Research confirm that changes in marine redox conditions and oxygen levels have catastrophic consequences for the life in oceans.
Since 2016 the researchers of the Department of Geology at Tallinn University of Technology have been engaged in a research project analysing the causes of Silurian biodiversity crisis. The findings of the study are summarized in the article "Linking the progressive expansion of reducing conditions to a stepwise mass extinction event in the late Silurian oceans" published recently in the journal Geology.
The international research team included scientists from the University of Florida, Tallinn University of Technology, the University of South Carolina and Lund University. A member of the research group, Professor of Bedrock Geology at Tallinn University of Technology Olle Hints says, "Our research focused on the changes in the Earth's environmental conditions and biodiversity during the Silurian period, ca 425 million years ago”.
Five big mass extinctions are known from the last half a billion years of Earth's history. For example, 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period, 95% of the plant and animal species of that time disappeared in a short time. Today, too, we are facing major biodiversity loss and knowledge of past extinction events enables us to assess its potential course and consequences. In severe biotic crisis in the Silurian, known as the Lau Event, extinction of nearly 25% of the marine species took place. The scientists set out to determine the chronology and possible mechanisms of the event.
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