According to one theory, Siberian volcanoes, which released huge amounts of greenhouse gases 250 million years ago, caused a mass extinction at the end of the Permian. But until now, scientists have been unable to explain exactly how warming caused the extinction of 80% of terrestrial and marine species. A new study conducted by scientists at the University of California, Riverside has found that high temperatures accelerate the metabolism of microbes, creating deadly conditions for living organisms. The results are published by the journal Nature Geoscience.
As the ocean’s photosynthesizers – the bacteria and plants that make up the food chain – rotted due to warming, other microbes quickly consumed oxygen. For the larger organisms, there was no more. In the absence of oxygen, the microbes consumed sulfate and then released toxic, highly odorous hydrogen sulfide, or H₂S. Never in Earth’s history has the planet smelled so bad.
Dominique Hülse of the University of California, Riverside reacts to the poisonous smell of hydrogen sulfide. Photo: Dominic Hülse / UCR
The situation was made worse by the release of nutrients during the decomposition of dead organisms, which contributed to the production of more organic material. “It supported this foul-smelling toxic cycle,” the scientists wrote. Oxygen depletion is a problem that persists today and is bound to worsen with climate change in the future, scientists say.
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