The rise of trees and their effects on Paleozoic atmospheric CO2 and O2

The rise of large vascular plants during the mid-Paleozoic brought about a major increase in the rates of weathering of silicate minerals that induced a drop in the level of atmospheric CO2 and contributed, via the atmospheric greenhouse effect, to global cooling and the initiation of the most long lived and a really extensive glaciation of the past 550 million years. Sedimentary burial of the microbiologically resistant remains of the plants resulted during the Permo-Carboniferous in both further lowering of CO2 and in elevation of atmospheric O2. Evidence of changes in CO2 and O2 are provided by mathematical models, studies of paleosols, fossil plants, fossil insects, and the effects of modern plants on silicate weathering, and by laboratory studies of the effects of changes in O2 on plants and insects. To cite this article: R.A. Berner, C. R. Geoscience 335 (2003).