ALBERT

Description: Temperature appears to be the best predictor of species composition of planktonic foraminifera communities, making it possible to use their fossil assemblages to reconstruct sea surface temperature (SST) variation in the past. However, the role of other environmental factors potentially modulating the spatial and vertical distribution of planktonic foraminifera species is poorly understood. This is especially relevant for environmental factors affecting the subsurface habitat. If such factors play a role, changes in the abundance of subsurface-dwelling species may not solely reflect SST variation. In order to constrain the effect of subsurface parameters on species composition, we here characterize the vertical distribution of living planktonic foraminifera community across an east–west transect through the subtropical South Atlantic Ocean, where SST variability was small, but the subsurface water mass structure changed dramatically. Four planktonic foraminifera communities could be identified across the top 700 m of the transect. Gyre and Agulhas Leakage surface faunas were predominantly composed of Globigerinoides ruber, Globigerinoides tenellus, Trilobatus sacculifer, Globoturborotalita rubescens, Globigerinella calida, Tenuitella iota, and Globigerinita glutinata, and these only differed in terms of relative abundances (community composition). Upwelling fauna was dominated by Neogloboquadrina pachyderma, Neogloboquadrina incompta, Globorotalia crassaformis, and Globorotalia inflata. Thermocline fauna was dominated by Tenuitella fleisheri, Globorotalia truncatulinoides, and Globorotalia scitula in the west and by G. scitula only in the east. The largest part of the standing stock was consistently found in the surface layer, but SST was not the main predictor of species composition either for the depth-integrated fauna across the stations or at individual depth layers. Instead, we identified a pattern of vertical stacking of different parameters controlling species composition, reflecting different aspects of the pelagic habitat. Whereas productivity appears to dominate in the mixed layer (0–60 m), physical properties (temperature, salinity) become important at intermediate depths and in the subsurface, a complex combination of factors including oxygen concentration is required to explain the assemblage composition. These results indicate that the seemingly straightforward relationship between assemblage composition and SST in sedimentary assemblages reflects vertically and seasonally integrated processes that are only indirectly linked to SST. It also implies that fossil assemblages of planktonic foraminifera should also contain a signature of subsurface processes, which could be used for paleoceanographic reconstructions.

Description: Palaeoclimate data hold the unique promise of providing a long-term perspective on climate change and as such can serve as an important benchmark for climate models. However, palaeoclimate data have generally been archived with insufficient standardisation and metadata to allow for transparent and consistent uncertainty assessment in an automated way. Thanks to improved computation capacity, transient palaeoclimate simulations are now possible, calling for data products containing multi-parameter time series rather than information on a single parameter for a single time slice. Efforts are underway to simulate a complete glacial–interglacial cycle using general circulation models (https://www.palmod.de/, last access: 6 May 2020), and to confront these simulations with palaeoclimate data, we have compiled a multi-parameter marine palaeoclimate data synthesis that contains time series spanning 0 to 130 000 years ago. We present the first version of the data product that focuses exclusively on time series for which a robust chronology based on benthic foraminifera δ18O and radiocarbon dating is available. The product contains 896 time series of eight palaeoclimate parameters from 143 individual sites, each associated with rich metadata, age–depth model ensembles, and information to refine and update the chronologies. This version contains 205 time series of benthic foraminifera δ18O; 169 of benthic foraminifera δ13C; 131 of seawater temperature; 174 and 119 of planktonic foraminifera δ18O and δ13C; and 44, 38 and 16 of carbonate, organic carbon and biogenic silica content, respectively. The data product is available in three formats (R, LiPD and netCDF) facilitating use across different software and operating systems and can be downloaded at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.908831 (Jonkers et al., 2019). This data descriptor presents our data synthesis strategy and describes the contents and format of the data product in detail. It ends with a set of recommendations for data archiving.

Description: The middle Miocene climate transition ∼ 14 Ma marks a fundamental step towards the current “ice-house” climate, with a ∼ 1 ‰ δ18O increase and a ∼ 1 ‰ transient δ13C rise in the deep ocean, indicating rapid expansion of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet associated with a change in the operation of the global carbon cycle. The variation of atmospheric CO2 across the carbon-cycle perturbation has been intensely debated as proxy records of pCO2 for this time interval are sparse and partly contradictory. Using boron isotopes (δ11B) in planktonic foraminifers from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1092 in the South Atlantic, we show that long-term pCO2 varied at 402 kyr periodicity between ∼ 14.3 and 13.2 Ma and follows the global δ13C variation remarkably well. This suggests a close link to precessional insolation forcing modulated by eccentricity, which governs the monsoon and hence weathering intensity, with enhanced weathering and decreasing pCO2 at high eccentricity and vice versa. The ∼ 50 kyr lag of δ13C and pCO2 behind eccentricity in our records may be related to the slow response of weathering to orbital forcing. A pCO2 drop of ∼ 200 µatm before 13.9 Ma may have facilitated the inception of ice-sheet expansion on Antarctica, which accentuated monsoon-driven carbon cycle changes through a major sea-level fall, invigorated deep-water ventilation, and shelf-to-basin shift of carbonate burial. The temporary rise in pCO2 following Antarctic glaciation would have acted as a negative feedback on the progressing glaciation and helped to stabilize the climate system on its way to the late Cenozoic ice-house world.

Description: Coccolithophores contribute significantly to marine primary productivity and play a unique role in ocean biogeochemistry by using carbon for photosynthesis (soft-tissue pump) and for calcification (carbonate counter pump). Despite the importance of including coccolithophores in Earth system models to allow better predictions of the climate system's responses to planetary change, the reconstruction of coccolithophore productivity mostly relied on proxies dependent on accumulation and sedimentation rates and preservation conditions. In this study we used an independent proxy, based on the coccolith fraction (CF) Sr∕Ca ratio, to reconstruct coccolithophore productivity. We studied the marine sediment core MD03-2699 from the western Iberian margin (IbM), concentrating on glacial–interglacial cycles of Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 12 to MIS 9. We found that IbM coccolithophore productivity was controlled by changes in the oceanographic conditions, such as in sea surface temperature (SST) and nutrient availability, and by competition with other phytoplankton groups. Long-term coccolithophore productivity was primarily affected by variations in the dominant surface water mass. Polar and subpolar surface waters during glacial substages were associated with decreased coccolithophore productivity, with the strongest productivity minima concomitant with Heinrich-type events (HtEs). Subtropical, nutrient-poorer waters, increased terrigenous input, and moderate to strong upwelling during the deglaciation and early MIS11 are hypothesized to have attributed a competitive advantage to diatoms to the detriment of coccolithophores, resulting in intermediate coccolithophore productivity levels. During the progression towards full glacial conditions an increasing presence of nutrient-richer waters, related to the growing influence of transitional surface waters and/or intensified upwelling, probably stimulated coccolithophore productivity to maxima following the rapid depletion of silica by diatoms. We present conceptual models of the carbon and carbonate cycle components for the IbM in different time slices that might serve as a basis for further investigation and modelling experiments.

Description: It has long been assumed that the population dynamics of planktonic foraminifera is characterised by synchronous reproduction associated with ontogenetic vertical migration. However, due to contradictory observations, this concept became controversial, and subsequent studies provided evidence both in favour and against these phenomena. Here we present new observations from replicated vertically resolved profiles of abundance and shell size variation in four species of planktonic foraminifera from the tropical Atlantic to test for the presence, pattern, and extent of synchronised reproduction and ontogenetic vertical migration in this oceanic region. Specimens of Globigerinita glutinata, Globigerinoides ruber ruber, Globorotalia menardii and Orbulina universa were collected over the first 700 m resolved at nine depth intervals at nine stations over a period of 14 d. Dead specimens were systematically observed irrespective of the depth interval, sampling day and size. Conversely, specimens in the smaller size fractions dominated the sampled populations at all times and were recorded at all depths, indicating that reproduction might have occurred continuously and throughout the occupied part of the water column. However, a closer look at the vertical and temporal size distribution of specimens within each species revealed an overrepresentation of large specimens in depths at the beginning of the sampling (shortly after the full moon) and an overrepresentation of small individuals at the surface and subsurface by the end of the sampling (around new moon). These observations imply that a disproportionately large portion of the population followed for each species a canonical reproductive trajectory, which involved synchronised reproduction and ontogenetic vertical migration with the descent of progressively maturing individuals. This concept is consistent with the initial observations from the Red Sea, on which the reproductive dynamics of planktonic foraminifera has been modelled. Our data extend this model to non-spinose and microperforate symbiont-bearing species, but contrary to the extension of the initial observations on other species of foraminifera, we cannot provide evidence for ontogenetic vertical migration with ascent during maturation. We also show that more than half of the population does not follow the canonical trajectory, which helps to reconcile the existing contrasting observations. Our results imply that the flux of empty shells of planktonic foraminifera in the open ocean should be pulsed, with disproportionately large amounts of disproportionately large specimens being delivered in pulses caused by synchronised reproduction. The presence of a large population reproducing outside of the canonical trajectory implies that individual foraminifera in a fossil sample will record in the calcite of their shells a range of habitat trajectories, with the canonical trajectory emerging statistically from a substantial background range.