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This study focuses on the Tianshifu Basin, eastern Liaoning, China, which is filled with Lower–Middle Jurassic fluviolacustrine sediments rich in macroplants. Our aim is to explore the continental climate features of the late Early Jurassic period. The composition of the Early–Middle Jurassic flora and the carbon isotopic ratios of organic matter, total organic carbon, total organic nitrogen and sulphur of the rock samples from the Changliangzi section (the upper part of the Lower Jurassic deposits) have been investigated. Based on the flora, eastern Liaoning was generally characterized by temperate and humid conditions during the Early–Middle Jurassic period, but with rising temperatures during late Early Jurassic time. The sediments of the Changliangzi section show a transformation from shallow-lake facies to deep-lake facies. A positive organic carbon isotope excursion correlates with the deepening of this palaeolake, considered to be caused by climate warming. The late Early Jurassic climate warming indicated by floral and isotopic evidence corresponds to the climatic events recorded elsewhere in marine and continental sequences during the Toarcian Age, the so-called Toarcian Anoxic event, and may be associated with enhanced global greenhouse warming. This study provides new continental data supporting global warming during the late Early Jurassic period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The beginning of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age was characterized by localized events with small ice depocenters occurring in South America and a series of cyclic shallow-water limestones in far-field regions, in late Visean to Serpukhovian. This paper documents two topmost Visean–Serpukhovian sections in Guangxi, South China: a stromatolite-bearing deep-water succession in Helv village and a shallow-water succession in Dujie village. Seventeen microfacies types have been recognized and grouped into six microfacies associations. The vertical evolution of the microfacies associations from deep-water to shallow-water depositional environments in both sections indicate a major relative sea-level fall in the latest Visean. The repetitive successions comprising different morphological stromatolites in Helv section and the cyclic alternation of subtidal and peritidal facies in Dujie section imply high-frequency sea-level fluctuations during latest Visean to Serpukhovian, most likely eustatic in origin. The carbon isotope data of Dujie limestone exhibit a pronounced positive δ13C excursion with ± 4.3‰ in the peritidal deposits. This shift is interpreted as the result of enhanced organic carbon burial in other regions and depletion of the ocean in light carbon. The widespread coeval cyclicity occurring in settings in South China, Western Europe, and North America is most likely the results of glacio-eustatic sea-level fluctuations, possibly with local influences of tectonic movements. This pattern is interpreted to represent the expression of the onset of the major glaciation during the LPIA in low-latitudinal successions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]