Effects of Past Global Change on Life (1995)

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

CRETACEOUS-TERTIARY (K/T) MASS EXTINCTION: EFFECT OF GLOBAL CHANGE ON CALCAREOUS 91 MICROPLANKTON fore the K/T boundary. The major adverse effect of the global environmental change is seen in the rapid but gradual post-K/T faunal, floral, and δ13C changes in low latitudes. 4. Changes in the marine environment are inferred from δ18O and δ13 C depth stratification of Cretaceous planktic foraminiferal species. We demonstrate that faunal differences between neritic and bathyal depths are due primarily to changes in paleodepth and their effect on the thermocline and vertical stratification of species. Most surprising, however, is the total disappearance of deep and intermediate water dwellers (as well as some surface dwellers) at or before the K/T boundary in all sections. Only surface water dwellers survived the K/T boundary. This implies that the global environmental change preferentially eliminated deeper habitats first, favoring survival in surface waters, or that subsurface dwellers were less able to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Environmental changes, however, seem to have been gradual beginning 100,000 to 300,000 yr before the end of the Cretaceous; accelerating at the boundary; and reaching a negative maximum between about 10,000 and 40,000 yr after the boundary, coincident with maximum low primary marine surface productivity in low latitudes. Return to a more stable ecosystem and increased marine productivity does not occur until about 250,000 to 350,000 yr after the K/T boundary. There is no single cause that can account for this prolonged environmental change. Hallam (1989) has consistently advocated sea-level changes as a major cause of faunal turnover. The latest Maastrichtian sea-level regression followed by a rapid transgression across the K/T boundary and into the early Tertiary (Brinkhuis and Zachariasse, 1988 Donovan et al., 1988, Schmitz et al., 1992; Keller et al., 1993), however, has largely been ignored as an important factor in the K/T faunal transition. The data presented here in terms of the differential nature of hiatus patterns in the deep-sea and neritic environment, the selective nature of pre-K/T species extinctions, and the elimination of all deep- and intermediate-dwelling planktic foraminifera at the K/T boundary all point toward sea-level change as a major contributor, if not causal factor. The late Maastrichtian sea-level regression reached a maximum just before the K/T boundary, followed by a rapid transgression into the earliest Tertiary (Figure 4.3). Elimination of deeper-dwelling species could have occurred as a result of the breakdown in the water mass structure, a change in thermocline, expansion of the oxygen minimum zone, and decreased productivity. However, many sea-level changes of equal or greater magnitude have occurred during the past 100 m.y., and none has resulted in a complete change of marine plankton over a few 100,000 yr. Thus, sea-level change is probably only one, although perhaps the major, contributing factor to the K/T faunal transition. Other environmental changes (volcanism, bolide impact) may have accelerated the demise of a Cretaceous fauna already on the decline. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank the reviewers H. Thierstein and W. Berger for their critical and helpful comments, and we gratefully acknowledge contributions from N. MacLeod, I. Canudo, S. D'Hondt, S. Gartner, and J. Pospichal. This research was supported by NSF Grants OCE 90-21338 and EAR 91-15044 to G.K. REFERENCES Alvarez, W., L. W. Alvarez, F. Asaro, and H. V. Michel (1980). Extraterrestrial cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction, Science 208, 1095-1108. Barrera, E., and B. T. Huber (1990). Evolution of Antarctic Water during the Maastrichtian: Foraminifer oxygen and carbon isotope ratios, Leg 113, in Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results 113, P. S. Barker, J. P. Kennett et al., eds., Ocean Drilling Program, College Station, Texas, pp. 813-827. Barrera, E., and G. Keller (1990). Foraminiferal stable isotope evidence for gradual decrease of marine productivity and Cretaceous species survivorship in the earliest Danian, Paleoceanography, 5, 867-890. Barrera, E., and G. Keller (1994). Productivity across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary in high latitudes, Geological Society of America Bulletin, in press. Beeson, D., S. Gartner, G. Keller, N. MacLeod, J. Médus, and R. Rocchia (in preparation). Multidisciplinary stratigraphy and depositional environment across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary at the Brazos River, Falls County, Texas, Palaios. Berger, W. H. (1970). Biogenous deep-sea sediments: Fractionation by deep-sea circulation, Geological Society of America Bulletin 81, 1385-1402. Berger, W. H., and E. L. Winterer (1974). Plate stratigraphy and fluctuating carbonate line, International Association of Sedimentology Special Publication 1, 11-48. Berggren, W. A. (1962). Some planktonic foraminifera from the Maastrichtian and type Danian stages of southern Scandinavia, Stockholm Contributions in Geology 9(1), 1-102. Boersma, A., and N. J. Shackleton (1981). Oxygen and carbon isotope variations and planktonic foraminiferal depth habitats: Late Cretaceous to Paleocene, central Pacific, DSDP Sites 463 and 465, Leg 65, in Initial Reports of the Deep-Sea Drilling Project 65, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., pp. 513-526. Brinkhuis, W., and W. J. Zachariasse (1988). Dinoflagellate cysts, sea-level changes and planktonic foraminifers across the Cretaceous- Tertiary boundary at El Haria, northwest Tunisia, Marine Micropaleontology 13, 153-191. Canudo, I. J., G. Keller, and E. Molina (1991). K/T boundary extinction pattern and faunal turnover at Agost and Caravaca, SE Spain, Marine Micropaleontology 17, 319-341. 

CRETACEOUS-TERTIARY (K/T) MASS EXTINCTION: EFFECT OF GLOBAL CHANGE ON CALCAREOUS 92 MICROPLANKTON D'Hondt, S., and G. Keller (1991). Some patterns of planktic foraminiferal assemblage turnover at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, Marine Micropaleontology 17, 77-118. Donovan, A. D., G. R. Baum, G. L. Blechschmidt, T. S. Loutit, C. E. Pflum, and P. R. Vail (1988). Sequence stratigraphic setting of the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary in central Alabama, Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Special Publication No. 42, 300-307. Douglas, R. G., and S. M. Savin (1978). Oxygen isotope evidence for depth stratification of Tertiary and Cretaceous planktic foraminifera, Marine Micropaleontology 3, 175-196. Hallam, A. (1989). The case for sea-level change as a dominant causal factor in mass extinction of marine invertebrates, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B 325, 437-455. Haq, B. U., J. Hardenbol, and P. R. Vail (1987). Chronology of fluctuating sea-levels since the Triassic, Science 235, 1156-1166. Herbert, T. D., and S. D'Hondt (1990). Environmental dynamics across the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction horizon measured 21 thousand year climate cycles in sediments, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 99, 263-275. Hofker, J. (1960). The foraminifera of the lower boundary of the Danish Danian, Meddr. Dansk Geol. Forening 14, 212-242. Huber, B. T. (1991). Maastrichtian planktonic foraminifer biostratigraphy and the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary at ODP Hole 738C (Kerquelen Plateau, Southern Indian Ocean), in Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results 119, Ocean Drilling Program, College Station, Texas, pp. 451-466. Jiang, M. J., and S. Gartner (1986). Calcareous nannofossil succession across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary in east-central Texas, Micropaleontology 32, 232-255. Kauffman, E. G. (1984). The fabric of Cretaceous marine extinctions, in Catastrophes and Earth History, W. A. Berggren and J. A. Van Couvering, eds., Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., pp. 151-237. Keller, G. (1988). Extinction, survivorship and evolution of planktic foraminifers across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary at El Kef, Tunisia, Marine Micropaleontology 13, 239-263. Keller, G. (1989a). Extended Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary extinctions and delayed population change in planktonic foraminiferal faunas from Brazos River, Texas, Paleoceanography 4, 287-332. Keller, G. (1989b). Extended period of extinctions across the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary in planktonic foraminifera of continental shelf sections: Implications for impact and volcanism theories, Geological Society of America Bulletin 101, 1408-1419. Keller, G., (1993). The Cretaceous Tertiary boundary transition in the Antarctic Ocean and its global implications, Marine Micropaleontology. Keller, G., and E. Barrera, E. (1990). The Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary impact hypothesis and the Paleontological record, Geological Society of America Special Paper 247, 556-575. Keller, G., and C. Benjamini (1991). Paleoenvironment of the eastern Tethys in the Early Paleocene, Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology 6, 439-464. Keller, G., and M. Lindinger (1989). Stable isotope, TOC and CaCO3 record across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary at El Kef, Tunisia, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 67, 243-265. Keller, G., C. Benjamini, M. Magaritz, and S. Moshkovitz (1990). Faunal, erosional and CaCO3 events in the early Tertiary eastern Tethys, Geological Society of America Special Paper 247, 471-480. Keller, G., E. Barrera, B. Schmitz, and E. Mattson (1993). Gradual mass extinction, species survivorship and long-term environmental changes across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary in high latitudes, Geological Society of America Bulletin 105, 979-997. Kuslys, M., and U. Krahenbuhl (1983). Noble metals in Cretaceous/Tertiary sediments from El Kef, Radiochimica Acta 34, 139-141. Lindinger, M. (1988). The Cretaceous/Tertiary boundaries of El Kef and Caravaca: Sedimentological, geochemical and clay mineralogical aspects, Ph.D. thesis, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, 254 pp. Loper, D. E., and K. McCartney (1986). Mantle plumes and the periodicity of magnetic field reversals, Geophysical Research Letters 13, 1525-1528. Loper, D. E., and K. McCartney (1988). Shocked quartz found at the K/T boundary: A possible endogenous mechanism, EOS 69, 971-972. Loutit, T. S., and J. P. Kennett (1981). Australasian Cenozoic sedimentary cycles, global sea-level changes and the deep-sea sedimentary record, Oceanologia Acta, 46-63. MacLeod, N. and G. Keller (1991a). Hiatus distribution and mass extinctions at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary, Geology 19, 497-501. MacLeod, N., and G. Keller (1991b). How complete are K/T boundary sections? A chronostratigraphic estimate based on graphic correlation, Geological Society of America Bulletin 103, 1439-1457. Manivit, H. (1984). Paleogene and upper Cretaceous calcareous nannofossils from Deep-Sea Drilling Project Leg 73, in Initial Reports of the Deep-Sea Drilling Project 74, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., pp. 475-500. Manivit, H., and H. Feinberg (1984). Correlation of magnetostratigraphy and nannofossil biostratigraphy in upper Cretaceous and lower Paleocene sediments of the Walvis Ridge Area, in Initial Reports of the Deep-Sea Drilling Project 74, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., pp. 469-474. McLean, D. M. (1985). Mantle degassing induced dead ocean, in The Cretaceous-Tertiary Transition, Geophysical Monograph 32, American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C., pp. 493-503. Officer, C. B., and C. Drake (1985). Terminal Cretaceous environmental events, Science 227, 1161-1167. Olsson, R. K. (1960). Foraminifera of latest Cretaceous and earliest Tertiary age in the New Jersey coastal plain, Journal of Paleontology 34 (1), 1-58. Olsson, R. K., and C. Liu (1993). Controversies on the placement of the Cretaceaus-Paleogene boundary and the K/T mass extinction of planktic foraminifera, Palaios 8, 127-139. 

CRETACEOUS-TERTIARY (K/T) MASS EXTINCTION: EFFECT OF GLOBAL CHANGE ON CALCAREOUS 93 MICROPLANKTON Perch-Nielsen, K. (1979a). Calcareous nanofossils at the K/T boundary in Tunisia, in KT Boundary Events, W. A. Christensen and R. G. Bromley, eds., University of Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 238-243. Perch-Nielsen, K. (1979b). Calcareous nannofossils from the Cretaceous between the North Sea and the Mediterranean, International Union of Geological Sciences, Ser. A 6, 223-272. Perch-Nielsen, K. (1981). Nouvelles observations sur les nannofossiles calcaires á la limite Crétacé/Tertiaire prés de El Kef, Tunisie, Cah. Micropaléontol. 3, 25-36. Perch-Nielsen, K. (1982). Maastrichtian coccoliths in the Danian survivors or reworked ''dead bodies," Abstract IAS. Perch-Nielsen, K. (1985). Cenozoic calcareous nannofossils. Mesozoic calcareous nannofossils, in Plankton Stratigraphy, H. M. Bolli, J. B. Saunders, and K. Perch-Nielsen, eds., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,pp. 329-554. Perch-Nielsen, K. (1986). Geologic events and the distribution of calcareous nannofossils—Some speculations, Bull. Centres Rech. Explor. Prod. Eif-Aquitaine 102, 421-432. Perch-Nielsen, K., J. McKenzie, and Q. He (1982). Biostratigraphy and isotope stratigraphy and the catastrophic extinction of calcareous nannoplankton at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary, Geological Society of America Special Paper 190, 353-371. Percival, S. F., Jr. (1984). Late Cretaceous to Pleistocene calcareous nannofossils from the South Atlantic, Deep-Sea Drilling Project Leg 73, in Initial Reports of the Deep-Sea Drilling Project 73, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C., pp. 391-424. Percival, S. F., and A. G. Fischer (1977). Changes in calcareous nannoplankton in the Cretaceous-Tertiary biotic crisis at Zumaya, Spain, Evolutionary Theory 2, 1-35. Pospichal, J. J., and T. J. Bralower (1992). Calcareous nannofossils across the Creaceous/Tertiary boundary, Site 761, Northwest Australian margin, in Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results 122, Ocean Drilling Program, College Station, Texas, pp. 735-751. Pospichal, J. J., and W. Wise, Jr. (1990). Calcareous nannofossils across the K/T boundary, ODP Hole 690C, Maud Rise, Weddell Sea, in Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results 113, Ocean Drilling Program, College Station, Texas, pp. 515-532. Robin, E., D. Boclet, D. Benté, L. Froget, C. Jéhanno, and R. Rocchia (1991). The stratigraphic distribution of Ni-rich spinels in Cretaceous- Tertiary boundary rocks at El Kef (Tunisia), Caravaca (Spain) and Hole 761 (Leg 122), Earth and Planetary Science Letters 107, 715-721. Romein, A. J. T. (1979). Lineages in early Paleogene calcareous nannoplankton, Utrecht Micropaleontological Bulletins 22, 1-231. Romein, A. J. T., and J. Smit (1981). The Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary: Calcareous nannofossils and stable isotopes, Koninkliijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschapen Proceedings, Series B 84(3), 295-314. Roth, P. (1987). Mesozoic calcareous nannofossil evolution: Relation to paleoceanographic events, Paleoceanography 2, 601-611. Schmitz, B., G. Keller, and O. Stenvall (1992). Stable isotope and foraminiferal changes across the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary at Stevns Klint, Denmark: Arguments for long-term oceanic instability before and after bolide impact, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 96, 233-260. Shaw, A. B. (1964). Time in Stratigraphy, McGraw-Hill, New York, 365 pp. Sloan, R. E., J. K. Rigby, L. M. Van Valen, and D. Gabriel (1986). Gradual dinosaur extinction and simultaneous ungulate radiation in the Hell Creek Formation, Science 232, 629-633. Smit, J. (1982). Extinction and evolution of planktonic foraminifera after a major impact at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary, Geological Society of America Special Paper 190, 329-352. Smit, J. (1990). Meteorite impact, extinctions and the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, Geologie en Mijnbouw 69, 187-204. Smit, J., and A. J. T. Romein (1985). A sequence of events across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 74, 155-170. Stott, L. D., and J. P. Kennett (1989). New constraints on early Tertiary paleoproductivity from carbon isotopes in foraminifera, Nature 342, 526-529. Thierstein, H. R. (1982). Terminal Cretaceous plankton extinctions: A critical assessment, Geological Society of America Special Paper 190, pp. 385-399. Thierstein, H. R., F. Asaro, W. U. Ehrman, B. Huber, H. V. Michel, H. Sakai, and B. Schmitz (1991). The Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary at Site 738, South Kerguelen Plateau, in Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results 119, Ocean Drilling Program, College Station, Texas, pp. 849-868. Wei, W., and J. J. Pospichal (1991). Danian calcareous nannofossil succession at Site 738 in the Southern Indian Ocean, in Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results 119, Ocean Drilling Program, College Station, Texas, pp. 495-512. Worsley, J. (1974). The Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary event in the ocean, in Studies in Paleo-oceanography, W. W. Hay, ed., Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Special Publication 20, pp. 94-125. Zachos, J. C., and M. A. Arthur (1986). Paleoceanography of the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary event: Inferences from stable isotopic and other data , Paleoceanography 1, 5-26.