Lack of nutrients stalled rebound of marine life post-Permian extinction
Hot seas altered nitrogen cycle, delaying recovery by millions of years
![Ellesmere Island](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/081916_ts_Permian_main_free.jpg?fit=860%2C460&ssl=1)
LONG DELAY A lack of nutrients may have delayed the recovery of marine ecosystems following the Permian extinction. On northern Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic, light-colored ocean sediments deposited after the extinction (bottom foreground) contain few nutrients; darker sediments that formed later (middle background along slope) are nutrient rich.
S. Grasby