Unknown

Dataset Information

0

Geologic controls on phytoplankton elemental composition.


ABSTRACT: 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.

SUBMITTER: Sharoni S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8740700 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

Similar Datasets

| S-EPMC4525172 | biostudies-literature
2011-03-17 | GSE27998 | GEO
2011-03-17 | E-GEOD-27998 | biostudies-arrayexpress
| S-EPMC5427875 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC7093025 | biostudies-literature
2008-09-12 | GSE12742 | GEO
2010-06-19 | E-GEOD-12742 | biostudies-arrayexpress
| S-EPMC5393197 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC525254 | biostudies-literature
| S-EPMC8269262 | biostudies-literature