Scientists: Permian Extinction Could Be Associated With Bacteria That Produce Hydrogen Sulfide
Photo: Dominik Hülse / UCR
Scientists at the University of California at Riverside have proposed a possible explanation for the largest mass extinction 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian. According to them, this could be due to the release of toxic gases by microbes, which intensified due to global warming. This is reported in an article published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
It is known that the massive Permian extinction was caused by large eruptions in Siberia, due to which huge amounts of carbon dioxide entered the atmosphere. This led to global warming and warming of sea waters, as well as a decrease in the level of oxygen dissolved in the ocean. In a new study, scientists showed that as temperatures rose, euxine zones, characterized by a lack of oxygen and an increase in sulfide concentrations, grew.
Euxine zones occur when bacteria begin to consume sulfate and then release hydrogen sulfide, which is toxic to many animals. Dead living organisms decompose, wasting dissolved oxygen and producing more organic matter that maintains the deadly cycle. At the end of the Permian period, this led to the extinction of 80 percent of all marine species of living organisms, as well as many terrestrial creatures.
