Calcareous nannoplankton are photosynthetic plankton producing micrometric calcite platelets having a fossil record covering the past 200 Myr. Based on species richness, platelets size and abundance we observed four evolution phases through time: Jurassic–Early Cretaceous invasion phase of the open ocean, Early Cretaceous–K–Pg extinction specialization phase to the ecological niches, post-K–Pg mass extinction recovery and Eocene–Neogene establishment phase with domination of a few small species.

Predicting the effects of changing climate on microbial community shifts on longer timescales can be challenging. This study exploits the power of combining organic geochemistry, molecular microbial ecology, and geochemistry to unravel trends in microbial community induced by climatic variability. Our results show that climate-induced variability on decadal timescales can trigger changes in both lake trophic status and phytoplankton communities.

The Gippsland Lakes, Australia, have suffered from periodic blooms of cyanobacteria (blue green algae) since the mid 1980s. Prior to this, little is known about the history of cyanobacterial blooms in this system. We investigated the history of cyanobacterial blooms using a sediment core taken from the Gippsland Lakes which had each layer dated using lead isotopes. The results showed that surprising blooms of cyanobacteria were also prevalent prior to European settlement

We present the first analysis of population structure and cohort distribution in a fossil oyster reef. Data are derived from Terrestrial Laser Scanning of a Miocene shell bed covering 459 m². A growth model was calculated, revealing this species as the giant oyster Crassostrea gryphoides was the fastest growing oyster known so far. The shell half-lives range around few years, indicating that oyster reefs were geologically short-lived structures, which were degraded on a decadal scale.

We show that the fundamental molecules of life (those common to all three domains of life: Archaea, Bacteria, Eukaryota), including nucleotides, amino acids, enzyme cofactors, and porphyrin agglomerates, absorb light strongly from 230 to 280nm (in the UV-C) and have chemical affinity to RNA and DNA. This supports the "thermodynamic dissipation theory for the origin of life", which suggests that life arose and evolved as a response to dissipating the prevailing Archaean UV-C sunlight into heat.