Early Triassic super-greenhouse climate driven by vegetation collapse

<p><strong>The Permian&#8211;Triassic Mass Extinction (PTME), life&#8217;s most severe crisis</strong><strong>¹</strong><strong>, has been attributed to </strong><strong>intense global warming triggered by CO</strong><strong>₂</strong><strong>&#160;emissions from Large Igneous Province volcanism</strong><strong>²</strong><strong>^&#8211;</strong><strong>⁸</strong><strong>. It remains unclear, however, why super-greenhouse conditions persisted for around five million years after the </strong><strong>volcanic episode</strong><strong>, when Earth system feedbacks should have returned temperatures to pre-extinction levels within a few hundred thousand years</strong><strong>⁸</strong><strong>. Here we </strong><strong>reconstruct spatio-temporal maps of plant productivity </strong><strong>through the Permian&#8211;Triassic and undertake climate-</strong><strong>bio</strong><strong>geochemical modelling to investigate the unusual longevity and intensity of warming. Our reconstruction</strong><strong>s</strong><strong>&#160;show that terrestrial vegetation collapse during the PTME, especially in tropical regions, resulted in an Earth system with low levels of organic carbon sequestration and chemical weathering, leading to limited drawdown of greenhouse gases</strong><strong>&#160;a</strong><strong>nd</strong><strong>&#160;protracted period of extremely high surface temperatures</strong><strong>.</strong></p>