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Geologic controls on phytoplankton elemental composition.


ABSTRACT: Planktonic organic matter forms the base of the marine food web, and its nutrient content (C:N:Porg) governs material and energy fluxes in the ocean. Over Earth history, C:N:Porg had a crucial role in marine metazoan evolution and global biogeochemical dynamics, but the geologic history of C:N:Porg is unknown, and it is often regarded constant at the "Redfield" ratio of ∼106:16:1. We calculated C:N:Porg through Phanerozoic time by including nutrient- and temperature-dependent C:N:Porg parameterizations in a model of the long-timescale biogeochemical cycles. We infer a decrease from high Paleozoic C:Porg and N:Porg to present-day ratios, which stems from a decrease in the global average temperature and an increase in seawater phosphate availability. These changes in the phytoplankton's growth environment were driven by various Phanerozoic events: specifically, the middle to late Paleozoic expansion of land plants and the Triassic breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea, which increased continental weatherability and the fluxes of weathering-derived phosphate to the oceans. The resulting increase in the nutrient content of planktonic organic matter likely impacted the evolution of marine fauna and global biogeochemistry.

SUBMITTER: Sharoni S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8740700 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Geologic controls on phytoplankton elemental composition.

Sharoni Shlomit S   Halevy Itay I  

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20211222 1


Planktonic organic matter forms the base of the marine food web, and its nutrient content (C:N:P<sub>org</sub>) governs material and energy fluxes in the ocean. Over Earth history, C:N:P<sub>org</sub> had a crucial role in marine metazoan evolution and global biogeochemical dynamics, but the geologic history of C:N:P<sub>org</sub> is unknown, and it is often regarded constant at the "Redfield" ratio of ∼106:16:1. We calculated C:N:P<sub>org</sub> through Phanerozoic time by including nutrient- a  ...[more]

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