Late Triassic palynology and carbon isotope stratigraphy from sections in the Germanic Basin and Southern Calcareous Alps.

The extinction rate of the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction and the amplitude of\nmicrofloral turnover are controversial and linked to Central Atlantic Magmatic Provence\n(CAMP) volcanism; however the exact contribution of this large igneous province is still\nheavily debated. In this paper, an interval spanning the Late Norian to Late Rhaetian\n(Late Triassic) from a section in the Germanic basin is presented. The section is\ncharacterized by the presence of multiple carbon isotope excursions, including the initial\ncarbon isotope excursion which is also found in other studies. The occurrence of multiple\nother carbon isotope excursions at Eisenach during the Rhaetian has not been found in\nmost previous studies. The initial carbon isotope excursion is concurrent with the transition\nof the pollen dominated palynomorph assemblages of the Contorta beds to the spores\ndominated Triletes beds. I show via PCA analyses that this transition is caused by humidity\nchanges and indirectly related to CAMP volcanism. Changes in sea level on the pollen\nto spores ratio, the so-called ‘Neves effect’ is only considered a secondary factor. I also\nshow that the relative abundances of spores already increased during the Middle\nRhaetian, well before the spore dominated Triletes beds. Additional sites from the Late\nNorian in northern Italy and Poland will also be discussed briefly.