Your browser doesn't support javascript.
loading
Geologic controls on phytoplankton elemental composition.
Sharoni, Shlomit; Halevy, Itay.
Affiliation
  • Sharoni S; Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel shlomit.sharoni@weizmann.ac.il.
  • Halevy I; Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A ; 119(1)2022 01 04.
Article in En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34934013
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.
Subject(s)
Key words

Full text: 1 Collection: 01-internacional Database: MEDLINE Main subject: Oxygen / Phytoplankton / Oceans and Seas / Carbon / Geologic Sediments / Models, Biological Type of study: Prognostic_studies Language: En Journal: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Year: 2022 Type: Article Affiliation country: Israel

Full text: 1 Collection: 01-internacional Database: MEDLINE Main subject: Oxygen / Phytoplankton / Oceans and Seas / Carbon / Geologic Sediments / Models, Biological Type of study: Prognostic_studies Language: En Journal: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Year: 2022 Type: Article Affiliation country: Israel