Climate change during the Triassic and Jurassic

Abstract

The transition from the Triassic to Jurassic is associated with dramatic changes in Earth's climate. Pangaea was breaking up as North America rifted away from Africa, the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province erupted, and the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide increased dramatically. This article summarises the changes in Earth's climate associated with this transition, including a discussion of the various impacts of the increased carbon dioxide on the Earth system, the question of whether the wet episode in the Carnian was a global or regional event, the formation of bauxite deposits, and how dinosaur distributions changed over time. Palaeoclimate model simulations reveal the spatial changes in climate between the Triassic and Jurassic, illustrating the subtropics becoming slightly cooler and wetter despite the warming trend for the Earth's average temperature.

The paleoclimatic context for South American Triassic vertebrate evolution

“…The Middle Triassic Epoch is not particularly well-modeled, but the climate zonation of Gondwana is generally similar to that described for the Early Triassic (Harris et al, 2017). These results are consistent with a low attitude arid belt and a mid-latitude temperate regime inferred from plant remains (Preto et al, 2010).…”

“…3; van Hinsbergen et al, 2015). Model-proxy comparisons are difficult for the Middle Triassic because of the lack of GCM results, but those of Harris et al (2017) suggest relatively cooler winters and wetter summers for this region compared to the Early Triassic, with summer temperatures of 15-30 • C, winter temperatures of 0-10 • C, summer precipitation of 1-7.5 mm/day, and winter precipitation of 2-6 mm/day. The Lower-Middle Triassic Tarjados Formation of Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin shows proxy evidence for warm, arid, seasonal conditions similar to the underlying Talamplaya Formation (Krapovickas et al, 2013), but the clay mineralogy assemblage from the top of the Tarjados Formation suggests seasonal conditions with relatively more humid conditions (Mancuso et al 2020a(Mancuso et al , 2020b.…”

“…Global studies of Triassic paleoclimate typically take one of two complimentary but separate strategies, either mapping the distribution of proxy data (e.g., Robinson 1973;Golonka 2007;Golonka et al, 2018;Boucot et al, 2013), or using global climate models (GCMs) to infer past climate variables based on our knowledge of modern climate systems (e.g., Parrish and Curtis 1982;Kutzbach and Gallimore 1989;Wilson et al, 1994;Huynh and Poulsen 2005;Péron et al, 2005;Sellwood and Valdes 2006;Winguth and Winguth 2012;Winguth et al, 2015;Harris et al, 2017;Dunne et al, 2021). Most examples of the latter focus on aspects of temperature and precipitation, but there are also classes of models that reconstruct the spatial distribution of weathering fluxes and vegetation and their relationship to atmospheric CO 2 (e.g., Donnadieu et al, 2006;Goddéris et al, 2008;Goddéris and Donnadieu 2019).…”

“…During the Triassic Period, modeling suggests enhanced monsoonal circulation because of the large exposed land area across the equator (Kutzbach and Gallimore 1989;Parrish 1993;Wilson et al, 1994;Péron et al, 2005;Sellwood and Valdes 2006;Holz 2015;Harris et al, 2017). The monsoonal model predicts three general climatic zones: (1) relatively wet conditions along the northern Tethys and west coast of the Panthalassa Ocean; (2) alternating wet and dry seasons along the coastlines of western Laurasia and Gondwana and the western coast of the Tethys; and (3) arid continental interiors between ~5 and 45 • latitude (Parrish 1993;Wilson et al, 1994;Sellwood and Valdes 2006;Preto et al, 2010;Holz 2015;Harris et al, 2017;Dunne et al, 2021). Further model and proxy data for the Late Triassic indicate hot and humid conditions in the equatorial belt, an increasingly hot, arid, and seasonal Sun et al, 2012 andVeizer et al, 2000).…”

Transcriptome sequencing of Pinus kesiya var. langbianensis and comparative analysis in the Pinus phylogeny

“…Compared with previous studies [ 8 , 9 ], the time between Pinus and Picea was older than the previous result of 174–190 Mya. At the beginning of the Triassic, only one supercontinent Pangea was present on earth, and the climate was singly warm and dry [ 24 , 25 ]. The ancient continent was rifting during the late of Triassic with the climate becoming more diverse, during which Pinus and Picea diverged.…”