Climatically driven macroevolutionary patterns in the size of marine diatoms over the Cenozoic.

ABSTRACT: Numerous taxonomic groups exhibit an evolutionary trajectory in cell or body size. The size structure of marine phytoplankton communities strongly affects food web structure and organic carbon export into the ocean interior, yet macroevolutionary patterns in the size structure of phytoplankton communities have not been previously investigated. We constructed a database of the size of the silica frustule of the dominant fossilized marine planktonic diatom species over the Cenozoic. We found that the minimum and maximum sizes of the diatom frustule have expanded in concert with increasing species diversity. In contrast, the mean area of the diatom frustule is highly correlated with oceanic temperature gradients inferred from the delta18O of foraminiferal calcite, consistent with the hypothes

SUBMITTER: Finkel ZV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1157017 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature