Movement of deep-sea coral populations on climatic timescales

During the past 40,000 years, global climate has moved into and out of a full glacial period, with the deglaciation marked by several millennial-scale rapid climate change events. Here we investigate the ecological response of deep-sea coral communities to both glaciation and these rapid climate cha...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Thiagarajan, Nivedita, Gerlach, Dana, Roberts, Mark L., Burke, Andrea, McNichol, Ann, Jenkins, William J., Subhas, Adam V., Thresher, Ronald E., Adkins, Jess F.
Format: Text
Language:unknown
Published: Columbia University 2013
Subjects:
Ecology
FOS Biological sciences
Chemical oceanography
Marine biology
Marine ecology
North Atlantic
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.7916/d8v4157r
https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D8V4157R
Description
Summary:During the past 40,000 years, global climate has moved into and out of a full glacial period, with the deglaciation marked by several millennial-scale rapid climate change events. Here we investigate the ecological response of deep-sea coral communities to both glaciation and these rapid climate change events. We find that the deep-sea coral populations of Desmophyllum dianthus in both the North Atlantic and the Tasmanian seamounts expand at times of rapid climate change. However, during the more stable Last Glacial Maximum, the coral population globally retreats to a more restricted depth range. Holocene populations show regional patterns that provide some insight into what causes these dramatic changes in population structure. The most important factors are likely responses to climatically driven changes in productivity, [O2] and [CO32–].

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