Methane-producing microbes were perpetrators of mass extinction 252 mn yrs ago: Study

April 1, 2014 Posted by Contributor

It was neither asteroid nor volcano, but methane-producing microbes that were the perpetrators of the largest of the Earth’s five known mass extinctions.

A new MIT study has found that microbes that produced methane were likely responsible for the largest mass extinction in the history of the Earth.

According to the researchers, they were one of the biggest events in the history of Earth as they wiped out 90 per cent of the planet’s species 252 million years ago.

Methane-producing microbes called Methanosarcina suddenly bloomed explosively in the oceans and churned out heavy amounts of methane into the atmosphere and dramatically changed the chemical composition of the oceans.

Explaining the reason for the unexpected and explosive growth of microbes, the researchers said, “This may be attributed to their ability to use a rich source of organic carbon required for their growth.”

Geophysics professors Daniel Rothman and Gregory Fournier of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and five other researchers at MIT and in China build their case based on three independent sets of evidence.

Firstly, geochemical evidence shows an exponential rise of CO2 in the oceans at the time of the mass extinction event.
Secondly, genetic evidence shows a change in Methanosarcina at that time. This allowed it to become a major producer of methane from an accumulation of organic carbon in the water.
Lastly, sediments show a sudden increase in the amount of nickel deposited at exactly this time.

The carbon deposits show that something caused a significant uptick in the amount of carbon-containing gases – carbon dioxide or methane – produced at the time of the mass extinction.

Fournier said, “A rapid initial injection of carbon dioxide from a volcano would be followed by a gradual decrease. Instead, we see the opposite: a rapid, continuing increase. That suggests a microbial expansion. The growth of microbial populations is among the few phenomena capable of increasing carbon production exponentially, or even faster.

The study was published in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science

William Forbes

Oh Boy, another issue to get Al Gore rolling. I expect he’ll be wanting to install methane detection devices on cows and pigs next.
- sfcanative
  
  Perhaps you could volunteer for the clinical trials . . .
- Daniel Golightly
  
  Or you could try to understand that methane already exists in an unstable state at the bottoms of the words oceans. If those alone were to be released in any sort of rapid succession, we would see serious problems. Add to that, the fact that an increase in ocean temperatures and in ocean acidity (which has already been reported to be happening, much more than air temps), is all it takes to increase the blooming of these kinds of microbes. Instead of making a straw man out of Gore, pigs, and cows…. try some actual scientific research.
  - jerome
    
    Daniel
    I agree with what you are saying about using someone as a ‘straw man’ but into today’s society we have to question any information given, especially if it is still theoretical. Is it coincidental that the United Nations report came out this week and now we have supporting evidence that CO2 can get out of control very easily and that the earth’s ecosystem is not capable of recovery? It is just odd in this world where it is all about raising grant money, that this campaign would unfold this way.
    - deekoo
      
      Governments have been concerned about the potential impact of global warming since at least the late 20th century, which has in turn driven a series of treaties and UN research projects. Paleontologists found a more reliable way to date rocks around the Permian/Triassic boundary around the turn of the millenium, which has in turn driven a lot of detailed research into the extinction. Given that both UN reports and paleontological papers have been coming out for over a decade, it’s not exactly surprising if they occasionally come out on the same week.
      
      UN climate change reports are also coming out on the same week as news stories discussing the possible breakup of Ukraine; that doesn’t mean that the US and Russia are conspiring to carve up Ukraine as a distraction from global warming.
- SeniorMoment (pen name)
  
  This actually isn’t that different in principle than the global warming now taking place which will at some point in the future make our species extinct because I believe Exxon Mobile that the world will never give up its addiction to petroleum and natural gas, even though simply conservation measures have lowered the US emissions of carbon.
James Weller

This is false. The earth is only 6000 years old. Destroyed 4500 years ago with a worldwide flood. If the earth were flatter there is enough water on the planet to cover everything over a mile deep. The mountains were formed during the flood. Watch Kent Hovinds movies for information on this.
- R. Pfeiffer
  
  And this man sincerely believes this hogwash. Scary
  - SeniorMoment (pen name)
    
    Actually it is hard to tell if James Weller really believes what he posted, but that population subgroup is the core of Republican Party’s far right religious support in the Southeast USA. Yet they won’t give up the fruits of science like all the electronics and appliances in their homes without a fight.
    
    Right now the Republican led states that refused to expand Medicaid at federal expense are about to get some of the fruits of their own choices with a sharp reduction in their share of per capita federal spending. All those extra Medicaid dollars will be only going to the states that expanded Medicaid, so the states that expanded Medicaid will see a reduction in the rate of increase in their health insurance premiums, while those that didn’t will continue to see increases well in excess of general inflation.
    
    When their doctors realize what the impact on their income of treating so many charity cases they didn’t have to treat is, they will abandon the states. Up until now the states of the old confederacy have received disproportionate federal grants because of how widespread poverty is in those states, but 2014 will reverse the flow of grants. Up until the Affordable Care Act those with health insurance were subsidizing the health care, especially in hospitals, of those without insurance in order to keep the hospitals in business.
- sfcanative
  
  Wait! I thought the world was flat. Are you tell me it isn’t?
  - SeniorMoment (pen name)
    
    If you want to act surprised about our planet’s shape, join the Flat Earth Society and have some fun.
- McPosterdoor
  
  The Earth or the Universe? Seems a little silly to have the Universe sitting around for 13.4 billion years until the star of the show popped up 6000 yrs ago. But if you mean Universe then there would be a lot less starlight in the sky since only the stars 6000 light years from us would have gotten here, but our galaxy is 100,000 light years long and we can see it and even outside it. So all of that is weird, huh. Watch Science for more information on this.
- John Santolucito
  
  Can’t tell if serious or troll… -_-
  - SeniorMoment (pen name)
    
    I feel sorry for James Weller if his comment was made other than in jest. It would show he could just as easily have lived 4,000 years ago and bypassed the following 4 millennium of scientific discoveries. But will he give up all the modern conveniences that were developed by engineers applying scientific discoveries, since after all if he believes the Earth is only 6,000 years old he should not enjoy any of the fruits of science to be consistent with his faith.
- SeniorMoment (pen name)
  
  You can believe what you want, but there is not a tiny shred of evidence for a 6,000 year old Earth. We wouldn’t even be able to see such distant stars if it were even remotely close to truth, since the rate of expansion of the universe is well established and we are all moving away from the point of origin of the Big Bang faster than the speed of light.
  - James Weller
    
    There’s lots of evidence that the universe is young. Saturn still has rings. The oceans are getting saltier. The moon is moving away. Jupiter is still cooling. We still have comets which should have lost there mass by now. The ort cloud doesn’t exist. There are more proofs. But some people don’t want there to be a God so they don’t have to follow His rules.
McPosterdoor

“The growth of microbial populations is among the few phenomena capable
of increasing carbon production exponentially, or even faster.”

I wonder what the other phenomena is that could do this? Oh yeah, I are that phenomena.
bremmermandrake

So global warming killed the dinosaur
- Ounce_Upon_A_Time
  
  No, this article is about 250 million years ago, not 60 million
- SeniorMoment (pen name)
  
  There have been five major extinctions with the sixth yet to come which will be the extinction of mankind ending the written record of past extinctions, so any new intelligent species to evolve would have to start the same research all over again in future millenniums. The planet will survive the loss of species, as it has in the past.
  
  For a concise description of past major extinctions see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/extinction_events but this article refers to only one of the extinction major events. It isn’t necessary in conflict with notions of extinction from impacts with Earth. Such an impact could have brought to Earth the organic carbon that prompted the extraordinary growth and change in function of Methanosarcin organisms which would have presumably reverted back once the organic carbon was used up.
NOCROMAN

I guess its time to start working on massive air scrubbers.
- SeniorMoment (pen name)
  
  It is possible to clean the air on land of the high concentration of global warming gas, but at considerable expense. It is however not possible to do that for the entire planet, the surface of which is 71% water. All those surface plankton and other small light dependent organisms way exceed the Mass of all the Earth’s mammals, including mankind.
  
  If we again see the kind of mass change in respiration of gases MIT is attributing to small organisms mankind will quickly die off along with most animal species. A few may survive in underground shelters equipped with centuries of carbon dioxide scrubbing supplies and thermal energy for heat and energy production, but only if planning is done for that to happen.
Art_V

Dinosaur farts.
Art_V

First the dinosaurs got brains, then they industrialized, and then killed themselves off on CO2 or CH4. Whatever.
Then they recovered about 100 million years later, reindustrialized, then nuked themselves (thus all the extra iridium in that layer).
Now we have man with an industrialized society and nukes. Time for us to raise the bar higher and find a new self-extermination tool.
SeniorMoment (pen name)

This came out just a day after my youngest son and I were discussing how some explosions of organisms producing carbon dioxide have created deserts of animal life around some lakes as sudden events. Before then I had not even been aware that the flora around us could effectively throw a switch and produce just carbon dioxide instead of their usual oxygen and carbon dioxide mix varying with the time of day.
Jack Heinly

All we have to do is convince Obammmmmma to drag out his magic pen. He will sign an executive order and it will all go away. Don’t worry be happy………..