Ocean warming, not acidification, controlled coccolithophore response during past greenhouse climate change
Current carbon dioxide emissions are an assumed threat to oceanic calcifying plankton (coccolithophores) not just due to rising sea-surface temperatures, but also because of ocean acidification (OA). This assessment is based on single species culture experiments that are now revealing complex, syner...
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Online Access: | https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/386129/ https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/386129/1/Geology-2016-Gibbs-59-62.pdf |
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ftsouthampton:oai:eprints.soton.ac.uk:386129 2023-08-27T04:11:21+02:00 Ocean warming, not acidification, controlled coccolithophore response during past greenhouse climate change Gibbs, Samantha J. Bown, Paul R. Ridgwell, Andy Young, Jeremy R. Poulton, Alex J. O’Dea, Sarah A. 2016-01 text https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/386129/ https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/386129/1/Geology-2016-Gibbs-59-62.pdf en English eng https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/386129/1/Geology-2016-Gibbs-59-62.pdf Gibbs, Samantha J., Bown, Paul R., Ridgwell, Andy, Young, Jeremy R., Poulton, Alex J. and O’Dea, Sarah A. (2016) Ocean warming, not acidification, controlled coccolithophore response during past greenhouse climate change. Geology, 44 (1), 59-62. (doi:10.1130/G37273.1 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G37273.1>). cc_by_4 Article PeerReviewed 2016 ftsouthampton https://doi.org/10.1130/G37273.1 2023-08-03T22:21:28Z Current carbon dioxide emissions are an assumed threat to oceanic calcifying plankton (coccolithophores) not just due to rising sea-surface temperatures, but also because of ocean acidification (OA). This assessment is based on single species culture experiments that are now revealing complex, synergistic, and adaptive responses to such environmental change. Despite this complexity, there is still a widespread perception that coccolithophore calcification will be inhibited by OA. These plankton have an excellent fossil record, and so we can test for the impact of OA during geological carbon cycle events, providing the added advantages of exploring entire communities across real-world major climate perturbation and recovery. Here we target fossil coccolithophore groups (holococcoliths and braarudosphaerids) expected to exhibit greatest sensitivity to acidification because of their reliance on extracellular calcification. Across the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (56 Ma) rapid warming event, the biogeography and abundance of these extracellular calcifiers shifted dramatically, disappearing entirely from low latitudes to become limited to cooler, lower saturation-state areas. By comparing these range shift data with the environmental parameters from an Earth system model, we show that the principal control on these range retractions was temperature, with survival maintained in high-latitude refugia, despite more adverse ocean chemistry conditions. Deleterious effects of OA were only evidenced when twinned with elevated temperatures. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ocean acidification University of Southampton: e-Prints Soton Geology 44 1 59 62 |
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Open Polar |
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University of Southampton: e-Prints Soton |
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ftsouthampton |
language |
English |
description |
Current carbon dioxide emissions are an assumed threat to oceanic calcifying plankton (coccolithophores) not just due to rising sea-surface temperatures, but also because of ocean acidification (OA). This assessment is based on single species culture experiments that are now revealing complex, synergistic, and adaptive responses to such environmental change. Despite this complexity, there is still a widespread perception that coccolithophore calcification will be inhibited by OA. These plankton have an excellent fossil record, and so we can test for the impact of OA during geological carbon cycle events, providing the added advantages of exploring entire communities across real-world major climate perturbation and recovery. Here we target fossil coccolithophore groups (holococcoliths and braarudosphaerids) expected to exhibit greatest sensitivity to acidification because of their reliance on extracellular calcification. Across the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (56 Ma) rapid warming event, the biogeography and abundance of these extracellular calcifiers shifted dramatically, disappearing entirely from low latitudes to become limited to cooler, lower saturation-state areas. By comparing these range shift data with the environmental parameters from an Earth system model, we show that the principal control on these range retractions was temperature, with survival maintained in high-latitude refugia, despite more adverse ocean chemistry conditions. Deleterious effects of OA were only evidenced when twinned with elevated temperatures. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gibbs, Samantha J. Bown, Paul R. Ridgwell, Andy Young, Jeremy R. Poulton, Alex J. O’Dea, Sarah A. |
spellingShingle |
Gibbs, Samantha J. Bown, Paul R. Ridgwell, Andy Young, Jeremy R. Poulton, Alex J. O’Dea, Sarah A. Ocean warming, not acidification, controlled coccolithophore response during past greenhouse climate change |
author_facet |
Gibbs, Samantha J. Bown, Paul R. Ridgwell, Andy Young, Jeremy R. Poulton, Alex J. O’Dea, Sarah A. |
author_sort |
Gibbs, Samantha J. |
title |
Ocean warming, not acidification, controlled coccolithophore response during past greenhouse climate change |
title_short |
Ocean warming, not acidification, controlled coccolithophore response during past greenhouse climate change |
title_full |
Ocean warming, not acidification, controlled coccolithophore response during past greenhouse climate change |
title_fullStr |
Ocean warming, not acidification, controlled coccolithophore response during past greenhouse climate change |
title_full_unstemmed |
Ocean warming, not acidification, controlled coccolithophore response during past greenhouse climate change |
title_sort |
ocean warming, not acidification, controlled coccolithophore response during past greenhouse climate change |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/386129/ https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/386129/1/Geology-2016-Gibbs-59-62.pdf |
genre |
Ocean acidification |
genre_facet |
Ocean acidification |
op_relation |
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/386129/1/Geology-2016-Gibbs-59-62.pdf Gibbs, Samantha J., Bown, Paul R., Ridgwell, Andy, Young, Jeremy R., Poulton, Alex J. and O’Dea, Sarah A. (2016) Ocean warming, not acidification, controlled coccolithophore response during past greenhouse climate change. Geology, 44 (1), 59-62. (doi:10.1130/G37273.1 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G37273.1>). |
op_rights |
cc_by_4 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1130/G37273.1 |
container_title |
Geology |
container_volume |
44 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
59 |
op_container_end_page |
62 |
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1775354053949128704 |