Logo image
Little lasting impact of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum on shallow marine molluscan faunas
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Little lasting impact of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum on shallow marine molluscan faunas

Linda C. Ivany, Carlie Pietsch, John C. Handley, Rowan Lockwood, Warren D. Allmon and Jocelyn A. Sessa
Science advances, v 4(9), pp eaat5528-eaat5528
01 Sep 2018
PMID: 30191179
url
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aat5528View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Multidisciplinary Sciences Science & Technology Science & Technology - Other Topics
Global warming, acidification, and oxygen stress at the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) are associated with severe extinction in the deep sea and major biogeographic and ecologic changes in planktonic and terrestrial ecosystems, yet impacts on shallow marine macrofaunas are obscured by the incompleteness of shelf sections. We analyze mollusk assemblages bracketing (but not including) the PETM and find few notable lasting impacts on diversity, turnover, functional ecology, body size, or life history of important clades. Infaunal and chemosymbiotic taxa become more common, and body size and abundance drop in one clade, consistent with hypoxia-driven selection, but within-clade changes are not generalizable across taxa. While an unrecorded transient response is still possible, the long-term evolutionary impact is minimal. Adaptation to already-warm conditions and slow release of CO2 relative to the time scale of ocean mixing likely buffered the impact of PETM climate change on shelf faunas.

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#13 Climate Action
#14 Life Below Water

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Paleontology
Logo image