Patricia Beck Eichler-Barker^1,2*

¹Laboratory of Marine Geology and Geophysics and Environmental Monitoring (GGEMMA), Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Brazil

*Corresponding Author: Patricia Beck Eichler-Barker, Laboratory of Marine Geology and Geophysics and Environmental Monitoring (GGEMMA), Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Brazil and EcoLogicProject.com, Boulder Creek, California, USA.

Received: January 02, 2023; Published: February 06, 2023

Abstract

Volcanic eruptions with increase in the amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other gases are responsible for the extinction of many species because of decreased pH and carbonate availability which creates ocean acidification. Here we show how benthic foraminifera have evolved, by studying sediments from U1485A (1145 m water depth) core in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) collected during IODP Expedition 363 in the Western Pacific Warm Pool (WPWP), one of the warmest marine waters of the world. High-stressed environments dominated by low diversity of opportunistic species after volcanic activity was detected by the presence of tephra and volcanic ashes within the last 0.8 Mya. The decrease in the diversity patterns show an inverse correlation to the presence of tephra and ash right after Pleistocene volcanic eruptions in the past. Deep-water fauna is dominated by Cibicidoides pachiderma, from the early Oligocene through the Pleistocene, Uvigerina hispida from early Miocene through Pleistocene, U. prosbocidae from late Oligocene through Pleistocene, and an outer neritic upper bathyal Uvigerina mediterranea from high salinities, warm waters, low dissolved oxygen, and high organic matter. Bolivinita quadrilatera characteristic of 200-500m depth, Bolivina robusta from 3 to 900m, and the Rotalinoides compressiusculus, a shallow warm water species, from 2-37m depth show higher diversity peaks in interglacial cycles. High-stress conditions with mass extinction after volcanic eruptions leads to enhanced weathering, global warming and cooling afterwards, and ocean acidification, resulting in a crisis in the marine environment in terms of carbonate. Diversity gradients suggested that foraminiferal species responded to the cyclic pulses of volcanic eruptions, and its unstable ecological conditions created by the increase in the temperature and CO₂. Here we show that tephra layers and ash record a periodicity of explosive volcanism within the last 0.8 Myr maintaining a strong 100 kyr periodicity, and that earth’s orbital cycles might trigger peaks of volcanic eruptions 41,000-year cycle.

Keywords: Volcanic Eruptions; Extinctions; Organic Material; Temperature; Climate Change; Paleoclimatology; Benthic; Planktonic Foraminiferal Community Dynamics

References

1. RW Embley., et al. “Long-term eruptive activity at a submarine arc volcano”. Nature 441 (2006): 494-497.
2. Haymon RM., et al. “Volcanic eruption of the mid-ocean ridge along the East Pacific Rise crest at direct submersible “observations of seafloor phenomena associated with an eruption event in April 1991”. Earth and Planetary Science Letters119 (1993): 85e101.
3. Whittaker RJ., et al. “A general dynamic theory of oceanic island biogeography: extending the MacArthur-Wilson Theory to accommodate the rise and fall of volcanic islands”. J.B. Losos, R.E. Ricklefs (Eds.), The Theory of Island Biogeography Revisited, Princeton University Press (2010): 88-115.
4. Marcus V and Tunnicliffe DA. “Butterfield Post-eruption succession of macrofaunal communities at diffuse flow hydrothermal vents on Axial Volcano, Juan de Fuca Ridge, Northeast Pacific”. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 56 (2009): 1586-1598
5. TM Shank., et al. “Temporal and spatial patterns of biological community development at nascent deep-sea hydrothermal vents (9°50′N, East Pacific Rise)”. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 45 (1998): 465-515.
6. Tunnicliffe VRW., et al. “Juniper Biological colonization of new hydrothermal vents following an eruption on Juan De Fuca Ridge” Deep Sea Res. Part 44 (1997): 1627-1644
7. Billups K., et al. “Sensitivity of benthic foraminifera to carbon flux in the western tropical Pacific Ocean”. Journal of Foraminiferal Research2 (2020): 235-247.
8. Eichler PP., et al. “Tracing thermohaline properties and productivity of shelf-water masses using the stable isotopic composition of benthic foraminifera”. The Journal of Foraminiferal Research4 (2014): 352-364.
9. Rosenthal Y., et al. “Expedition 363 Preliminary Report: Western Pacific Warm Pool”. International Ocean Discovery Program (2017).
10. Rosenthal Y., et al. “Western Pacific Warm Pool”. Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program, 363: College Station, TX (International Ocean Discovery Program) (2018).
11. Ueki I., et al. “Observation of current variations off the New Guinea coast including the 1997-1998 El Niño period and their relationship with Sverdrup transport”. Journal of Geophysical Research: OceansC7 (2003).
12. Webster JM., et al. “Drowned carbonate platforms in the Huon Gulf, Papua New Guinea”. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems11 (2004).
13. Beck Eichler PP and Barker CP. “Volcanic past cycles indicators: paleoclimatology and extinctions using benthic and planktonic forams community dynamics. In Beck Eichler, P., and Barker, C.P. (Eds.), Benthic Foraminiferal Ecology: Indicators of Environmental Impacts. Cham, Switzerland (Springer International Publishing) (2020): 133-145.
14. Aiello IW., et al. “Climate, sea level and tectonic controls on sediment discharge from the Sepik River, Papua New Guinea during the Mid- to Late Pleistocene”. Marine Geology 415 (2019): 105954.
15. Markhoven FPCM van., et al. “Cenozoic cosmopolitan deep-water benthic foraminifera”. Bulletin des centres de recherches Exploration-production Elf-Aquitaine: Mémoire 11 (1986): 1-421.
16. Jones RW. “The Challenger Foraminifera”. Oxford University Press (1994): 149.
17. Rzehak A. “Die Foraminiferen Fauna der Neogenformation der Umgebung von Mähr-Ostrau. Verhandlungen des naturforschenden Vereines in Brünn 24 (1886): 77-126.
18. Schwager C. “Fossile Foraminiferen von Kar Nikobar. Reise der Österreichischen Fregatte Novara um die Erde in den Jahren 1857, 1858, 1859 unter den Befehlen des Commodore B. von Wüllerstorf-Urbair”. Geologischer Theil (Zweite Abtheilung, Paläontologische Mittheilungen)2 (1866): 187-268.
19. Brady HB. “Notes on some of the Reticularian Rhizopoda of the "Challenger" Expedition. Part III”. Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science21.81 (1881): 31-71.
20. Brady HB. “Report on the Foraminifera dredged by H.M.S. Challenger during the Years 1873-1876”. Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-76”. Zoology22 (1884): 1-814.v
21. Manisha Das., et al. “Changes in the distribution of Uvigerinidae species over the past 775 kyr: Implications for the paleoceanographic evolution of the Japan Sea”. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 507 (2018): 201-213.
22. Caralp MH. “Impact de la matière organique dans des zones de forte productivité sur certains foraminifères benthiques”. Oceanologica Acta 7 (1984): 509-515.
23. Caralp MH. “Deep-sea circulation in the northeast Atlantic over the past 30,000 years: the benthic Foraminiferal record”. Oceanologica Acta 10 (1987): 27-40.
24. Gupta AK and Thomas E. “Initiation of Northern Hemisphere glaciation and strengthening of the northeast Indian monsoon: Ocean Drilling Program Site 758, eastern equatorial Indian Ocean”. Geology1 (2003): 47-50.
25. Lutze GF and Coulbourn WT. “Recent benthic foraminifera from the continental margin of northwest Africa: Community structure and distribution”. Marine Micropaleontology 8 (1984): 361-401.
26. Peterson LC and Lohmann GP. “Major change in Atlantic deep and bottom waters 700,000 yr ago: Benthonic foraminiferal evidence from the South Atlantic”. Quaternary Research1 (1982): 26-38.
27. Murgese DS and De Deckker P. “The distribution of deep-sea benthic foraminifera in core tops from the eastern Indian Ocean”. Marine Micropaleontology 1-2 (2005): 25-49.
28. Douglas RG. “Benthic foraminiferal ecology and paleocology: a review of concepts and methods (1979).
29. Murray JW. “Ecology and Palaeoecology of Benthic Foraminifera”. Longman Scientific and Technical, Haarlow (1991): 397.
30. Rathburn AE and Corliss BH. “The ecology of living (stained) deep-sea benthic foraminifera from the Sulu Sea”. Paleoceanography1 (1994): 87-150.
31. Gupta Anil and Satapathy SK. “Latest Miocene-Pleistocene abyssal benthic foraminifera from west-central Indian Ocean DSDP Site 236: paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic inferences”. Journal of the Palaeontological Society of India 45 (2000): 33-48.
32. Gupta AK and Srinivasan MS. “Deep-sea benthic foraminiferal changes and Terminal Miocene Event at tropical Indian Ocean DSDP site 214”. Journal of Geological Society of India, 40 (1992): 262-278.
33. Severin KP., et al. “Burrows and Trails Produced by Quinqueloculina impressa Reuss, a Benthic Foraminifer, in Fine-Grained Sediment”. Sedimentology 29 (1982): 897-901.
34. Gross O. “Influence of temperature, oxygen and food availability on the migrational activity of bathyal benthic foraminifera: evidence by microcosm experiments”. In: Liebezeit, G., Dittmann, S., Kröncke, I. (eds) Life at Interfaces and Under Extreme Conditions. Developments in Hydrobiology 151 (2000).
35. AJ Gooday., et al. “Traces of dissolved particles, including coccoliths, in the tests of agglutinated foraminifera from the Challenger Deep (10,897m water depth, western equatorial Pacific)”. Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers2 (2010): 239-247.
36. Andrew J Gooday., et al. “Deep-sea benthic foraminiferal species diversity in the NE Atlantic and NW Arabian sea: a synthesis”. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography1-3 (1998): 165-201.

Citation

Citation: Patricia Beck Eichler-Barker., et al. “Explosive Volcanism Periodicity Past Cycles Record within the Last 0.8 Mya Evidenced by Tephra and Benthic Foraminifera of IODP Hole U1485AA (Exp. 363 WPWP)". Acta Scientific Microbiology 6.3 (2023): 10-20.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Patricia Beck Eichler-Barker., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.