Ocean acidification
Three of the big five mass extinction events in the geologic past were associated with a rapid increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, probably due to volcanism and/or thermal dissociation of marine gas hydrates. Early research focused on the climatic effects of the elevated CO2 levels on biodiversity, but in 2004, decreased CaCO3 saturation due to seawater uptake of volcanogenic CO2 was suggested as a possible kill mechanism during the marine mass extinction at the end of the Triassic. The end-Triassic biotic crisis is still the most well-established example of a marine mass extinction due to ocean acidification, because (a) volcanic activity, changes in carbon isotopes, decrease of carbonate sedimentation, and marine extinction coincided precisely in the stratigraphic record, and (b) there was pronounced selectivity of the extinction against organisms with thick aragonitic skeletons, which is predicted from experimental studies. Ocean acidification has also been suggested as a cause of the end-Permian mass extinction and the end-Cretaceous crisis.