Quantitative estimation of global patterns of surface ocean biological productivity and its seasonal variation on timescales from centuries to millennia

Abstract

Abstract. We present a quantitative method, based on the relative abundances of benthic foraminifera in deep-sea sediments, for estimating surface ocean biological productivity over the timescale of centuries to millennia. We calibrate the method using a global data set composed of 207 samples from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans from a water depth range between 2300 and 3600 m. The sample set was developed so that other, potentially significant, environmental variables would be uncorrelated to overlying surface ocean productivity. A regression of assemblages against productivity yielded an ? = 0.89 demonstrating a strong productivity signal in the faunal data. In addition, we examined assemblage response to annual variability in biological productivity (seasonality). Our data set included a range of seasonalities which we quantified into a seasonality index using the pigment color bands from the coastal zone color scanner (CZCS). The response of benthic foraminiferal assemblage composition to our seasonality index was tested with regression analysis. We obtained a statistically highly significant r 2 = 0.75. Further, discriminant function analysis revealed a clear separation among sample groups based on surface ocean productivity and our seasonality index. Finally, we tested the response of benthic foraminiferal assemblages to three different modes of seasonality. We observed a distinct separation of our samples into groups representing low seasonal variability, strong seasonality with a single main productivity event in the year, and strong seasonality with multiple productivity events in the year. Reconstructing surface ocean biological productivity with benthic foraminifera will aid in modeling marine biogeochemical cycles. Also, estimating mode and range of annual seasonality will provide insight to changing oceanic processes, allowing the examination of the mechanisms causing changes in the marine biotic system over time.

Species-specific ingestion of organic carbon by deep-sea benthic foraminifera and meiobenthos: In situ tracer experiments

“…Some authors group Globobulimina in high productivity assemblages (Loubere 1984;Fariduddin and Loubere 1997;Loubere and Fariduddin 1999). Others report that its bathymetric distribution is not influenced by downward organic flux (De Rijk et al 2000).…”

South Equatorial Current (SEC) driven changes at DSDP Site 237, Central Indian Ocean, during the Plio-Pleistocene: Evidence from Benthic Foraminifera and Stable Isotopes

“…The species has been inferred to be an indicator of cool, carbonate corrosive Antarctic Bottom Water (Lohmann, 1978;Corliss, 1979;1983;Bremer and Lohmann, 1982;Mackensen et al, 1995), but Van Leeuwen (1989) did not observe this association in the Angola Basin. Others have interpreted this species as an indicatior of low productivity, occurring at the greatest depths in all the oceans (Gooday, 1994;Gupta, 1997;Loubere and Fariduddin, 1999). We do not have much idea about the ecological preference of B. pseudoplicata and P. quinqueloba as well, although an infaunal microhabitat has been suggested (Murray, 2001).…”

“…2). Information on Recent benthic foraminifera was used to interpret the environments of these biofacies as shown in Table 3 (Corliss, 1979;1983;Gooday, 1994;Smart et al, 1994;Hermelin and Shimmield, 1995;Mackensen et al, 1995;Jannink et al, 1998;Loubere, 1998;Gupta, 1997;1999;Gupta and Thomas, 1999;Loubere and Fariduddin, 1999;Kurbjeweit et al, 2000;Ohkushi et al, 2000). The five biofacies are plotted along with the stable isotope values and inferred environments in Fig.…”

“…Uvigerina proboscidea occupies a shallow infaunal microhabitat in organic carbon rich sediments, independent of oxygen content (Miller and Lohmann, 1982;Lutze and Coulbourn, 1984;Rathburn and Corliss, 1994) and thrives in areas of high productivity (e.g. Gupta and Srinivasan, 1992;Gupta, 1997;Jannink et al, 1998;Gupta and Thomas, 1999), specifically when food supply is continuous (low seasonality) (Loubere, 1998;Loubere and Fariduddin, 1999;Ohkushi et al, 2000;Gupta and Thomas, 2003;Gupta et al, 2004). This species is most abundant during the late Neogene at several ODP/DSDP Sites in the Indian Ocean (Gupta and Srinivasan, 1992;Gupta and Thomas, 1999;Gupta et al, 2001;Gupta and Thomas, 2003;Gupta et al, 2004).…”

“…As a result, they are studied intensively in order to understand their role in the evolution of the benthic ecosystem. More recently, some species of deep-sea benthic foraminifera have been used to study productivity changes in the surface water column Gupta and Thomas, 1999;Loubere and Fariduddin, 1999;Almogi-Labin et al, 2000;Gupta et al, 2001). Corliss (1979Corliss ( , 1983 found different species of deep-sea benthic foraminifera associated with distinct deep-water masses in the southeastern and southwestern Indian Ocean as was earlier observed by Schnitker (1974) in the North Atlantic.…”