The Late Devonian is a unique interval in Earth's history during which the proliferation of rooted land plants triggered a cascade of Earth system perturbations, including atmospheric CO2 drawdown and O2 rise, sea-level fluctuations, eutrophication and widespread development of anoxia in epicontinental seas, and ultimately, a series of mass extinctions that fundamentally altered the trajectory of Earth’s biosphere. Of particular interest are the two largest pulses of the Late Devonian mass extinction—the Kellwasser and Hangenberg events—as well as a series of smaller biotic crises (e.g., Rinhestreet, Annulata, Dasberg) that occurred between these seminal extinctions. These bioevents are variably recorded in numerous organic-rich black shales that fill a series of epicratonic basins across North America and in other locations around the globe. 

Funding: 

NSF Collaborative Research: Integrated Late Devonian Earth evolution: Diverse perspectives on ocean-climate-biosphere interaction from Laurentia and Gondwana

Peer-reviewed publications:

Remírez, M., Gilleaudeau, G., Elrick, M., Henderson, M., Over, J., Willette, D., Algeo, T., 2023. Linking anoxia, biotic events, and basin evolution in the Late Devonian Illinois Basin, North America: A geochemical approach. Marine and Petroleum Geology,  158b, 106556.

Gilleaudeau, G. J.,  Wei, W., Remírez, M., Song, Y., Lyons, T. W., Bates, S., Anbar, A. D., Algeo, T. J., 2023. Geochemical and hydrographic evolution of the Late Devonian Appalachian Seaway: Linking sedimentation, redox, and salinity across time and space. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 24, e2023GC010973.

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