The early Paleozoic carbon cycle

A review of O, C, Sr and S isotope trends for the entire Phanerozoic shows that the present-day values of isotope signals are similar to those at the Proterozoic termination. The sharp rise in Sr-87/Sr-86 since similar to 65 Ma has been attributed to an uplift and subsequent metamorphism and erosion associated with the Himalayas and Tibet. This orogenic evolution has been postulated to have influenced the global organic and inorganic carbon cycles and climate as well. A similar large-scale orogeny, the Pan-African event, also dominated the Neoproterozoic (Vendian) times, and the similarity of modern and Neoproterozoic isotope values for seawater may therefore have had a comparable tectonic cause. In this contribution, we present the results of a numerical model of the coupled C-alkalinity-S-Sr cycles suggesting that the early Paleozoic (from early Cambrian to late Devonian) evolution of Sr, O, C and S seawater isotope signals could have been the consequence of progressive oxidation of a large reduced carbon reservoir exhumed during the Pan-African orogeny. The delta O-18 measured in brachiopod shells is used as a forcing of the model, postulating that any change in the oxygen isotopic composition of seawater is the result of a disequilibrium in the organic carbon subcycle through the coupling of the oxygen isotopic and carbon cycles. The calculated delta C-13, Sr-87/Sr-86 and delta S-34 are in good agreement with the data, as is the reasonable calculated history for atmospheric pCO(2) and its relation to global climate. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.