Mass Extinctions Due To Sea Level Changes, Study Says

[Guest Nicholas]

I want to here peoples input on this study, just try not to get the thread closed.

Find the link HERE!

[Auspex]

Changes in sea level are certainly a factor in global ecology. Whether sea level changes are direct engines of extinction, or ancillary events caused by (and amplifying) other root phenomina, is hard to conclude. The global ecosystem can absorb an amazing amount of climactic variation (indeed, the system requires change), but anything that accelerates the rate of change beyond what the keystone species can adapt to will cause a domino of extinctions. This study is a piece of a puzzle that can only be seen as a cohesive whole from a distance, and that distance renders the details of each piece invisible. The human mind, aware in its own scale, makes it practically impossible to comprehend the macro- and micro-factors as one. Necessarily, the popular press can only present pieces of pieces.

[Guest solius symbiosus]

I was taught that climatic changes due to orogenic episodes brought about the past extinctions. I never "bought" into extra-terrestrial explanations. Perhaps, an asteroid was "the straw that broke the camels back", but evidence suggests K/T mass extinction was happening long before the catastrophic event.

Too, catastrophic events haven't been able to explain the other mass extinctions.

[marnixR]

hmmm - i'm always wary of people who turn a mathematical correlation into a causal one

on the one hand, sea level changes may cause environmental changes that lead to extinctions, but i can think of other explanations, such as other agents that cause extinctions and at the same time cause the sea levels to change (e.g. ice ages, changes in sea floor spreading and volcanicity)

also, sea levels change all the time - with a proper pick-and-choose selectivity you'll be able to match extinctions with sea levels, but what about the other times that sea level changes did not cause extinctions ?

[Archimedes]

Auspex I like your popular press idea, to print something outside of the box is not kind to your career

I do know of a great sea level change and fluctuations occurring in the Cherter (upper Mississippian) that did not precipitate an extinction.

Thanks for posting this

[Auspex]

...Thanks for posting this

Nicholas posted the article and called for comment; I just put in my two-cents worth. I hope the thread stays up and a lot of folks chime in! Ecology was my major, and paleoecology my unofficial application; listening to as many angles as possible keeps what I think I know from taking over.

[Guest Nicholas]

Thank you for your input guys, I'm still brooding over what I think about this but I would love to here any further inquiries about this article.