Do the large carbon isotopic excursions in terrestrial organic matter across Paleocene–Eocene boundary in India indicate intensification of tropical precipitation?

Five distinct transient warming (hyperthermal) events (Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum [PETM], H1/ETM2/ELMO, H2, I1, and I2), marked by negative carbon isotope excursions (CIEs) occurred between Late Paleocene and Early Eocene (~ 56 to 52 Ma) interval. However, not many records of either the PETM or definitive Early Eocene Hyperthermals (EEHs) are yet available from terrestrial realm in the tropics except two neo-tropical sections of Colombia and Venezuela (Jaramillo et al., 2010). Therefore, response of the tropical biosphere to these warming events is not very well known. Here we report high resolution carbon isotope (δ13C) chemostratigraphy, biomarker, calcareous nannofossils, and pollen data from the Cambay shale Formation of Western India (paleolatitude ~ 5°S), which show complete preservation of all the above CIE events including the PETM, hitherto unknown from tropical terrestrial record. Comparatively larger magnitudes of CIEs for all the hyperthermal events (the PETM and EEHs) point towards a possible intensification of precipitation during the PETM and all the early Eocene hyperthermal/CIE events. This inference is supported by data of lignin phenols and presence of tropical rain forest elements spanning the entire time period ~ 56–52 Ma and suggest that higher organic burial and soil erosion favored deposition of thick lignitic seams as a consequence of high tropical precipitation.