Coupled microbial bloom and oxygenation decline recorded by magnetofossils during the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06472-y
• Publication Date: 2018-09-25T10:07:48Z
• Authors: Liao Chang; Richard J. Harrison; Fan Zeng; Thomas A. Berndt; Andrew P. Roberts; David Heslop; Xiang Zhao
• Keywords: Environmental change; Drawdown (hydrology); Bloom

Abstract Understanding marine environmental change and associated biological turnover across the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM; ~56 Ma)—the most pronounced Cenozoic short-term global warming event—is important because of potential role ocean in atmospheric CO 2 drawdown, yet proxies for tracing productivity oxygenation PETM are limited results remain controversial. Here we show that a high-resolution record South Atlantic Ocean bottom water can be extracted from exceptionally preserved magnetofossils—the bioinorganic magnetite nanocrystals produced by magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) using new multiscale magnetic approach. Our suggest transient MTB bloom occurred due to increased nutrient supply. Bottom decreased gradually onset peak PETM. These observations provide microbial response establish value magnetofossils as palaeoenvironmental indicators.