Reefs recovered faster after (end-Permian) mass extinction than first thought

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.mediadesk.uzh.ch/articles/2011/riffe-erholten-sich-nach-massenaussterben-schneller-als-gedacht_en.html

News release, September 30, 2011

Reefs recovered faster after mass extinction than first thought

Metazoan-dominated reefs only took 1.5 million years to recover after the largest species extinction 252 million years ago, an international research team including paleontologists from the University of Zurich has established based on fossils from the southwestern USA.

Harsh living conditions caused by major fluctuations in the carbon content and sea levels, overacidification and oxygen deficiency in the seas triggered the largest mass extinction of all time at the end of the Permian era 252 million years ago. Life on Earth was also anything but easy after the obliteration of over 90 percent of all species: Throughout the entire Early Triassic era, metazoan-dominated reefs were replaced by microbial deposits. Researchers had always assumed it took the Earth as long as five million years to recover from this species collapse. Now, however, an international team, including the paleontologist Hugo Bucher from the University of Zurich and his team of researchers, has proven that reefs already existed again in the southwest of what is now the USA 1.5 million years after the mass extinction. These were dominated by metazoan organisms such as sponges, serpulids and other living creatures, the researchers report in Nature Geoscience.

Growth thanks to new reef-forming metazoan organisms

Metazoan-dominated reefs already developed during the Early Triassic, much earlier than was previously assumed. As soon as the environmental conditions more or less returned to normal, the reef began to grow again due to metazoan organisms that had played a secondary role in reefs up to then. «This shows that, after the extinction of dominant reef creators, metazoan were able to form reef ecosystems much sooner than was previously thought,» says Hugo Bucher, summing up the new discovery.

Literature:

Arnaud Brayard, Emmanuelle Vennin, Nicolas Olivier, Kevin G. Bylund, Jim Jenks, Daniel A. Stephen, Hugo Bucher, Richard Hofmann, Nicolas Goudemand and Gilles Escarguel: Transient metazoan reefs in the aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction, in: Nature Geoscience, 18 September 2011, DOI: 10.1038/NGEO1264

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/NGEO1264

[ChandlerJr]

1. Proof again that the human animal is but a speck, a mere mote

in an elephants eye, on the timeline of this planet.

We can not destroy the planet, only ourselves and it's inevitable.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Following that logic

Couldn’t we also conclude that we cannot destroy humanity, only the majority of humanity?

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Suffering of the poor may have helped societies with class structures spread across the globe…

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/september/feldman-human-migration-092311.html

Stanford Report, September 23, 2011

Suffering of the poor may have helped societies with class structures spread across the globe, say Stanford researchers

Arguably the worst feature of societies with class structures – the disproportionate suffering of the poor – may have been the driving force behind the spread of those stratified societies across the globe at the expense of more egalitarian societies. During hard times, a society in which the bulk of the suffering is borne by the poor can survive and expand into new territory more readily than can egalitarian societies.

BY LOUIS BERGERON

Why do most cultures have a class structure – rich, poor and sometimes middle – instead of being egalitarian, with resources shared equally by everyone?

According to Stanford University researchers, it is the very inequities of the class structure that appear to have been behind the spread of those societies and the displacement of more egalitarian cultures during the early era of human civilization.

…

In environments where the availability of resources fluctuated from year to year, stratified societies were better able to survive the temporary shortages because the bulk of the deprivation was absorbed by the lower classes, leaving the ruling class – and the overall social structure – intact. That stability enabled them to expand more readily than egalitarian societies, which weren't able to adapt to changing conditions as quickly.

…

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0024683


I don’t expect a golden age to result from “Climate Change.”

[izquierdista]

5. Explains American immigration in a nutshell

If you get a chance, go visit where Grandpa or great-Grandma came from. You will be humbled by their origins.

[jwirr]

6. That may well have been true in the past but with an over populated

globe exactly where are we going to expand? And I do not think that Mars is a viable answer.

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. Oh, that’s easy

We won’t be able to expand, and then, when the resources get scarce, we’re left with this:

…

In environments where the availability of resources fluctuated from year to year, stratified societies were better able to survive the temporary shortages because the bulk of the deprivation was absorbed by the lower classes, leaving the ruling class – and the overall social structure – intact. …

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. Well, that's a relief.

We've got nothing to worry about, then.