleontology diversity method. The manuscript benefited from reviews by constructive reviews from Christopher Fielding, Mike Benton and two anonymous reviewers. This research was financially supported by the NSFC (grants 92055201 ), the 111 Project (grant BP0820004 ) and Natural Environment Research Council (UK) Biosphere Evolution, Transition and Resilience (BETR) program (grant NE/P0137224/1 ).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.

Keywords

  • Plant–environment coevolution
  • Mass extinction
  • Coal gap
  • Permo-Triassic and end-Permian
  • Gigantopterids
  • Lycopod

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