RECOVERY OF FORAMINIFERAN COMMUNITIES COINCIDENT WITH CARBON CYCLE STABILIZATION AFTER END-PERMIAN EXTINCTION

The end-Permian mass extinction is closely associated with a geologically rapid environmental disturbance, but the timing of biotic recovery and its relationship to environmental amelioration is more poorly constrained. In this study, samples from an exceptionally preserved carbonate platform in south China are used to establish the temporal relationship between Early and Middle Triassic recovery of benthic foraminifers and coeval carbon cycle events at high stratigraphic resolution. Although recovery was ongoing throughout the study interval, two pulses of more rapid recovery are apparent at the community level. A Smithian (Early Triassic) increase in evenness and sampled richness coincided with a decrease in the rate of carbon isotope excursions. More pronounced increases in evenness and richness, as well as mean and maximum size, coincided with carbon cycle stabilization at the beginning of the Middle Triassic. The correspondence between carbon cycle behavior and recovery of foraminifers suggests persistent environmental control on the pattern and timing of biotic recovery following the end-Permian catastrophe, perhaps due to ongoing Siberian Traps volcanism.