Animals died in 'toxic soup' during Earth's worst mass extinction: A warning for today

[UngulateNerd92]

The end-Permian mass extinction event of roughly 252 million years ago—the worst such event in earth's history—has been linked to vast volcanic emissions of greenhouse gases, a major temperature increase, and the loss of almost every species in the oceans and on land.

Now, it seems that even the lakes and rivers were no safe havens. A recent study published by an international team of researchers including Professor and Head of the Department of Geosciences Tracy Frank and Professor Chris Fielding, both newly arrived at UConn, has identified a new cause of extinction during extreme warming events: toxic microbial blooms.

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-animals-died-toxic-soup-earth.html

 

[UngulateNerd92]

Here is another relevant article.

Mass Extinction Events Can Turn Freshwater Into Toxic Soup, And It's Already Happening

Apart from the global catastrophe that killed off most of the dinosaurs, some experts think almost all the mass extinctions in Earth's history were followed by a proliferation of microbes in rivers and lakes.

According to the geologic record in Australia, the damaging impacts of climate change and climate-driven deforestation during the Permian extinction event most likely caused a toxic soup to sprout in the Sydney Basin, one of the oldest known freshwater ecosystems in the world.

That's disconcerting, the authors say, as human activity is leading to a similar mass extinction event today.

Mass Extinction Events Can Turn Freshwater Into Toxic Soup, And It's Already Happening