Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 15 December 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5806, pp. 1770 - 1773
DOI: 10.1126/science.1133902
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Nannoplankton Extinction and Origination Across the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum

Samantha J. Gibbs,1* Paul R. Bown,2 Jocelyn A. Sessa,3 Timothy J. Bralower,3 Paul A. Wilson1

The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, ~55 million years ago) was an interval of global warming and ocean acidification attributed to rapid release and oxidation of buried carbon. We show that the onset of the PETM coincided with a prominent increase in the origination and extinction of calcareous phytoplankton. Yet major perturbation of the surface-water saturation state across the PETM was not detrimental to the survival of most calcareous nannoplankton taxa and did not impart a calcification or ecological bias to the pattern of evolutionary turnover. Instead, the rate of environmental change appears to have driven turnover, preferentially affecting rare taxa living close to their viable limits.

1 School of Ocean and Earth Sciences, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, European Way, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK.
2 Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
3 Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: sxg{at}noc.soton.ac.uk

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Phytoplankton Calcification in a High-CO2 World.
M. D. Iglesias-Rodriguez, P. R. Halloran, R. E. M. Rickaby, I. R. Hall, E. Colmenero-Hidalgo, J. R. Gittins, D. R. H. Green, T. Tyrrell, S. J. Gibbs, P. von Dassow, et al. (2008)
Science 320, 336-340
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Calcium carbonate cycling in future oceans and its influence on future climates.
T. Tyrrell (2008)
J. Plankton Res. 30, 141-156
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A Paleogene calcareous microfossil Konservat-Lagerstatte from the Kilwa Group of coastal Tanzania.
P.R. Bown, T. D. Jones, J.A. Lees, R.D. Randell, J.A. Mizzi, P.N. Pearson, H.K. Coxall, J.R. Young, C.J. Nicholas, A. Karega, et al. (2008)
GSA Bulletin 120, 3-12
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The Late Palaeocene Early Eocene and Toarcian (Early Jurassic) carbon isotope excursions: a comparison of their time scales, associated environmental changes, causes and consequences.
A. S. Cohen, A. L. Coe, and D. B. Kemp (2007)
Journal of the Geological Society 164, 1093-1108
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)