TY - JOUR
T1 - Kerogen morphology and geochemistry at the Permian-Triassic transition in the Meishan section, South China
T2 - Implication for paleoenvironmental variation
AU - Sawada, Ken
AU - Kaiho, Kunio
AU - Okano, Kazuki
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to Dr. A. Riboulleau and an anonymous reviewer for constructive comments. This work was partly supported by a grant-in-aid for scientific research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. This study was supported in part by Grants-In-Aid No. 11440152 (to K.K.), and Nos. 18684028 and 20606001 (to K.S.) for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.
PY - 2012/8/2
Y1 - 2012/8/2
N2 - Detailed fluorescent microscopic observations and organic geochemical analyses for insoluble sedimentary organic matter (kerogens) are conducted on the end-Permian to earliest Triassic sediments in the Meishan section A of South China. The main objectives of the present study are to reconstruct variations of marine and terrestrial environments, and to evaluate bulk characteristics of terrestrial input in the palaeo-Tethys ocean for the Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB). Most of kerogens in the Meishan section are mainly composed of marine algae-derived amorphous organic matter, while terrestrial plant-derived amorphous organic matter is remarkably dominant in the mass extinction horizon reported previously. The relative abundances of marine organic matter may vary depending on marine production rather than terrestrial input in the palaeo-Tethys associated with changing terrestrial vegetation. We also identified aromatic furans as major compounds in kerogen pyrolysate of all layers. It is possible that sources of aromatic furans with alkyl group, fungi and lichen, proliferated as disaster biota in terrestrial ecosystem through the PTB. Higher abundances of herbaceous organic matter are observed in the layers above the mass extinction horizon. However, the conifer biomarker retene can be identified in kerogen pyrolysates of all layers. These results imply that the productions of herbaceous plants increased as dominant pioneer biota in early stage of recovery for terrestrial ecosystem after its collapse, but also that woody plant potentially continued to be produced in land area throughout the end-Permian and earliest-Triassic.
AB - Detailed fluorescent microscopic observations and organic geochemical analyses for insoluble sedimentary organic matter (kerogens) are conducted on the end-Permian to earliest Triassic sediments in the Meishan section A of South China. The main objectives of the present study are to reconstruct variations of marine and terrestrial environments, and to evaluate bulk characteristics of terrestrial input in the palaeo-Tethys ocean for the Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB). Most of kerogens in the Meishan section are mainly composed of marine algae-derived amorphous organic matter, while terrestrial plant-derived amorphous organic matter is remarkably dominant in the mass extinction horizon reported previously. The relative abundances of marine organic matter may vary depending on marine production rather than terrestrial input in the palaeo-Tethys associated with changing terrestrial vegetation. We also identified aromatic furans as major compounds in kerogen pyrolysate of all layers. It is possible that sources of aromatic furans with alkyl group, fungi and lichen, proliferated as disaster biota in terrestrial ecosystem through the PTB. Higher abundances of herbaceous organic matter are observed in the layers above the mass extinction horizon. However, the conifer biomarker retene can be identified in kerogen pyrolysates of all layers. These results imply that the productions of herbaceous plants increased as dominant pioneer biota in early stage of recovery for terrestrial ecosystem after its collapse, but also that woody plant potentially continued to be produced in land area throughout the end-Permian and earliest-Triassic.
KW - Aromatic furan
KW - Fluorescent microscopic observation
KW - Kerogen
KW - Mass extinction
KW - Permian-Triassic boundary
KW - Retene
KW - Terrestrial devastation
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jseaes.2012.04.004
DO - 10.1016/j.jseaes.2012.04.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84862163064
VL - 54-55
SP - 78
EP - 90
JO - Journal of Asian Earth Sciences
JF - Journal of Asian Earth Sciences
SN - 1367-9120
ER -