riverine flux of phosphate to the ocean. The phosphate would have supported greater primary productivity in the surface oceans. The increase in organic matter production would have caused more organic matter to sink into the deep ocean, where its respiration would further decrease oxygen concentrations. Once anoxia became established, it would have been sustained by a positive feedback loop because deep water anoxia tends to increase the recycling efficiency of phosphate, leading to even higher productivity. A severe anoxic event at the end of the Permian would have allowed sulfate-reducing bacteria to thrive, causing the production of large amounts of hydrogen sulfide in the anoxic ocean, turning it euxinic. Upwelling of this water may have released massive hydrogen sulfide emissions into the atmosphere and would poison terrestrial plants and animals and severely weaken the ozone layer, exposing much of the life that remained to fatal levels of UV radiation. Indeed, biomarker evidence for anaerobic photosynthesis by Chlorobiaceae (green sulfur bacteria) from the Late-Permian into the Early Triassic indicates that hydrogen sulfide did upwell into shallow waters because these bacteria are restricted to the photic zone and use sulfide as an electron donor. The hypothesis has the advantage of explaining the mass extinction of plants, which would have added to the methane levels and should otherwise have thrived in an atmosphere with a high level of carbon dioxide. Fossil spores from the end-Permian further support the theory; many spores show deformities that could have been caused by ultraviolet radiation, which would have been more intense after hydrogen sulfide emissions weakened the ozone layer. Fossilised plants from the time of the extinction event show an increase in ultraviolet B absorbing compounds, confirming that increased ultraviolet radiation played a role in the environmental catastrophe. Some scientists have challenged the anoxia hypothesis on the grounds that long-lasting anoxic conditions could not have been supported if Late Permian thermohaline ocean circulation conformed to the "thermal mode" characterised by cooling at high latitudes. Anoxia may have persisted under a "haline mode" in which circulation was driven by subtropical evaporation, although the "haline mode" is highly unstable and was unlikely to have represented Late Permian oceanic circulation. Aridification Analysis of the fossil river deposits of the floodplains indicate a shift from meandering to braided river patterns, indicating a very abrupt drying of the climate. The climate change may have taken as little as 100,000 years, prompting the