Succession Of Environmental Stressors From Wildfires To Volcanic Pyrolysis Drove Mid-latitude Terrestrial Ecosystem Collapse During The End-Permian Crisis
Abstract
The mechanisms and tempo of terrestrial responses to the end-Permian mass extinction remain debated. Here, we present a high-resolution, age-calibrated multi-proxy record from a mid-paleolatitude (∼45° N) terrestrial section in Northwest China that captures the end-Permian terrestrial crisis as a volcanically driven cascade of events linking carbon-cycle perturbation, intensified wildfires, environmental degradation, and terrestrial ecosystem collapse. New temporally constrained mercury data reveal the onset of mercury anomalies at 252.165 Ma, synchronous with a sharp negative carbon isotope excursion and coincident with the independently defined terrestrial crisis, suggesting a causal link to volcanic activity. Crucially, we document a fundamental shift in the dominant environmental stressors from surface wildfires to subsurface volcanic pyrolysis. Intense wildfires, evidenced by peaks in charcoal abundance and combustion-derived polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), first devastated conifer forests. Subsequently, in charcoal-poor Early Triassic sediments, a distinct geochemical signature emerges: anomalously high concentrations of specific PAHs with extreme fluoranthene/pyrene ratios (>5), indicative of high-temperature volcanic pyrolysis of buried organics. This signals a transition from surface biomass burning to subsurface thermal alteration of sedimentary carbon, coinciding with a shift in weathering regimes and culminating in biotic reorganization (floral turnover, replacement of dicynodonts by Lystrosaurus ). The record suggests that the intrusive phase of large igneous province magmatism may have contributed to the prolonged crisis by shifting dominant stressors from wildfire-driven perturbations to substrate pyrolysis induced by intrusive heating, thereby providing a mechanistic explanation for protracted terrestrial recovery at mid-paleolatitude. Temporally, the mid-latitudes experienced forest collapse ∼300 kyr earlier than the tropics, highlighting differential biome vulnerability to sequential stresses.
Recommended Citation
S. Jiao et al., "Succession Of Environmental Stressors From Wildfires To Volcanic Pyrolysis Drove Mid-latitude Terrestrial Ecosystem Collapse During The End-Permian Crisis," Earth and Planetary Science Letters, vol. 695, article no. 120319, Elsevier, Dec 2026.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2026.120319
Department(s)
Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
end-Permian mass extinction; Large igneous province; Mercury; Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs); Terrestrial ecosystem collapse; Volcanic pyrolysis
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
0012-821X
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2026 Elsevier, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Dec 2026
Comments
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Grant 92479206