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Catastrophic soil erosion during the end-Permian biotic crisis

¹ Impacts and Astromaterials Research Centre, Department of Earth Science and Engineering, South Kensington Campus, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
² Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 37012, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Paleobiology, MRC-121, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012, USA
³ Department of Palaeoecology, Laboratory of Palaeobotany and Palynology, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD, Utrecht, Netherlands
⁴ School of Earth Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
⁵ Department of Marine Biogeochemistry and Toxicology, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, P.O. Box 59, 1790 AB, Den Burg, Texel, Netherlands
⁶ Department of Palaeoecology, Laboratory of Palaeobotany and Palynology, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD, Utrecht, Netherlands

Organic geochemical analyses of sedimentary organic matter from a marine Permian-Triassic transition sequence in northeastern Italy reveal a significant influx of land-derived diagenetic products of polysaccharides. This unique event reflects massive soil erosion resulting from destruction of land vegetation due to volcanogenic disturbance of atmospheric chemistry. The excessive supply of soil materials to the oceans provides a direct link between terrestrial and marine ecological crises, suggesting that ecosystem collapse on land could have contributed to the end-Permian marine extinctions.

Key Words: Permian-Triassic boundary • ecological crisis • mass extinction • carbon isotope • polysaccharide • soil erosion

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