Using Nannofossil Chemistry to constrain the cellular response of marine phytoplankton to changing carbon dioxide concentrations in the surface ocean

Project Information

NannoChem

Grant agreement ID: 799531

DOI

10.3030/799531

Project terminated on 9 July 2022

EC signature date 11 April 2018

Start date 1 September 2019

End date 3 November 2022

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 183 454,80

EU contribution

€ 183 454,80

Coordinated by

THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NannoChem (Using Nannofossil Chemistry to constrain the cellular response of marine phytoplankton to changing carbon dioxide concentrations in the surface ocean)

Reporting period: 2019-09-01 to 2021-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The main aim of the project NannoChem was to determine if and how long-term changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) impacted the processes of calcification and photosynthesis within coccolithophores, a key group of marine phytoplanktonic algae.
Some studies have suggested that the availability of dissolved CO2 in the surface ocean is a main control on coccolithophore cell size, calcification rate and evolution. If true, this has major implications for primary production in future high CO2 oceans. This is especially relevant nowadays considering the current influx of anthropogenic CO2 into the surface ocean, which is already causing a substantial perturbations to this chemistry and related parameters such as pH.

NannoChem aimed to test this main hypothesis by generating a series of multi-proxy records of coccolithophore chemistry, cell size and calcification over a long period of time: the past 10 million years. These records came from a late Miocene to modern sedimentary archive of high quality, recovered from the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean during the International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 363 (Oct-Dec 2016; West Pacific Warm Pool): Site U1482, located offshore Australia.
The main aim of this this inter-disciplinary project (with impact on marine ecology and biology, as well as paleoclimate communities) was met by completion of the three specific Research Objectives (ROs) initially proposed.
RO1. To test whether the current single-site record of late Miocene to modern coccolith vital effects is representative of, and driven by, a global change in atmospheric CO2.
RO2. To test whether declining ocean [CO2] reduces coccolithophore calcification.
RO3. To test the hypothesis that changes in growth conditions have little effect on coccolith vital effects.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

To address the main research goal, and the specific Research Objectives (ROs), a series of tasks included in different work packages were performed:
1) Establishment of a new time efficient methodology to separate two different coccolith size-fractions: very fine (VF, < 4μm) and very coarse (VC, ~7-10 μm).
2) Generation of a long record of size-specific coccolith (VF and VC) carbon and oxygen isotopes (δ13C and δ18O).
3) Production of a long record of Reticulofenesta spp. size at IODP Site U1482. It was complemented by studying extant calcification patterns for the cosmopolitan species Emiliania huxleyi (Saavedra-Pellitero et al., 2019; Vollmar et al., 2022).
4) Generation of VF and VF long records of size-specific coccolith Sr/Ca ratios.

Despite the COVID-19 Pandemic, lockdown and the multiple personal challenges that the Fellow went through (bereavement, COVID-19 Lockdown, maternity and caring responsibilities), we consider that NannoChem ROs were extraordinarily well met, as shown by the dissemination of scientific results, including the available papers as well as the upcoming publications.
Attendance to conferences has been very limited since 2020 due to COVID-19. Still, the Fellow managed to present her research in several online meetings. These are:
- European Geosciences Union General Assembly (2021, virtual, Vienna, Austria).
- The Micropaleontological Society Foraminifera and Nannofossil Groups Joint Spring Meetings (2019 Nottingham, UK; 2020, virtual, London, UK.).
- IODP UK meeting (2020 virtual, London, UK).
- International Nannoplankton Association meeting (2019, Santos, Brazil).
The Fellow also contributed to pieces of research presented (or to be presented) by some of her collaborators in the following international conferences:
- American Geophysical Union Fall meeting (2022, Chicago, USA)
- American Geophysical Union Fall meeting (2021, New Orleans, USA)

The Fellow was also an invited speaker in several occasions:
- 26/03/2021 The Paleontological Society of India (virtual), India
- 28/05/2020 University College London (virtual), UK
- 06/12/2019 National Oceanography Centre Southampton, UK
- 15-20/09/2019 Keynote invited speaker at the 17th INA meeting, Santos, Brazil

The Fellow delivered a series of peer reviewed papers and cruise reports since the beginning of NannoChem project (September 2019) with her University of Birmingham affiliation (see publications section). There are other manuscripts still in preparation due to the early termination of the NannoChem project.

To disseminate the results of Nannochem, the Fellow also presented her knowledge to the general public in different outreach initiatives:
- 07/2022 Organiser of a visit to the Lapworth Museum for Marie S. Curie Fellows.
- 04/2021 – Present Social media manager of the Marie Curie Association at the University of Birmingham twitter account (@MscaUob).
- 04/2021 Comic “How green were the oceans in the past?” in “Past Global Changes Horizons” vol. 1.
- 01/2021 “Lockdown coccos” online exhibition at the Lapworth Museum (University of Birmingham).
- 11/2020 Once upon a Time. Short stories for kids written by scientists.
- 02/2021 Lyme Regis Fossil Festival.
- 09/2020 Climate Crunching Coccolithophores. Science Zumba AlgoRHYTHM! From Home week 7.
- 10/2019 “[Redacted] Night Tour” theater play at the Lapworth Museum (volunteer):
- 05-07/2019 Scientist selected for the science documentary filmed by Maylo Films (USA) onboard the research vessel JOIDES Resolution during IODP Expedition 383.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

NannoChem provided a series of unprecedented palaeorecords in order to address a question of global importance, critical for our understanding of plankton ecology in our current and future high CO2 worlds: “Is CO2 a main controlling parameter on coccolithophore ecology, through calcification and photosynthesis?”. Answering this question will help us improve predictions of phytoplankton ecology in the coming decades to centuries.

The multiple high quality palaeo-proxy data generated during NannoChem (some of them still unpublished due to the early termination of the project) shed valuable light on the past phytoplankton physiology, ecology and growth of coccolithophores for the last 8 Ma. Still, more work is necessary in order to better constrain carbon parameters in global biogeochemical models, which will feed directly into future assessment reports of the biogeochemistry of higher CO2 oceans.
That is why the Fellow will continue collaborating with her University of Birmingham Marie S. Curie network: Tom Dunkley Jones and his student (Emma Hanson) in the upcoming future.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT OF NANNOCHEM