Warm plankton soup and red herrings: Calcareous nannoplankton cellular communities and the Paleocene-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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ftsouthampton:oai:eprints.soton.ac.uk:422299 2023-07-30T04:06:06+02:00 Warm plankton soup and red herrings: Calcareous nannoplankton cellular communities and the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum Gibbs, Samantha Sheward, Rosie Bown, Paul Poulton, Alex Alvarez, Sarah 2018-10-13 text https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/422299/ https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/422299/1/Gibbs_etal_2018accepted.pdf en English eng https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/422299/1/Gibbs_etal_2018accepted.pdf Gibbs, Samantha, Sheward, Rosie, Bown, Paul, Poulton, Alex and Alvarez, Sarah (2018) Warm plankton soup and red herrings: Calcareous nannoplankton cellular communities and the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society A, 376 (2130). (doi:10.1098/rsta.2017.0075 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0075>). accepted_manuscript Article PeerReviewed 2018 ftsouthampton https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0075 2023-07-09T22:23:42Z 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 CO2 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ocean acidification University of Southampton: e-Prints Soton Maud Rise ENVELOPE(3.000,3.000,-66.000,-66.000) Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 376 2130 20170075 |
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Open Polar |
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University of Southampton: e-Prints Soton |
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ftsouthampton |
language |
English |
description |
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 CO2 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. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gibbs, Samantha Sheward, Rosie Bown, Paul Poulton, Alex Alvarez, Sarah |
spellingShingle |
Gibbs, Samantha Sheward, Rosie Bown, Paul Poulton, Alex Alvarez, Sarah Warm plankton soup and red herrings: Calcareous nannoplankton cellular communities and the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum |
author_facet |
Gibbs, Samantha Sheward, Rosie Bown, Paul Poulton, Alex Alvarez, Sarah |
author_sort |
Gibbs, Samantha |
title |
Warm plankton soup and red herrings: Calcareous nannoplankton cellular communities and the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum |
title_short |
Warm plankton soup and red herrings: Calcareous nannoplankton cellular communities and the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum |
title_full |
Warm plankton soup and red herrings: Calcareous nannoplankton cellular communities and the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum |
title_fullStr |
Warm plankton soup and red herrings: Calcareous nannoplankton cellular communities and the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum |
title_full_unstemmed |
Warm plankton soup and red herrings: Calcareous nannoplankton cellular communities and the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum |
title_sort |
warm plankton soup and red herrings: calcareous nannoplankton cellular communities and the paleocene-eocene thermal maximum |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/422299/ https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/422299/1/Gibbs_etal_2018accepted.pdf |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(3.000,3.000,-66.000,-66.000) |
geographic |
Maud Rise |
geographic_facet |
Maud Rise |
genre |
Ocean acidification |
genre_facet |
Ocean acidification |
op_relation |
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/422299/1/Gibbs_etal_2018accepted.pdf Gibbs, Samantha, Sheward, Rosie, Bown, Paul, Poulton, Alex and Alvarez, Sarah (2018) Warm plankton soup and red herrings: Calcareous nannoplankton cellular communities and the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society A, 376 (2130). (doi:10.1098/rsta.2017.0075 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0075>). |
op_rights |
accepted_manuscript |
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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1772818489189335040 |