Isotopic filtering reveals high sensitivity of planktic calcifiers to Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum warming and acidification.

ABSTRACT: Ocean warming and acidification driven by anthropogenic carbon emissions pose an existential threat to marine calcifying communities. A similar perturbation to global carbon cycling and ocean chemistry occurred ∼56 Ma during the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), but microfossil records of the marine biotic response are distorted by sediment mixing. Here, we use the carbon isotope excursion marking the PETM to distinguish planktic foraminifer shells calcified during the PETM from those calcified prior to the event and then isotopically filter anachronous specimens from the PETM microfossil assemblages. We find that nearly one-half of foraminifer shells in a deep-sea PETM record from the central Pacific (Ocean Drilling Program Site 865) are reworked contaminants. Contrary to previous

SUBMITTER: Hupp BN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8892336 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature