Phytoplankton community disruption caused by latest Cretaceous global warming

Vellekoop, Johan; Woelders, Lineke; Sluijs, Appy; Miller, Kenneth G.; Speijer, Robert P.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-4201-2019

Articles | Volume 16, issue 21

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-4201-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-4201-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 21

Research article

|

07 Nov 2019

Research article |

| 07 Nov 2019

Phytoplankton community disruption caused by latest Cretaceous global warming

Johan Vellekoop, Lineke Woelders, Appy Sluijs, Kenneth G. Miller, and Robert P. Speijer

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-4201-2019-supplement

Data sets

Latest Maastrichtian dinocyst and benthic foraminiferal records of Bass River, Meirs Farm and Search Farm sediment cores, New Jersey, USA. Johan Vellekoop, Lineke Woelders, Appy Sluijs, Kenneth G. Miller, and Robert P. Speijer https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.907070

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Short summary

Our micropaleontological analyses on three cores from New Jersey (USA) show that the late Maastrichtian warming event (66.4–66.1 Ma), characterized by a ~ 4.0 °C warming of sea waters on the New Jersey paleoshelf, resulted in a disruption of phytoplankton communities and a stressed benthic ecosystem. This increased ecosystem stress during the latest Maastrichtian potentially primed global ecosystems for the subsequent mass extinction following the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary impact.