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

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 119; no. 9; p. 1
• Main Authors: Hupp, Brittany N, Kelly, D Clay, Williams, John W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences 01-03-2022
• Subjects: Acidification; Acids - chemistry; Adaptability; Anthropogenic factors; Biological Sciences; Calcification; Carbon; Carbon cycle; Carbon isotopes; Contaminants; Deep sea; Deepwater drilling; Deoxygenation; Drilling; Earth, Planet; Emissions; Eocene; Fossils; Global Warming; Heat stress; Heat tolerance; Isotopes; Ocean acidification; Ocean temperature; Paleocene; Perturbation; Physical Sciences; Plankton; Shells; Thermocline; ocean acidification; planktic foraminifera; global warming; PETM; sediment mixing
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2115561119

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 interpretations, corrected assemblages reveal a transient but significant decrease in tropical planktic foraminifer diversity at this open-ocean site during the PETM. The decrease in local diversity was caused by extirpation of shallow- and deep-dwelling taxa as they underwent extratropical migrations in response to heat stress, with one prominent lineage showing signs of impaired calcification possibly due to ocean acidification. An absence of subbotinids in the corrected assemblages suggests that ocean deoxygenation may have rendered thermocline depths uninhabitable for some deeper-dwelling taxa. Latitudinal range shifts provided a rapid-response survival mechanism for tropical planktic foraminifers during the PETM, but the rapidity of ocean warming and acidification projected for the coming centuries will likely strain the adaptability of these resilient calcifiers.