A study finds that planktonic foraminifera maintained a static thermal niche over around 700,000 years of glacial-interglacial climate change. As environmental conditions change, species with flexible niches can adapt to changing conditions, whereas species with static niches must follow suitable habitats and risk extinction if the climate change is sudden and drastic. Gwen S. Antell, Erin Saupe, and colleagues quantified the environmental niches of planktonic foraminifera covering the last 700,000 years, with multiple glacial-interglacial climate fluctuations, at a resolution of 8,000 years. Planktonic foraminifera sequester carbon from the ocean and atmosphere and are abundant single-celled constituents of zooplankton at the base of marine food webs. The authors tracked species' temperature preferences at both the sea surface and at the species' habitat depth. The results showed that the foraminifera niche remained static, regardless of glacial-interglacial climate regime or magnitude of climate change. Evolutionary trait models for each species supported a static niche as opposed to a randomly varying niche or one that tracks with temperature. According to the authors, the results suggest that climate change and ocean acidification may redistribute foraminifera and other calcifying plankton or reduce their populations as they seek suitable habitats, disturbing marine food webs and biogeochemical cycles.
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Article #20-17105: "Thermal niches of planktonic foraminifera are static throughout glacial-interglacial climate change," by Gwen S. Antell, Isabel S. Fenton, Paul J. Valdes, and Erin E. Saupe.
MEDIA CONTACT: Gwen S. Antell, University of Oxford, UNITED KINGDOM; tel: +44 (0)7542 842615; email: <gwen.antell@earth.ox.ac.uk>; Erin Saupe, University of Oxford, UNITED KINGDOM; email: <erin.saupe@earth.ox.ac.uk>
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences