Time machine biology cross-timescale integration of ecology, evolution, and oceanography

Moriaki Yasuhara, Huai Hsuan May Huang, Pincelli Hull, Marina C. Rillo, Fabien L. Condamine, Derek P. Tittensor, Michal Kučera, Mark J. Costello, Seth Finnegan, Aaron O’dea, Yuanyuan Hong, Timothy C. Bonebrake, N. Ryan McKenzie, Hideyuki Doi, Chih Lin Wei, Yasuhiro Kubota, Erin E. Saupe

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

40 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

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 illumi-nate 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 time-scales. Although certainly not the only factor controlling biodiversity dynamics, the effect size of temperature is large for both pelagic and deep-sea ecosystems.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)16-28
Number of pages13
JournalOceanography
Volume33
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Katsunori Kimoto, Jeremy R. Young, Kotaro Hirose, Tamotsu Nagumo, Yoshiaki Aita, Noritoshi Suzuki, David Lazarus, André Rochon, Erin M. Dillon, and Briony Mamo for help with microfossil images; Simon J. Crowhurst and David A. Hodell for help with coring overview illustrations; Richard D. Norris, R. Mark Leckie, and Peggy Delaney for thoughtful comments; and guest editors Peggy Delaney, Alan C. Mix, Laurie Menviel, Katrin J. Meissner, and Amelia E. Shevenell for editing and for the invitation to contribute to this special issue. This work is a product of the PSEEDS (Paleobiology as the Synthetic Ecological, Evolutionary, and Diversity Sciences) project, and is partly supported by grants from the Research Grants Council of the Ho-Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. HKU 17302518, HKU 17311316, HKU 17303115), the Seed Funding Programme for Basic Research of the University of Hong Kong (project codes: 201811159076, 201711159057), and the Faculty of Science RAE Improvement Fund of the University of Hong Kong (to M.Y.).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Oceanography Society. All rights reserved.

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • Oceanography

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