Temperature-related stresses as a unifying principle in ancient extinctions (TERSANE)

Climate change is increasingly being recognized as a driver of modern ecological changes including local extinctions. However, global species extinctions are still rarely attributed to climate change. In contrast, the fossil record offers a rich suite of examples of climate-driven extinctions including mass extinctions. Temperature, oxygen and pH were the dominant climate-related extinction drivers in the marine realm.

Over the last six years, the Germany-based TERSANE research unit with nine collaborating research teams has explored the role of climate changes over timescales ranging from hours to millions of years and genealogical scales from individual organisms to ecosystems. We focused empirically on physiological responses of bivalves, the abiotic and biotic changes across the end-Permian and Pliensbachian-Toarcian hyperthermals, and Phanerozoic-scale patterns focusing on extinction selectivity, body size changes, the role of climate history, and the vulnerability of reef systems across ancient warming events. This talk will summarize TERSANE’s accomplishments focusing on the relevance of results for current climate warming with special reference to different time scales.