Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Palaeoceanography

Cycling carbon with coccolithophores

Nature Geoscience volume 15, pages 758–759 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

Cellular modelling and geochemical analyses reveal that a dominant group of phytoplankton changed their carbonate production as atmospheric CO2 levels declined from peak levels in the warm early Eocene, hinting at a positive feedback in the global carbon cycle.

Coccolithophores have been prolific producers of ocean carbonate since the late Triassic about 225 million years ago (Ma), carpeting firstly continental shelf seas and then vast areas of open ocean seafloor in nannofossil oozes and chalks2. The role of this carbonate production within the long-term carbon cycle represents a balance between ocean chemistry and carbonate production at a species-specific and community level. Calcification is a dynamic process, varying at a cellular level through physiological responses to changing seawater conditions that alter the amount, morphology, and production rate of coccoliths — the individual calcite plates that form the cell exoskeleton. At a community level, carbonate production also responds to changes in the proportion of various coccolithophore species as well as overall coccolithophore productivity. Whilst changes in coccolithophore calcification and productivity in the surface ocean do not necessarily translate directly to trends in carbonate mass accumulation rates at the seafloor, ocean sediments indicate large fluctuations in coccolithophore carbonate production over geological time3.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Fig. 1: Coccosphere of Coccolithus pelagicus.

The Natural History Museum / Alamy Stock Photo.

References

  1. Claxton, L. M., McClelland, H. L. O., Hermoso, M. & Rickaby, R. E. M. Nat. Geosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-01006-0 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Hay, W. H. in Coccolithophores (eds Thierstein, H. R. & Young, J. R.) 509–528 (Springer, 2004).

  3. Si, W. & Rosenthal, Y. Nat. Geosci. 12, 833–838 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. O’Dea, S. A. et al. Nat. Commun. 5, 5363 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. McClelland, H. L. O. et al. Sci. Rep. 6, 34263 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Bolton, C. T. et al. Nature Commun. 7, 10284 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. McClelland, H. L. O., Bruggeman, J., Hermoso, M. & Rickaby, R. E. M. Nature Commun. 8, 14511 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Hermoso, M. Cryptogamie Algol. 35, 323–351 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Rickaby, R. E. M., Henderiks, J. & Young, J. N. Clim. Past 6, 771–785 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Bolton, C. & Stoll, H. Nature 500, 558–562 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Geosciences, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

    Rosie M. Sheward

Authors
  1. Rosie M. Sheward
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rosie M. Sheward.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sheward, R.M. Cycling carbon with coccolithophores. Nat. Geosci. 15, 758–759 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-01039-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-01039-5

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing