Drivers of marine ecosystem change across the end-Triassic extinction and recovery in Southwest Britain

Abstract

Unpicking the drivers of recovery after the End-Triassic Extinction is a complex problem compounded by the intricacies of ecosystem dynamics and the geological record. There is a substantial body of published literature that has attempted to pinpoint various environmental factors that had the greatest affect on flora and fauna. We show that existing datasets can be supplemented by Community Science datasets, as shown by the lack of statistical difference between Fossil Blitz, novel timed counts and published quadrat records of marine invertebrates at Lyme Regis, UK.

Plagiostoma spp., Liostrea spp., Gryphaea spp. and Calcirhynchia calcaria all increase in size across the region (p<0.05), and taxa recover to pre-extinction sizes by the angulata/bucklandi zones. There are some discrepancies between size data from field measured specimens and those in the NHM Collections; a study with a larger sample size is suggested to explore this.

Functional ecology analysis of the early Jurassic across Southwest Britain shows that marine invertebrate communities recover by the bucklandi zone. Bulk carbonate δ13C and δ18O records support published organic records, and extend the record into the angulata and bucklandi zones (with new data from East Quantoxhead and Nash Point, UK).

New playnological records for Lyme Regis, Lavernock Point and Nash Point are presented. Classopollis spp. and Micrhystridium spp. dominate assemblages in this interval across Southwest Britain. Alisporites spp. and Kraueselisporites reissingeri are also common.

A combination of several environmental factors play a part in the recovery of decimated ecosystems, changes in temperature, ocean oxygenation and so on, which combined with the physiological habits of flora and fauna explain the recovery patterns evidenced across Southwest Britain in the early Jurassic

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