Warm plankton soup and red herrings: calcareous nannoplankton cellular communities and the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum
Past global warming events such as the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM—56 Ma) are attributed to the release of vast amounts of carbon into the ocean, atmosphere and biosphere with recovery ascribed to a combination of silicate weathering and organic carbon burial. The phytoplanktonic nannopl...
Published in: | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences |
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsta.2017.0075 2024-09-15T18:28:21+00:00 Warm plankton soup and red herrings: calcareous nannoplankton cellular communities and the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Gibbs, Samantha J. Sheward, Rosie M. Bown, Paul R. Poulton, Alex J. Alvarez, Sarah A. Natural Environment Research Council UK Ocean Acidification programme European Union for post-doctoral research 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0075 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsta.2017.0075 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsta.2017.0075 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences volume 376, issue 2130, page 20170075 ISSN 1364-503X 1471-2962 journal-article 2018 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0075 2024-07-08T04:26:36Z Past global warming events such as the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM—56 Ma) are attributed to the release of vast amounts of carbon into the ocean, atmosphere and biosphere with recovery ascribed to a combination of silicate weathering and organic carbon burial. The phytoplanktonic nannoplankton are major contributors of organic and inorganic carbon but their role in this recovery process remains poorly understood and complicated by their contribution to marine calcification. Biocalcification is implicated not only in long-term carbon burial but also both short-term positive and negative climatic feedbacks associated with seawater buffering and responses to ocean acidification. Here, we use exceptional records of preserved fossil coccospheres to reconstruct cell size distribution, biomass production (particulate organic carbon, POC) and (particulate) inorganic carbon (PIC) yields of three contrasting nannoplankton communities (Bass River—outer shelf, Maud Rise—uppermost bathyal, Shatsky Rise—open ocean) through the PETM onset and recovery. Each of the sites shows contrasting community responses across the PETM as a function of their taxic composition and total community biomass. Our results indicate that nannoplankton PIC:POC had no role in short-term climate feedback and, as such, their importance as a source of CO 2 to the environment is a red herring. It is nevertheless likely that shifts to greater numbers of smaller cells at the shelf site in particular led to greater carbon transfer efficiency, and that nannoplankton productivity and export across the shelves had a significant modulating effect on carbon sequestration during the PETM recovery. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Hyperthermals: rapid and extreme global warming in our geological past’. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ocean acidification The Royal Society Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 376 2130 20170075 |
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English |
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Past global warming events such as the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM—56 Ma) are attributed to the release of vast amounts of carbon into the ocean, atmosphere and biosphere with recovery ascribed to a combination of silicate weathering and organic carbon burial. The phytoplanktonic nannoplankton are major contributors of organic and inorganic carbon but their role in this recovery process remains poorly understood and complicated by their contribution to marine calcification. Biocalcification is implicated not only in long-term carbon burial but also both short-term positive and negative climatic feedbacks associated with seawater buffering and responses to ocean acidification. Here, we use exceptional records of preserved fossil coccospheres to reconstruct cell size distribution, biomass production (particulate organic carbon, POC) and (particulate) inorganic carbon (PIC) yields of three contrasting nannoplankton communities (Bass River—outer shelf, Maud Rise—uppermost bathyal, Shatsky Rise—open ocean) through the PETM onset and recovery. Each of the sites shows contrasting community responses across the PETM as a function of their taxic composition and total community biomass. Our results indicate that nannoplankton PIC:POC had no role in short-term climate feedback and, as such, their importance as a source of CO 2 to the environment is a red herring. It is nevertheless likely that shifts to greater numbers of smaller cells at the shelf site in particular led to greater carbon transfer efficiency, and that nannoplankton productivity and export across the shelves had a significant modulating effect on carbon sequestration during the PETM recovery. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Hyperthermals: rapid and extreme global warming in our geological past’. |
author2 |
Natural Environment Research Council UK Ocean Acidification programme European Union for post-doctoral research |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gibbs, Samantha J. Sheward, Rosie M. Bown, Paul R. Poulton, Alex J. Alvarez, Sarah A. |
spellingShingle |
Gibbs, Samantha J. Sheward, Rosie M. Bown, Paul R. Poulton, Alex J. Alvarez, Sarah A. Warm plankton soup and red herrings: calcareous nannoplankton cellular communities and the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum |
author_facet |
Gibbs, Samantha J. Sheward, Rosie M. Bown, Paul R. Poulton, Alex J. Alvarez, Sarah A. |
author_sort |
Gibbs, Samantha J. |
title |
Warm plankton soup and red herrings: calcareous nannoplankton cellular communities and the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum |
title_short |
Warm plankton soup and red herrings: calcareous nannoplankton cellular communities and the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum |
title_full |
Warm plankton soup and red herrings: calcareous nannoplankton cellular communities and the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum |
title_fullStr |
Warm plankton soup and red herrings: calcareous nannoplankton cellular communities and the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum |
title_full_unstemmed |
Warm plankton soup and red herrings: calcareous nannoplankton cellular communities and the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum |
title_sort |
warm plankton soup and red herrings: calcareous nannoplankton cellular communities and the palaeocene–eocene thermal maximum |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0075 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsta.2017.0075 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsta.2017.0075 |
genre |
Ocean acidification |
genre_facet |
Ocean acidification |
op_source |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences volume 376, issue 2130, page 20170075 ISSN 1364-503X 1471-2962 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0075 |
container_title |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences |
container_volume |
376 |
container_issue |
2130 |
container_start_page |
20170075 |
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1810469695066734592 |