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Ocean warming, not acidification, controlled coccolithophore response during past greenhouse climate change

Ocean warming, not acidification, controlled coccolithophore response during past greenhouse climate change
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, 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.
0091-7613
59-62
Gibbs, Samantha J.
82dfbcbc-3a8a-40da-8a80-fe7ad83f3110
Bown, Paul R.
773e1a6d-1c12-4e57-af3b-ec981390a64a
Ridgwell, Andy
769cea5c-e033-456a-8b53-51dfa307dc35
Young, Jeremy R.
18d63549-d248-4012-91b1-64382581ef53
Poulton, Alex J.
14bf64a7-d617-4913-b882-e8495543e717
O’Dea, Sarah A.
f341c5fb-b72e-42af-b25f-896e25b96141
Gibbs, Samantha J.
82dfbcbc-3a8a-40da-8a80-fe7ad83f3110
Bown, Paul R.
773e1a6d-1c12-4e57-af3b-ec981390a64a
Ridgwell, Andy
769cea5c-e033-456a-8b53-51dfa307dc35
Young, Jeremy R.
18d63549-d248-4012-91b1-64382581ef53
Poulton, Alex J.
14bf64a7-d617-4913-b882-e8495543e717
O’Dea, Sarah A.
f341c5fb-b72e-42af-b25f-896e25b96141

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).

Record type: Article

Abstract

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.

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e-pub ahead of print date: 4 December 2015
Published date: January 2016
Organisations: Paleooceanography & Palaeoclimate

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Local EPrints ID: 386129
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/386129
ISSN: 0091-7613
PURE UUID: 3b388c5d-97df-4e0b-819f-2bdfa435e549

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Date deposited: 19 Jan 2016 16:50
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 22:27

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Contributors

Author: Samantha J. Gibbs
Author: Paul R. Bown
Author: Andy Ridgwell
Author: Jeremy R. Young
Author: Alex J. Poulton
Author: Sarah A. O’Dea

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