A new study provides insight into the sulfur cycle of the Early Triassic, a five-million-year-long period marked by episodic peturbations in both the global carbon and sulfur cycles. The Early Triassic immediately followed the end-Permian mass extinction, the largest extinction event known to have occurred on Earth and an important event in the evolution of life. Researchers analysed samples of a continental shelf section from the Spiti Valley in India. The results indicate that sea temperatures in this region of the Earth cooled during the Early Triassic. The study discusses scenarios for how this cooling caused marked changes in marine microbial communities, which in turn had direct affects on the sulfur cycle.

The study, “Marine sulfur cycle evidence for upwelling and eutrophic stresses during early triassic cooling events,” was published in the journal Earth-Science Reviews. The work was supported by NASA Astrobiology through the Exobiology Program.