Revisiting the sedimentary record of the rise of diatoms
Diatoms are a major primary producer in the modern oceans and play a critical role in the marine silica cycle. Their rise to dominance is recognized as one of the largest shifts in Cenozoic marine ecosystems, but the timing of this transition is debated. Here, we use a diagenetic model to examine th...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:8271627 2023-05-15T15:37:12+02:00 Revisiting the sedimentary record of the rise of diatoms Westacott, Sophie Planavsky, Noah J. Zhao, Ming-Yu Hull, Pincelli M. 2021-07-06 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8271627/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34183398 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2103517118 en eng National Academy of Sciences http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8271627/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34183398 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2103517118 https://www.pnas.org/site/aboutpnas/licenses.xhtmlPublished under the PNAS license (https://www.pnas.org/site/aboutpnas/licenses.xhtml) . Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Physical Sciences Text 2021 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2103517118 2022-01-02T01:23:33Z Diatoms are a major primary producer in the modern oceans and play a critical role in the marine silica cycle. Their rise to dominance is recognized as one of the largest shifts in Cenozoic marine ecosystems, but the timing of this transition is debated. Here, we use a diagenetic model to examine the effect of sedimentation rate and temperature on the burial efficiency of biogenic silica over the past 66 million years (i.e., the Cenozoic). We find that the changing preservation potential of siliceous microfossils during that time would have overprinted the primary signal of diatom and radiolarian abundance. We generate a taphonomic null hypothesis of the diatom fossil record by assuming a constant flux of diatoms to the sea floor and having diagenetic conditions driven by observed shifts in temperature and sedimentation rate. This null hypothesis produces a late Cenozoic (∼5 Ma to 20 Ma) increase in the relative abundance of fossilized diatoms that is comparable to current empirical records. This suggests that the observed increase in diatom abundance in the sedimentary record may be driven by changing preservation potential. A late Cenozoic rise in diatoms has been causally tied to the rise of grasslands and baleen whales and to declining atmospheric CO(2) levels. Here we suggest that the similarity among these records primarily arises from a common driver—the cooling climate system—that drove enhanced diatom preservation as well as the rise of grasslands and whales, rather than a causal link among them. Text baleen whales PubMed Central (PMC) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118 27 |
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Physical Sciences Westacott, Sophie Planavsky, Noah J. Zhao, Ming-Yu Hull, Pincelli M. Revisiting the sedimentary record of the rise of diatoms |
topic_facet |
Physical Sciences |
description |
Diatoms are a major primary producer in the modern oceans and play a critical role in the marine silica cycle. Their rise to dominance is recognized as one of the largest shifts in Cenozoic marine ecosystems, but the timing of this transition is debated. Here, we use a diagenetic model to examine the effect of sedimentation rate and temperature on the burial efficiency of biogenic silica over the past 66 million years (i.e., the Cenozoic). We find that the changing preservation potential of siliceous microfossils during that time would have overprinted the primary signal of diatom and radiolarian abundance. We generate a taphonomic null hypothesis of the diatom fossil record by assuming a constant flux of diatoms to the sea floor and having diagenetic conditions driven by observed shifts in temperature and sedimentation rate. This null hypothesis produces a late Cenozoic (∼5 Ma to 20 Ma) increase in the relative abundance of fossilized diatoms that is comparable to current empirical records. This suggests that the observed increase in diatom abundance in the sedimentary record may be driven by changing preservation potential. A late Cenozoic rise in diatoms has been causally tied to the rise of grasslands and baleen whales and to declining atmospheric CO(2) levels. Here we suggest that the similarity among these records primarily arises from a common driver—the cooling climate system—that drove enhanced diatom preservation as well as the rise of grasslands and whales, rather than a causal link among them. |
format |
Text |
author |
Westacott, Sophie Planavsky, Noah J. Zhao, Ming-Yu Hull, Pincelli M. |
author_facet |
Westacott, Sophie Planavsky, Noah J. Zhao, Ming-Yu Hull, Pincelli M. |
author_sort |
Westacott, Sophie |
title |
Revisiting the sedimentary record of the rise of diatoms |
title_short |
Revisiting the sedimentary record of the rise of diatoms |
title_full |
Revisiting the sedimentary record of the rise of diatoms |
title_fullStr |
Revisiting the sedimentary record of the rise of diatoms |
title_full_unstemmed |
Revisiting the sedimentary record of the rise of diatoms |
title_sort |
revisiting the sedimentary record of the rise of diatoms |
publisher |
National Academy of Sciences |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8271627/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34183398 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2103517118 |
genre |
baleen whales |
genre_facet |
baleen whales |
op_source |
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8271627/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34183398 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2103517118 |
op_rights |
https://www.pnas.org/site/aboutpnas/licenses.xhtmlPublished under the PNAS license (https://www.pnas.org/site/aboutpnas/licenses.xhtml) . |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2103517118 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
container_volume |
118 |
container_issue |
27 |
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1766367661268140032 |