Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles
Coccoliths in Pleistocene-Holocene Nannofossil Assemblages
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Nature
ISSN
0028-0836
Publication Date
5-22-1980
Abstract
Marine palaeotemperature studies are increasingly using oxygen isotope analyses of the minute calcium carbonate structures produced by a group of marine phytoplankton, the coccolithophores. To provide a sound experimental basis for palaeotemperature calculations using the isotopic data from analyses of coccoliths, we have grown coccolithophores in laboratory batch culture in controlled environmental conditions, and determined the oxygen isotopic compositions of the coccoliths produced at known temperatures. The results reported here indicate that the oxygen isotopic composition of the coccoliths of all the species studied is strongly temperature dependent. A ‘vital effect’ was observed in all the species, with the isotopic values of different culture samples falling into two definite groups containing separate taxa. The difference in vital effect between different species suggests that calcification processes may vary among different taxa and indicates that a re-evaluation of coccolith oxygen isotope palaeoclimatic interpretations may be in order.
DOI
10.1038/285222a0
Volume
285
Issue
5762
First Page
222
Last Page
223
NSUWorks Citation
W. C. Dudley, J. C. Duplessy, Patricia Blackwelder, L. E. Brand, and R. R. L. Guillard. 1980. Coccoliths in Pleistocene-Holocene Nannofossil Assemblages .Nature , (5762) : 222 -223. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facarticles/434.
Comments
©1980 Nature Publishing Group