TY - JOUR
T1 - Ocean acidification and surface water carbonate production across the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum
AU - Gibbs, Samantha J.
AU - Stoll, Heather M.
AU - Bown, Paul R.
AU - Bralower, Timothy J.
N1 - Funding Information:
In the course of this research, SJG has been funded by fellowships from the Natural Environment Research Council and the Royal Society and we also acknowledge a fellowship to HMS from the Spanish Ministry of Education co-funded by the European Social Fund . This work was also supported by the National Science Foundation ( NSF EAR-0120727 to TJB and EAR-0628336 to HMS). The research used samples provided by the Ocean Drilling Program and we thank Debora Iglesias-Rodriguez, Peggy Delaney, Toby Tyrrell and Paul Wilson for invaluable discussions; Jim Zachos and Brandon Murphy for additional assistance, and three anonymous reviewers for their useful comments.
PY - 2010/7
Y1 - 2010/7
N2 - The addition of massive amounts of carbon to the ocean-atmosphere system at the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM, ~55Ma) caused deep-ocean acidification, evidenced by widespread dissolution of sea floor carbonate sediments. Because of the strong effect of this dissolution on the preserved record of calcium carbonate it has been difficult to evaluate whether changes in surface water chemistry affected carbonate production at the same time. Here, we investigate the production of biogenic carbonate in surface waters by testing a method which combines fossil calcareous nannoplankton counts with taxon-specific Sr/Ca data, an indicator of coccolithophore production. Reconstructed nannoplankton production at Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Sites 690 (Southern Ocean), 1209 (Pacific Ocean) and Bass River (New Jersey) did not appear to vary significantly across the PETM indicating that on geological timescales there is no evidence for interruption of phytoplankton carbonate production, despite the major assemblage shifts associated with this interval. Either levels of carbonate chemistry change in surface waters were relatively low, perhaps a function of CO2 emission rates, or calcareous nannoplankton were relatively insensitive to these changes compared with their response to other environmental parameters, namely temperature and nutrient availability.
AB - The addition of massive amounts of carbon to the ocean-atmosphere system at the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM, ~55Ma) caused deep-ocean acidification, evidenced by widespread dissolution of sea floor carbonate sediments. Because of the strong effect of this dissolution on the preserved record of calcium carbonate it has been difficult to evaluate whether changes in surface water chemistry affected carbonate production at the same time. Here, we investigate the production of biogenic carbonate in surface waters by testing a method which combines fossil calcareous nannoplankton counts with taxon-specific Sr/Ca data, an indicator of coccolithophore production. Reconstructed nannoplankton production at Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Sites 690 (Southern Ocean), 1209 (Pacific Ocean) and Bass River (New Jersey) did not appear to vary significantly across the PETM indicating that on geological timescales there is no evidence for interruption of phytoplankton carbonate production, despite the major assemblage shifts associated with this interval. Either levels of carbonate chemistry change in surface waters were relatively low, perhaps a function of CO2 emission rates, or calcareous nannoplankton were relatively insensitive to these changes compared with their response to other environmental parameters, namely temperature and nutrient availability.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.epsl.2010.04.044
DO - 10.1016/j.epsl.2010.04.044
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77953702267
SN - 0012-821X
VL - 295
SP - 583
EP - 592
JO - Earth and Planetary Science Letters
JF - Earth and Planetary Science Letters
IS - 3-4
ER -
