Global warming is a prevailing concern around the world. A New study states that increased volcanic activity caused some of the biggest natural calamities on earth. Additionally, current oceanic temperatures are leading to rise in multicellular marine species, similar to earlier events.
Furthermore, the research team also discovered that ice age period lasted for over several million years. Earlier studies believed the ice age was a brief transition. However, the new study by scientists at natural history museum paleontologists suggests otherwise. The team also reports that the biodiversity extinction during ice age required another 40 million years for the environment to overcome.
Scientists also provided new insights into the Ordovician geologic period. During this period, which happened nearly 443 million years ago, over 85% species on earth became extinct. Until now, it was believed that the global cooling led to this colossal destruction. The new study published in PNAS reports that volcanism was the main cause for the destruction.
Christian Mac Ørum from the Natural history Museum of Denmark, at the University of Copenhagen led this research.
Repercussions of a Warming Planet
According to Christian, one of the biggest challenges before scientists was to predict the effects of global warming on ecosystems and on biodiversity. As the planet warms, it is necessary to understand adaptability mechanisms of animals.
Studies like this can provide an answer to causes of crisis in ecosystems and the repercussions. However, due to the large-scale of mapping biodiversity over a geological scale, these questions had earlier hovered in the realm of a more simplistic understanding.
Researchers in this study have mapped out 5 main extinction events from the past, which have changed the world. Globally, scientists are talking about a looming sixth such event, the human-induced global warming.
