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Abstract. The biotic response of calcareous nannoplankton to environmental and climatic changes during the Eocene–Oligocene transition was investigated at a high resolution at Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1263 (Walvis Ridge, southeast Atlantic Ocean) and compared with a lower-resolution benthic foraminiferal record. During this time interval, global climate, which had been warm under high levels of atmospheric CO2 (pCO2) during the Eocene, transitioned into the cooler climate of the Oligocene, at overall lower pCO2. At Site 1263, the absolute nannofossil abundance (coccoliths per gram of sediment; N g−1) and the mean coccolith size decreased distinctly after the E–O boundary (EOB; 33.89 Ma), mainly due to a sharp decline in abundance of large-sized Reticulofenestra and Dictyococcites, occurring within a time span of ~ 47 kyr. Carbonate dissolution did not vary much across the EOB; thus, the decrease in abundance and size of nannofossils may reflect an overall decrease in their export production, which could have led to variations in the food availability for benthic foraminifers. The benthic foraminiferal assemblage data are consistent with a global decline in abundance of rectilinear species with complex apertures in the latest Eocene (~ 34.5 Ma), potentially reflecting changes in the food source, i.e., phytoplankton. This was followed by a transient increased abundance of species indicative of seasonal delivery of food to the sea floor (Epistominella spp.; ~ 33.9–33.4 Ma), with a short peak in overall food delivery at the EOB (buliminid taxa; ~ 33.8 Ma). Increased abundance of Nuttallides umbonifera (at ~ 33.3 Ma) indicates the presence of more corrosive bottom waters and possibly the combined arrival of less food at the sea floor after the second step of cooling (Step 2). The most important changes in the calcareous nannofossil and benthic communities occurred ~ 120 kyr after the EOB. There was no major change in nannofossil abundance or assemblage composition at Site 1263 after Step 2 although benthic foraminifera indicate more corrosive bottom waters during this time. During the onset of latest-Eocene–earliest-Oligocene climate change, marine phytoplankton thus showed high sensitivity to fast-changing conditions as well as to a possibly enhanced, pulsed nutrient supply and to the crossing of a climatic threshold (e.g., pCO2 decline, high-latitude cooling and changes in ocean circulation).

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This study focuses on Pleistocene–Holocene sediments from the Shatsky Rise (Ocean Drilling Program Site 1209B, NW Pacific Ocean). We quantify the contribution of calcite made by coccoliths in oceanic sediments, investigating the role of calcareous nannoplankton during the last 450 ka. Coccolith carbonate constitutes 60–90% of bulk carbonate. Coccolith carbonate accumulation rates (CARs) and CaCO3 fine fraction confirm that coccolithophores are major contributors to the carbonate export and accumulation. Primary productivity shows highest values from marine isotope stage (MIS) 12 to 8. Thereafter, although coccolith calcite content remains high, other sediment components, such as as foraminifera and biogenic opal, seem to be favored, perhaps related to an increase in fertilization by eolian dust. Our results demonstrate the important role of coccolithophore production and sedimentation on the regulation of ocean carbonate chemistry on time scales >1000–100 000 years. On glacial–interglacial scales, coccolithophore productivity could have affected deep‐water saturation by buffering deep‐sea CO2 through increased carbonate dissolution episodes. Spectral and wavelet analyses are consistent with CARs primarily driven by glacial–interglacial variability and obliquity‐controlled changes. Coccolith‐based paleoceanographic reconstructions allow us to establish that during the last 450 ka the mid‐latitudes of the NW Pacific are controlled by the dynamics of the El Niño Southern Oscillation perturbations and Boreal Monsoon system.