Time Machine Biology: Cross-Timescale Integration of Ecology, Evolution, and Oceanography
Résumé
Direct observations of marine ecosystems are inherently limited in their
temporal scope. Yet, ongoing global anthropogenic change urgently requires improved
understanding of long-term baselines, greater insight into the relationship between climate
and biodiversity, and knowledge of the evolutionary consequences of our actions.
Sediment cores can provide this understanding by linking data on the responses of
marine biota to reconstructions of past environmental and climatic change. Given
continuous sedimentation and robust age control, studies of sediment cores have the
potential to constrain the state and dynamics of past climates and ecosystems on timescales
of centuries to millions of years. Here, we review the development and recent
advances in “ocean drilling paleobiology”—a synthetic science with potential to illuminate
the interplay and relative importance of ecological and evolutionary factors during
times of global change. Climate, specifically temperature, appears to control Cenozoic
marine ecosystems on million-year, millennial, centennial, and anthropogenic timescales.
Although certainly not the only factor controlling biodiversity dynamics, the
effect size of temperature is large for both pelagic and deep-sea ecosystems.
Domaines
Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]
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