A new study recently found that abrupt climate change, accompanied by environmental destruction from massive volcanic eruptions and meteorites, has caused major mass extinction throughout the Phanerozoic Eon, covering more than 530 million years.

As specified in a EurekAlert! report, a professor emeritus at Tohoku University has excavated evidence that points to a strong link between the magnitude of mass extinction and worldwide "global temperature changes in geological times.

Until now, few quantitative analyses have shown the link between land temperature anomalies and terrestrial animal extinctions.

Furthermore, marine animals, as well as terrestrial animals, have gone through divergent extinction rates, and this phenomenon stays under-explored.

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Temperature Change-Extinction
(Photo: David McNew/Getty Images)
Research shows abrupt temperature, whether warm or cool, is causing major mass extinction.


Extinction Corresponding to Global Temperature Change

Professor Emeritus Kunio Kaiho, in particular, showed that marine invertebrates and terrestrial tetrapods' extinction rates corresponded to deviations in worldwide and habitat surface temperatures, regardless of if it was warming or cooling.

Essentially, the loss of species during the "big five" major extinctions is associated with "a > 7°C global cooling and a >7-9°C global warming for marine animals, and a > 7°C global cooling and a > ~7°C global warming for terrestrial tetrapods," a similar RevoScience report said.

Such findings specify that the bigger the shifts in climate, the more massive the mass extinction, explained Kaiho.

They also tell that any prospective extinction associated with human activity will not be of the same rations when the extinction magnitude changes in conjunction with global surface temperature abnormality.

Earlier study reveals that anthropogenic global warming redistributes marine life and may endanger tropical benthic invertebrates with numerous potential extinction mechanisms.

Furthermore, the net effect of climate change on geographical extinction risk remains uncertain. More so, evidence of widespread climate-driven extinctions, as well as of potentially unidentified mechanisms, is present in the fossil record.

Resulting in Mass Extinction

To explain their findings published in the Biogeosciences journal, Kaiho cited previous research claiming a 5.2-degree Celsius rise in average global temperature would lead to a mass extinction occurrence to previous ones.

However, based on the analysis of this research, the temperature will have to change by nine degrees Celsius, which will not occur until 2500 in a worst-case scenario.

The professor emeritus also said that even though predicting the extent of future extinctions is quite a challenge since causes will differ from preceding ones, there is adequate evidence to suggest that any forthcoming extinction will not reach past magnitudes if global surface temperature abnormalities, as well as other environmental irregularities, change correspondingly.

Impact on Marine Animals

Kaiho discovered a lower tolerance for terrestrial tetrapods compared to marine animals for global warming occurrences.

Nonetheless, marine animals had a slighter tolerance to the same habitat temperature changes compared to terrestrial animals.

This is since the temperature irregularity on land is a little more than doubly higher than sea surface temperature. Such phenomena suit the current extinction patterns.

Kaiho said he seeks to forecast future animal extinction magnitudes from 2000 to 2500.

Related information about climate change and extinction is shown on BBC News's YouTube video below:

 

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