Plight of pelagic primary producers in a changing marine environment
The P4 fellowship will test the impact of past climate extremes on marine ecosystems using coccolithophores, a group of marine primary producers that experienced first order effects of climate and hydrodynamic changes in ancient pelagic oceans. Here we will use sedimentary materials of exceptional quality drilled during the International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 361: South African Climates (January-March 2016) from the Mozambique Channel (Site U1476), the Natal Valley (U1474), the Agulhas Plateau (U1475), and Cape Basin (U1479), to reconstruct surface water biotic response during the Mid-Pliocene Warm Period (MPWP; 3.264 to 3.025 Ma), an interval considered to be the closest analogue for future warm climate. For the first-time, recovery of a complete Pliocene/Pleistocene succession in this region offers an unprecedented and timely opportunity to investigate episodes of major ocean and climate reorganizations during the Neogene period. With this, P4 is original and novel, being able to combine biological (assemblage composition), physical (volume and mass estimates) and geochemical (trace elements, stable isotopes) coccolithophore-derived datasets for understanding the climate of the MPWP, and explore its link with the past dynamics of the greater Agulhas Current system. P4 is innovative and collaborative, using state-of-the-art analytical techniques, and in combination with other proxies from ongoing works of other Expedition 361 scientists, offer a broad context for understanding 21st century global climate vulnerabilities. The resulting palaeoclimate datasets, coupled with real-time ecosystem data collection and numerical modelling, will provide a unique ‘test-bed’ for future model inter-comparisons. Furthermore, an exceptional set of training and transferable skills between the Experienced Researcher, the Supervisor, and the Secondment Hosts is envisaged, an important prerequisite for the successful delivery of P4’s ambitious research objectives.