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Did early land plants produce a step-change in atmospheric oxygen centered on the Late Ordovician Sandbian Age ~458 Ma?

Adiatma, Yoseph Datu
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1546386257035643

Abstract Details

2019, Master of Science, Ohio State University, Earth Sciences.
A step-change in atmospheric oxygen (O2) levels in the Ordovician has been attributed to the emergence of land plants. This phenomenon is tied to a major baseline shift in the stable carbon isotope (δ13C) curve consistent with an increase in nutrient delivery and enhanced primary productivity in the ocean and land, leading to high organic carbon burial. The timing and magnitude of this baseline shift, however, is still elusive in part because of the lack of high resolution δ13C data from this period. Much of the existing Ordovician 13C literature is focused on isotopic excursions with less emphasis on identifying long term shifts in baseline (pre- and post-excursion) values. This study presents new 13C curves from stratigraphic sections at Germany Valley (West Virginia) and Union Furnace (Pennsylvania) in the Central Appalachian Basin. These sections span the Upper Ordovician Sandbian Stage (~ 458.4 to 453.0 Ma) and cross into the Lower Katian Stage. The curves from both sections are characterized by relative stability and light (< 0‰) carbon isotope values in the Early Sandbian, followed by a shift toward positive values (> 0‰) in the Late Sandbian. I propose that the positive shift represents a long-term global shift in the δ13C baseline. A temporal relationship between this positive shift and diversification of liverworts clade and a clade that letter became mosses, hornworts, and vascular plants from their common ancestor in terrestrial plants suggests an organic carbon burial (net release of oxygen) mechanism for the stepwise oxygenation of the atmosphere in the Late Ordovician.
Matthew Saltzman (Advisor)
Elizabeth Griffith (Committee Member)
Thomas Darrah (Committee Member)
62 p.
Earth; Geology; Sedimentary Geology
carbon isotopes stratigraphy; ordovician; land plants; chemostratigraphy

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Citations

  • Adiatma, Y. D. (2019). Did early land plants produce a step-change in atmospheric oxygen centered on the Late Ordovician Sandbian Age ~458 Ma? [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1546386257035643

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Adiatma, Yoseph. Did early land plants produce a step-change in atmospheric oxygen centered on the Late Ordovician Sandbian Age ~458 Ma? 2019. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1546386257035643.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Adiatma, Yoseph. "Did early land plants produce a step-change in atmospheric oxygen centered on the Late Ordovician Sandbian Age ~458 Ma?" Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1546386257035643

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1546386257035643
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© 2019, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Did early land plants produce a step-change in atmospheric oxygen centered on the Late Ordovician Sandbian Age ~458 Ma? by Yoseph Datu Adiatma is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.