Dramatic decline and change in coiling direction of planktic foraminifer Morozovella at the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO; ~53-49 Ma) from the Pacific Ocean

Abstract

<p>Improved knowledge of the connection between striking variations in the abundance and coiling direction of the trochospiral planktic foraminiferal genus <em>Morozovella</em> and early Eocene carbon-cycle changes, is presented in this study as deriving from new data recorded from the Pacific Ocean (Shatsky Rise, Ocean Drilling Program Sites 1209, 1210). This location spans the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO; ~53-49 Ma), the interval when Earth surface temperatures and atmospheric <em>p</em>CO<sub>2</sub> reached the maximum peak of entire Cenozoic (Zachos <em>et al.,</em> 2001, Sciences; Anagnostou <em>et al.</em> 2016, Nature; Inglis <em>et al.,</em> 2020 Clim. Past). A significative impact of the EECO on planktic foraminiferal assemblages has recently been recorded in previous works from the Atlantic Ocean, where a definitive marked decline in abundance, diversity, test-size and change in coiling direction of the mixed-layer symbiont-bearing genus <em>Morozovella, </em>took place within the first ~600 kyr of this interval (Luciani <em>et al.,</em> 2016 Clim. Past; Luciani <em>et al.</em> 2017 Paleoceanogr.; Luciani <em>et al.,</em> 2017 GloPlaCha; D’Onofrio <em>et al.</em>, 2020 Geosciences; Luciani <em>et al.,</em> 2021 GloPlaCha). As registered in Atlantic sites, in the tropical Pacific Ocean Sites 1209 and 1210, the morozovellids drop permanently their relative abundance at the carbon isotope excursion (CIE) known as J event (~53 Ma), which marks the EECO beginning. A second major change affected all the morphologically defined species of <em>Morozovella</em> (possibly criptic species) at the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in a switch from dominant dextral to sinistrally coiling preference, within ~200 kyr after the K/X event (~52.8 Ma). Although the coiling direction preference of <em>Morozovella</em> at Shatsky Rise changed from dominant dextral to dominant sinistral after the K/X event as well as in the Atlantic sites, here the switch occurred with a delay of ~200 kyr. The recorded modifications clearly reflect important changes in evolution or environment. These changes may include temperature increase and pH decrease that could have reduced the symbiotic relationship and induced calcification crisis. Searching for the driving causes of the observed variations, our data clearly demonstrate their wide geographic and possibly global character and the evident relationship between the environmental perturbations occurred in the mixed-layer at the EECO and the striking changes on planktic foraminiferal assemblages during the first ~800 kyr of this intriguing interval.</p>