Possible patterns of marine primary productivity during the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event

Pohl, Alexandre; Harper, David A.T.; Donnadieu, Yannick; Le Hir, Guillaume; Nardin, Elise; Servais, Thomas

Abstract

Following the appearance of numerous animal phyla during the ‘Cambrian Explosion’, the ‘Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event’ (GOBE) records their rapid diversification at the lower taxonomic levels, constituting the most significant rise in biodiversity in Earth's history. Recent studies suggest that the rapid rise in phytoplankton diversity observed at the Cambrian–Ordovician boundary may have profoundly restructured marine trophic chains, paving the way for the subsequent flourishing of plankton-feeding groups during the Ordovician. Unfortunately, the fossil record of plankton is incomplete. Its smaller members represent the bulk of the modern marine biomass, but they are usually not documented in Palaeozoic sediments, preventing any definitive assumption with regard to an eventual correlation between biodiversity and biomass at that time. Here, we use an up-to-date ocean general circulation model with biogeochemical capabilities (MITgcm) to simulate the spatial patterns of marine primary productivity throughout the Ordovician, and we compare the model output with available palaeontological and sedimentological data.

Citation

Pohl, A., Harper, D. A., Donnadieu, Y., Le Hir, G., Nardin, E., & Servais, T. (2018). Possible patterns of marine primary productivity during the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. Lethaia: An International Journal of Palaeontology and Stratigraphy, 51(2), 187-197. https://doi.org/10.1111/let.12247

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 18, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Oct 12, 2017
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2018
• Deposit Date: Oct 12, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 12, 2018
• Journal: Lethaia
• Print ISSN: 0024-1164
• Electronic ISSN: 1502-3931
• Publisher: Scandinavian University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 51
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 187-197
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/let.12247
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1346520