A team of scientists from the University of Cork Cork (UCC), the University of Connecticut and the Museum of Natural History in Vienna have discovered how plants deal with catastrophic climate change 250 million years ago. Their discovery, published in the GSA announcement, reveals one of the most extreme warming periods in Earth’s history: the “ultimate Permian incident”, a long and long process of ecosystem recovery.
With more than 80% of marine species eliminating, the final Perma incident was the worst massive extinction ever. However, the impact of this incident on the land is elusive. By examining fossil plants and rocks in the Sydney Basin in eastern Australia, researchers piece together millions of years of resilience, recovery and the long-term effects of climate change.
Long, unstable pathways to ecosystem recovery
These fossils of Australian rocks suggest that conifers, like modern pine trees, were the first to colonize the land immediately after the final Permian disaster. But restoring to a booming forest is not a smooth sailing.
The researchers found that even higher temperatures caused the collapse of these conifer survivors during the “late Smith thermal maxima.” In turn, they are replaced by tough, bushy plants similar to modern clubs. This agile period lasted about 700,000 years, making life full of challenges, challenging for trees and other large plants.
It wasn’t until a major cooling event (“Smith-Sympathetic Incident”), but unusual plants called “Seed Ferns” began to flourish and build more stable forests. These plants eventually occupied millions of years of Earth’s landscape, paving the way for the “dinosaur era” of the Mesozoic era.
So after millions of years of history, the Mesozoic forest ecosystem looks like it was before the iceberg collapses after all. But it is crucial that the plant species that make up the new forest are completely different. “The term ‘recovery’ can be misleading,” said Dr. Chris Mays, head of the Popular Extinction Group at the University of Cork.
What does this mean to us?
By understanding how ancient plant ecosystems weather extreme climate fluctuations, researchers hope to learn valuable lessons on how modern plants and ecosystems respond to today’s climate crisis. Ecosystems rely on fragile balances, and plants are the backbone of land food networks and climate regulation.
“This study underscores the importance of plants, not only the basis of onshore food chains, but also the sinking of natural carbon that stabilizes the Earth’s climate,” explains UCC researcher Marcos Amores. “The destruction of these systems can have effects that last hundreds of thousands of years, so it is more important than ever to protect today’s ecosystems.”
Deeply studying the distant past of the Earth reminds us of plants being the nameless human heroes on Earth, now, now and in the future.
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