Environmental drivers of size changes in lower Jurassic Schizosphaerella spp

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The Early Jurassic nannofossil Schizosphaerella has displayed major changes in its mean valve size through time. These variations are investigated in detail in the Sinemurian to lowermost Toarcian of the Sancerre-Couy core (Paris Basin), based on previously published measurements of 7050 specimens. Through multivariate morphon analysis and mixture analysis, we decipher three distinct overlapping varieties of Schizosphaerella (small, medium, large) and show that mean size changes of this taxon can be mostly related to variations in the relative abundance of these three varieties. Comparison to facies changes and to newly and previously acquired geochemical data (bulk carbonate C and O isotopes and organic C isotopes, %CaCO3 and TOC) suggest that, whilst sea-surface temperature was indeed an important driver of size changes in Schizosphaerella, it is insufficient on its own to explain the full variability of our dataset. Likewise, sea-level controlled proximal-distal variations and levels of nutrient supply were additional drivers of Schizosphaerella size changes. The small population of Schizosphaerella remains, however, a good indicator for warmer episodes.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
Artikelnummer102053
TidsskriftMarine Micropaleontology
Vol/bind168
Antal sider20
ISSN0377-8398
DOI
StatusUdgivet - sep. 2021

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
We thank the Danish Council for Independent Research–Natural Sciences (project 09-072715) and the Carlsberg Foundation (project no 2011-01-0737) for contributions to financing this project. We express all our gratitude to Bo Pedersen and Anne Thoisen for their dedicated help in the lab. Many thanks to Nicolas Barbarin for trying out SizerMap and other fancy statistics on our dataset, even though we decided to stick to more conventional methods. Special thanks to Sebastian Meier for pointing out the striking resemblance of Schizosphaerella to Phacotus lenticularis. The outcomes of this paper greatly benefited from discussions of the corresponding author with so many members of the International Nannoplankton Association met during our last meeting in Greece in 2017 that it would be impossible to name them all. Thank you so much everyone for this great feedback.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021

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