Stable climate in India during Deccan volcanism suggests limited influence on K–Pg extinction

Abstract Large igneous provinces (LIPs) have been temporally correlated to mass extinctions throughout the Phanerozoic, including the emplacement of the Deccan Volcanic Province (DVP; 66.3–65.6 Ma) in western and central India, which has been invoked as either a cause or exacerbating factor in the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction. However, relatively little is known about local paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental responses to volcanism. To investigate the DVP's role as a driver of local environmental change and to provide climatic background for known ecological shifts, new inter-basaltic paleosol profiles at the eastern edge of the DVP are used in conjunction with profiles from the literature to reconstruct paleoclimate and terrestrial environments before and after the K–Pg. These profiles provide a novel opportunity to study the sediments within basalt flows before, during, and after a mass extinction event and in the midst of a LIP emplacement event. Paleoclimate proxies and the Floral Humidity Province proxy reflect little long-term change in either climate or environment across the K–Pg, with stable precipitation values and temperatures accompanied by a constant forest signal. These interpretations are corroborated by macrofloral records and sedimentology from India, which suggest some environmental turnover but generally support a forested, fluvio-lacustrine environment throughout the duration of volcanism. Our results support the possibility of rapid recovery times for terrestrial ecosystems during volcanism and suggest that while DVP eruptions may have exacerbated long-term environmental perturbation, the emplacement of the DVP is not likely to have caused the terrestrial mass extinction at the K–Pg boundary.