Articles | Volume 22, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-791-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-791-2025
Research article
 | Highlight paper
 | 
12 Feb 2025
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 12 Feb 2025

What controls planktic foraminiferal calcification?

Ruby Barrett, Joost de Vries, and Daniela N. Schmidt

Related authors

Reviews and syntheses: A trait-based approach to constrain controls on planktic foraminiferal ecology – key trade-offs and current knowledge gaps
Kirsty M. Edgar, Maria Grigoratou, Fanny M. Monteiro, Ruby Barrett, Rui Ying, and Daniela N. Schmidt
Biogeosciences, 22, 3463–3483, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-3463-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-3463-2025, 2025
Short summary

Related subject area

Paleobiogeoscience: Marine Record
Mismatch between coccolithophore-based estimates of particulate inorganic carbon (PIC) concentration and satellite-derived PIC concentration in the Pacific Southern Ocean
Mariem Saavedra-Pellitero, Karl-Heinz Baumann, Nuria Bachiller-Jareno, Harold Lovell, Nele Manon Vollmar, and Elisa Malinverno
Biogeosciences, 22, 3143–3164, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-3143-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-3143-2025, 2025
Short summary
Controls on Palaeogene deep-sea diatom-bearing sediment deposition and comparison with shallow marine environments
Cécile Figus, Johan Renaudie, Or M. Bialik, and Jakub Witkowski
Biogeosciences, 22, 3029–3046, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-3029-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-3029-2025, 2025
Short summary
Cenozoic pelagic accumulation rates and biased sampling of the deep-sea record
Johan Renaudie and David B. Lazarus
Biogeosciences, 22, 1929–1946, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1929-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1929-2025, 2025
Short summary
Were early Archean carbonate factories major carbon sinks on the juvenile Earth?
Wanli Xiang, Jan-Peter Duda, Andreas Pack, Mark van Zuilen, and Joachim Reitner
Biogeosciences, 21, 5653–5684, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-5653-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-5653-2024, 2024
Short summary
Decreasing foraminiferal flux in response to ongoing climate change in the Santa Barbara Basin, California
Emily Havard, Katherine Cherry, Claudia Benitez-Nelson, Eric Tappa, and Catherine V. Davis
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3374,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3374, 2024
Short summary

Cited articles

Aldridge, D., Beer, C. J., and Purdie, D. A.: Calcification in the planktonic foraminifera Globigerina bulloides linked to phosphate concentrations in surface waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, Biogeosciences, 9, 1725–1739, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-9-1725-2012, 2012. 
Aze, T., Ezard, T. H. G., Purvis, A., Coxall, H. K., Stewart, D. R. M., Wade, B. S., and Pearson, P. N.: A phylogeny of Cenozoic macroperforate planktonic foraminifera from fossil data, Biol. Rev. Camb. Philos. Soc., 86, 900–927, https://doi.org/10.1111/J.1469-185X.2011.00178.X, 2011. 
Bach, L. T.: Reconsidering the role of carbonate ion concentration in calcification by marine organisms, Biogeosciences, 12, 4939–4951, https://doi.org/10.5194/BG-12-4939-2015, 2015. 
Barker, S. and Elderfield, H.: Foraminiferal calcification response to glacial-interglacial changes in atmospheric CO2, Science, 297, 833–836, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1072815, 2002. 
Barrett, R.: R markdown file for Bayesian Regression Modelling in “What controls planktic foraminiferal calcification?”, University of Bristol [code], https://doi.org/10.5523/bris.1963qldd6phh829rnosunh0864, 2025a. 
Download
Co-editor-in-chief
This study reveals that size-normalized weight (SNW) in planktonic foraminifera varies by species and environment, making it unsuitable as a universal pCO2 proxy. Regional calibration and species-specific approaches are essential for reliable paleoceanographic reconstructions.
Short summary
Planktic foraminifers are a plankton whose fossilised shell weight is used to reconstruct past environmental conditions such as seawater CO2. However, there is debate about whether other environmental drivers impact shell weight. Here we use a global data compilation and statistics to analyse what controls their weight. We find that the response varies between species and ocean basin, making it important to use regional calibrations and consider which species should be used to reconstruct CO2.

Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint