Cyclic and secular variation in microfossil biomineralization: clues to the biogeochemical evolution of Phanerozoic oceans

https://doi.org/10.1016/0921-8181(94)00011-2Get rights and content

Abstract

The stratigraphic occurrence and mineralogy of major protistan microfossil taxa tend to reflect evolutionary innovation in response to ocean chemistry and fertility. In foraminefera, the characteristic test composition—and, in some cases, ultrastructure—of each suborder is indicative of the degree of surface ocean CaCO3 saturation, which varied in a cyclic manner through the Phanerozoic, at the time of origin of the suborder. High dissolved phosphate and low CaCO3 saturation in late Precambrian-Early Cambrian surface waters may have prevented calcification in primitive non-calcareous (organic, agglutinated) foraminiferal stocks.

Scattered reports of coccolithophorid-like microfossils from the Paleozoic are indicative of a secular trend in rising nutrient levels and marine productivity that controlled the initiation of calcareous oozes. Based on acritarch, carbon isotope, and phosphorite records, extremely low nutrient levels (“superligotrophic” conditions) in Cambrian-to-Devonian seas typically limited population densities of calcareous nannoplankton and prevented the formation of calcareous oozes. The overall “superoligotrophic” surface conditions of the Paleozoic were punctuated, though, by episodes of “catastrophic” eutrophication in the Late Ordovician, Late Devonia, and Late Carboniferous (Worsley et al., 1986). Following each episode, CaCO3 rain rates were presumably enhanced because Marine C:P (MCP) burial ratios increased permanently above previous levels (Worsley et al., 1986). Nevertheless, it was not until the Carboniferous that the CCD had deepened sufficiently (via erosion of cratonic limestones) to allow pelagic calcareous oozes to begin to accumulate. Prior to this time, surface waters appear to have been sufficiently corrosive (high atmospheric pCO2 and low CaCO3 saturation), and the CCD sufficiently shallow, to dissolve virtually all incipient calcareous nannofossils.

Following Late Permian extinctions, plankton re-expanded in response to both eustatic sea level rise (increased habitat availability) and increased nutrient levels (“mesotrophic” conditions). As organic matter (Corg) and CaCO3 rain rates increased, bioturbation rates also increased, thereby recycling nutrients back to the surface and accentuating productivity and calcareous ooze formation. MCP episodes further accelerated nutrient cycling and productivity in the Neogene, as indicated by the expansion of diatoms, which prefer nutrient-rich (“eutrophic”) conditions.

Ironically, while permanently increasing C:P burial ratios and productivity through the Phanerozoic, catastrophic fluctuations in nutrient levels may have also exacerbated mass extinctions via shortening of pelagic food chains. Nevertheless, re-expansion of the marine biosphere following each extinction episode resulted in a secular trend of increasing biomass and biotic diversity that may have contributed to the decline in background extinction rates through the Phanerozoic.

References (199)

  • A.J. Kaufman et al.

    The Vendian record of Sr and C isotopic variations in seawater: Implications for tectonics and paleoclimate

    Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.

    (1993)
  • M.L. Keith

    Violent volcanism, stagnant oceans and some inferences regarding petroleum, strata-bound ores and mass extinctions

    Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta

    (1982)
  • U. Kramm et al.

    The isotopic composition of strontium and sulfur in seawater of Late Permian (Zechstein) age

    Chem. Geol.

    (1991)
  • R.M. Leckie

    A paleoceanographic model for the early evolutionary history of planktonic forminifera

    Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.

    (1989)
  • T. Algeo

    The Late Devonian increase in vascular plant “rootedness”: Source of coeval shifts in seawater chemistry

    Geol. Soc. Am. Abstr. with Programs

    (1993)
  • R.W. Angell

    The process of chamber formation in the foraminifer Rosalina floridana (Cushman)

    J. Protozool.

    (1967)
  • M.A. Arthur et al.

    The Cenomanian-Turonian Oceanic Anoxic Event, II. Palaeoceanographic controls on organic-matter production and preservation

  • R.T. Bakker

    The Dinosaur Heresies

  • R.K. Bambach

    Classes and adaptive variety: The ecology of diversification in marine faunas through the Phanerozoic

  • R.K. Bambach

    Phanerozoic reef communities

  • R.K. Bambach

    Seafood through time: Changes in biomass, energetics and productivity in the marine ecosystem

    Paleobiology

    (1993)
  • J.A. Barron

    Diatoms

  • S. Bengston et al.

    Early radiation of biomineralizing phyla

  • S. Bengston et al.

    Origins of biomineralization in metaphytes and metazoans

  • M.J. Benton

    Increase in total global biomass over time

    Evol. Theory

    (1979)
  • R.A. Berner

    Weathering, plants and the long-term carbon cycle

    Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta

    (1993)
  • R.A. Berner

    Paleozoic atmospheric CO2: Importance of solar radiation and plant evolution

    Science

    (1993)
  • R.A. Berner et al.

    The carbonate-silicate geochemical cycle and its effect on atmospheric carbon dioxide over the past 100 million years

    Am. J. Sci.

    (1983)
  • W.B.N. Berry

    Phylum Hemichordata (including Graptolithina)

  • W.B.N. Berry et al.

    Progressive ventilation of the oceans—An explanation for the distribution of the lower Paleozoic black shales

    Am. J. Sci.

    (1978)
  • W.B.N. Berry et al.

    The oceanic non-sulfidic oxygen minimum zone: A habitat for graptolites?

    Bull. Geol. Soc. Den.

    (1987)
  • W.-U. Berthold

    Biomineralisation bei milioliden Foraminiferen und die Matrizen-Hypothese

    Naturwissenschaften

    (1976)
  • P.D. Blackmon et al.

    Mineralogy of some foraminifera as related to their classification and ecology

    J. Paleontol.

    (1959)
  • A. Boersma

    Foraminifera

  • S.K. Boss et al.

    Planktogenic/eustatic control on cratonic/oceanic carbonate accumulation

    J. Geol.

    (1991)
  • D.J. Bottjer et al.

    Phanerozoic development of tiering in soft substrata suspension-feeding communities

    Paleobiology

    (1986)
  • D.J. Bottjer et al.

    Paleoenvironmental trends in the history of trace fossils

    Nature

    (1988)
  • G.F. Boyajian

    Phanerozoic trends in background extinction: Consequence of an aging fauna

    Geology

    (1986)
  • M.N. Bramlette

    Massive extinctions in biota at the end of Mesozoic time

    Science

    (1965)
  • M.D. Brasier

    The Cambrian radiation event

  • M.D. Brasier

    Microfossils

  • M.D. Brasier

    Architecture and evolution of the foraminiferid test

  • M. Brasier

    Why do lower plants and animals biomineralize?

    Paleobiology

    (1986)
  • M.D. Brasier

    Form, function and evolution in benthic and planktic foraminiferid test architecture

  • M.D. Brasier

    Nutrients in the Early Cambrian

    Nature

    (1990)
  • M.D. Brasier

    Phosphogenic events and skeletal preservation across the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary interval

  • M.D. Brasier

    Global ocean-atmosphere change across the Precambrian-Cambrian transition

    Geol. Mag.

    (1992)
  • M.D. Brasier

    Paleoceanography and changes in the biological cycling of phosphorus across the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary

  • P.J. Brenchley et al.

    Bathymetric and isotopic evidence for a short-lived Late Ordovician glaciation in a greenhouse period

    Geology

    (1994)
  • D.E. Canfield

    Sulfate reduction in deep-sea sediments

    Am. J. Sci.

    (1991)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text