M.Sc. J. Müller

Project: Nutrient Cycles during the Permian-Triassic Transition (NUC)

Anthropogenic ocean warming is expected to result in increased ocean stratification and a decline in dissolved O₂ in the ocean interior with implications for nutrient cycling, primary productivity, carbon cycling and marine habitats. The Permian–Triassic (P-T) time interval can be seen as an extreme case analogue to the modern climate change. It not only witnessed the most catastrophic mass extinction of the Phanerozoic, but was accompanied by 8 to 10° C low latitudinal warming and extensive global ocean anoxia. The project aims to reconstruct the effect of global warming on nutrient cycles and primary productivity in latest Permian to Early Triassic oceans and to document whether these changes may have had an impact on faunal extinction/recovery.