dissociation of oceanic methane hydrate as a cause of the carbon isotope excursion at the end of the paleocene isotopic records across the latest paleocene thermal maximum lptm indicate that bottom water temperature increased by more than 4 c during a brief time interval 104 years of the latest paleocene 55 6 ma there also was a coeval 2 to 3 excursion in the 13c of the ocean atmosphere inorganic carbon reservoir given the large mass of this reservoir a rapid 13c shift of this magnitude is difficult to explain within the context of conventional hypotheses for changing the mean carbon isotope composition of the ocean and atmosphere however a direct consequence of warming bottom water temperature from 11 to 15 c over 104 years would be a significant change in sediment thermal gradients and dissociation of oceanic ch4 hydrate at locations with intermediate water depths in terms of the present day oceanic ch4 hydrate reservoir thermal dissociation of oceanic ch4 hydrate during the lptm could have released greater than 1 1 to 2 1 1018 g of carbon with a 13c of approximately 60 the release and subsequent oxidation of this amount of carbon is sufficient to explain a 2 to 3 excursion in 13c across the lptm fate of ch4 in oceanic hydrates must be considered in developing models of the climatic and paleoceanographic regimes that operated during the lptm

late paleocene to middle eocene calcareous nannofossil biochronology from the shatsky rise walvis ridge and italy abstract the precision of late paleocene to middle eocene nannofossil datums is investigated by means of quantitative methods and correlated to the magnetic polarity stratigraphy using sequences from the northwest pacific southeast atlantic and italy it is the rule rather than the exception to find tails of very reduced abundances prior to or after a range of consistent and higher abundances the absolutely first or final occurrence of a species therefore seldom provides a synchronous datum when material from different geographic areas are compared on the other hand synchroneity is often confirmed when the initial sharp rise or the final sharp decline in abundance is used as datum level the use of datums not employed in the two principal existing nannofossil zonal schemes can substantially improve the biostratigraphic resolution two established zonal markers show abundance patterns making them unsuitable as datums the first occurrences of ellipsolithus macellus base np4 diachronous and tribrachiatus nunnii base np10 and paleocene eocene boundary too rare and too short range in open ocean sections the first occurrence of either fasciculithus spp or sphenolithus spp is a better marker near the base of np4 the first occurrence of discoaster diastypus at 56 6 ma represents a suitable replacement for recognition of the paleocene eocene boundary

provincialism associated with the paleocene eocene thermal maximum temporal constraint sudden global warming 55 ma is associated with remarkable biotic events among both terrestrial and marine organisms the marine microplankton were especially affected with a rapid diversification among tropical planktonic foraminifera a global acme of the dinoflagellate apectodinium complex and sudden changes in abundance patterns among the calcareous nannoplankton additionally and in contrast with the former two groups the latter group showed marked provincialism with the distinctive rhomboaster spp discoaster araneus association rd restricted to a broadly crescent shaped area extending through the tethys seaway and the north and south atlantic oceans we show here that this geographically restricted association was also temporally restricted the stratigraphic occurrence of the rhomboaster spp d araneus association is correlative with the earliest eocene carbon isotope excursion the relative abundance of this association is highest in the interval of minimum 13c values and sharply decreases as the 13c increases toward preexcursion values we propose that the rhomboaster spp d araneus association constitutes a stratigraphic proxy for the carbon isotope excursion and represents an unique response to the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm with a temporal span on the order of 175 kyr

abrupt deep sea warming palaeoceanographic changes and benthic extinctions at the end of the palaeocene a remarkable oxygen and carbon isotope excursion occurred in antarctic waters near the end of the palaeocene 57 33 myr ago indicating rapid global warming and oceanographic changes that caused one of the largest deep sea benthic extinctions of the past 90 million years in contrast the oceanic plankton were largely unaffected implying a decoupling of the deep and shallow ecosystems the data suggest that for a few thousand years ocean circulation underwent fundamental changes producing a transient state that although brief had long term effects on environmental and biotic evolution

responses of calcareous nannofossil assemblages mineralogy and geochemistry to the environmental perturbations across the paleocene eocene boundary in the venetian pre alps responses of calcareous nannofossil assemblages mineralogy and geochemistry to the environmental pertubartions across the paleocene eocene boundary in the venetian pre alps

response of calcareous nannofossils to the paleocene eocene thermal maximum observations on composition preservation and calcification in sediments from odp site 1263 walvis ridge sw atlantic abstract in this study we present the results of a detailed analysis on calcareous nannofossil assemblages from sediment cores of odp site 1263 southern east atlantic walvis ridge this section represents one of the few complete deep sea sections that document the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm in the pelagic realm the petm transient event was characterized by a brief but intense interval of global warming a global negative carbon isotope excursion cie and widespread dissolution of seafloor carbonate sediments paired analysis at polarizing light microscope lm and scanning electron microscope sem documents the different behavior of nannofossils through the different phases of the petm at the onset of cie within the cie and during the recovery interval the presence of anomalous specimens and morphotypes within some nannofossil taxa recorded during previous lm high resolution analyses has been further investigated in selected samples at the sem besides the known representatives of the cie petm excursion nanno flora as rhomboaster calcitrapa group and discoaster anartios the analysis revealed the presence of peculiar morphotypes of fasciculithus and deformed specimens of discoaster nobilis group discoaster mediosus and discoaster multiradiatus that are considered related to the anomalous amount of co2 in the ocean atmosphere system during the early phase of petm comparative analyses were performed in few selected samples from other petm sections located at different latitudes in the atlantic and pacific oceans although the anomalous geochemical conditions during the petm cie interval seem to have had some influence on the nannofossil production calcification and assemblage composition it results that local productivity together with post depositional diagenetic conditions were additional important controlling factors on nannofossil assemblages preliminary data from eocene thermal maximum 2 etm2 or elmo suggest that nannofossil malformations are not exclusive of the petm and are associated to other episodes of perturbation of the c cycle

warming the fuel for the fire evidence for the thermal dissociation of methane hydrate during the paleocene eocene thermal maximum dramatic warming and upheaval of the carbon system at the end of the paleocene epoch have been linked to massive dissociation of sedimentary methane hydrate however testing the paleocene eocene thermal maximum hydrate dissociation hypothesis has been hindered by the inability of available proxy records to resolve the initial sequence of events the cause of the paleocene eocene thermal maximum carbon isotope excursion remains speculative primarily due to uncertainties in the timing and duration of the paleocene eocene thermal maximum we present new high resolution stable isotope records based on analyses of single planktonic and benthic foraminiferal shells from ocean drilling program site 690 weddell sea southern ocean demonstrating that the initial carbon isotope excursion was geologically instantaneous and was preceded by a brief period of gradual surface water warming both of these findings support the thermal dissociation of methane hydrate as the cause of the paleocene eocene thermal maximum carbon isotope excursion furthermore the data reveal that the methane derived carbon was mixed from the surface ocean downward suggesting that a significant fraction of the initial dissociated hydrate methane reached the atmosphere prior to oxidation

on the duration of the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm 1 the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm is one of the best known examples of a transient climate perturbation associated with a brief but intense interval of global warming and a massive perturbation of the global carbon cycle from injection of isotopically light carbon into the ocean atmosphere system one key to quantifying the mass of carbon released identifying the source s and understanding the ultimate fate of this carbon is to develop high resolution age models two independent strategies have been employed cycle stratigraphy and analysis of extraterrestrial helium heet both of which were first tested on ocean drilling program odp site 690 these two methods are in agreement for the onset of the petm and initial recovery or the clay layer main body but seem to differ in the final recovery phase of the event above the clay layer where the carbonate contents rise and carbon isotope values return toward background values here we present a state of the art age model for the petm derived from a new orbital chronology developed with cycle stratigraphic records from sites drilled during odp leg 208 walvis ridge southeastern atlantic integrated with published records from site 690 weddell sea southern ocean odp leg 113 during leg 208 five paleocene eocene p e boundary sections sites 1262 to 1267 were recovered in multiple holes over a depth transect of more than 2200 m at the walvis ridge yielding the first stratigraphically complete p e deep sea sequence with moderate to relatively high sedimentation rates 1 to 3 cm ka where a is years a detailed chronology was developed with nondestructive x ray fluorescence xrf core scanning records on the scale of precession cycles with a total duration of the petm now estimated to be 170 ka the revised cycle stratigraphic record confirms original estimates for the duration of the onset and initial recovery but suggests a new duration for the final recovery that is intermediate to the previous estimates by cycle stratigraphy and heet

on the duration of magnetochrons c24r and c25n and the timing of early eocene global warming events implications from the ocean drilling program leg 208 walvis ridge depth transect 1 five sections drilled in multiple holes over a depth transect of more than 2200 m at the walvis ridge se atlantic during ocean drilling program odp leg 208 resulted in the first complete early paleogene deep sea record here we present high resolution stratigraphic records spanning a 4 3 million yearlong interval of the late paleocene to early eocene this interval includes the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm as well as the eocene thermal maximum etm 2 event a detailed chronology was developed with nondestructive x ray fluorescence xrf core scanning records and shipboard color data these records were used to refine the shipboard derived spliced composite depth for each site and with a record from odp site 1051 were then used to establish a continuous time series over this interval extensive spectral analysis reveals that the early paleogene sedimentary cyclicity is dominated by precession modulated by the short 100 kyr and long 405 kyr eccentricity cycles counting of precession related cycles at multiple sites results in revised estimates for the duration of magnetochrons c24r and c25n direct comparison between the amplitude modulation of the precession component derived from xrf data and recent models of earth s orbital eccentricity suggests that the onset of the petm and etm2 are related to a 100 kyr eccentricity maximum both events are approximately a quarter of a period offset from a maximum in the 405 kyr eccentricity cycle with the major difference that the petm is lagging and etm2 is leading a 405 kyr eccentricity maximum absolute age estimates for the petm etm2 and the magnetochron boundaries that are consistent with recalibrated radiometric ages and recent models of earth s orbital eccentricity cannot be precisely determined at present because of too large uncertainties in these methods nevertheless we provide two possible tuning options which demonstrate the potential for the development of a cyclostratigraphic framework based on the stable 405 kyr eccentricity cycle for the entire paleogene

changes in calcareous nannofossil assemblages across the paleocene eocene transition from the paleo equatorial pacific ocean quantitative analyses of selected calcareous nannofossils in deep sea sections recovered from the paleo equatorial pacific odp leg 199 provide new information about biostratigraphy biochronology and the evolutionary history of calcareous nannofossils across the paleocene eocene transition interval the sediment cores from odp leg 199 represent the first continuous paleocene eocene boundary sections ever to be sampled in the central equatorial pacific ocean calcareous nannofossil assemblages are studied to document the distribution of biostratigraphically useful taxa such as ericsonia discoaster fasciculithus rhomboaster and tribrachiatus focus is given to the evolution of the rhomboaster tribrachiatus lineage in the lower eocene interval at site 1215 and on the stratigraphic relationship of these taxa relative to species in the genus fasciculithus critical intervals of north atlantic dsdp site 550 have also been re examined the tribrachiatus digitalis morphotype was described at site 550 from an interval affected by down hole contamination partly originating from within the tribrachiatus orthostylus range the t digitalis morphotype represents an evolutionary transitional form between t contortus and t orthostylus entering the stratigraphic record within the range of the former species and disappearing within the lower part of the range of the latter species the subzonal subdivision of zone np10 hence collapses lithological and colour variability reflecting orbital cyclicity occur in the lower eocene of site 1215 permitting a relative astronomical age calibration of the tribrachiatus taxa the distinct rhomboaster spp discoaster araneus association also occurs in the paleo equatorial pacific ocean together with a marked decrease in diversity of fasciculithus spp site 1220 reveals a short peak abundance of thoracosphaera spp just above the p e boundary interval which probably reflects a stressed surface water environment

high resolution nannofossil biochronology of middle paleocene to early eocene at odp site 1262 implications for calcareous nannoplankton evolution abstract over the last several decades debates on the tempo and mode of evolution have centered on the question whether morphological evolution preferentially occurs gradually or punctuated i e with long periods of stasis alternating with short periods of rapid morphological change and generation of new species another major debate is focused on the question whether long term evolution is driven by or at least strongly influenced by changes in the environment or by interaction with other life forms microfossils offer a unique opportunity to obtain the large datasets as well as the precision in dating of subsequent samples to study both these questions we present high resolution analyses of selected calcareous nannofossils from the deep sea section recovered at odp site 1262 leg 208 in the south eastern atlantic the studied section encompasses nannofossil zones np4 np12 equivalent to cp3 cp10 and chrons c27r c24n we document more than 70 biohorizons occurring over an about 10 myr time interval 62 5 ma to 52 5 ma and discuss their reliability and reproducibility with respect to previous data thus providing an improved biostratigraphic framework which we relate to magnetostratigraphic information and present for two possible options of a new paleocene stratigraphic framework based on cyclostratigraphy this new framework enabled us to tentatively reconstruct steps in the evolution of early paleogene calcareous nannoplankton through documentation of transitional morphotypes between genera and or species and of the phylogenetic relations between the genera fasciculithus heliolithus discoasteroides and discoaster as well as between rhomboaster and tribrachiatus the exceptional record provided by the continuous composite sequence recovered at walvis ridge allows us to describe the mode of evolution among calcareous nannoplankton new genera and or new species usually originated through branching of lineages via gradual but relatively rapid morphological transitions as documented by the presence of intermediate forms between the end member ancestral and descendant forms significant modifications in the calcareous nannofossil assemblages are often related to significant changes in environmental conditions but the appearance of structural innovations and radiations within a single genus also occurred during stable environmental conditions these lines of evidence suggest that nannoplankton evolution is not always directly triggered by stressed environmental conditions but could be also driven by endogenous biotic control

astronomical climate control on paleosol stacking patterns in the upper paleocene lower eocene willwood formation bighorn basin wyoming the willwood formation of the bighorn basin wyoming usa is a thick succession of upper paleocene and lower eocene fluvial floodplain sandstones and mudstones reddish paleosols formed on the floodplain mudstones alternate rhythmically on various scales with heterolithic intervals of small channel sandstones and mudstones showing weak pedogenesis spectral analysis of redness in the willwood successions at polecat bench and red butte reveals significant spectral peaks corresponding to cycle thicknesses of 8 and 3 m the 8 m cycle reflects distinct clusters of 3 5 paleosols age constraints show that the period of this cycle closely matches the 21 k y climatic precession cycle the 3 m cycle corresponds to individual paleosols with a period of 7 8 k y this period is similar to millennial scale sub milankovitch cycles found in marine and lacustrine successions of pliocene pleistocene age precession and millennial scale climate variations probably affected paleosol development through cyclic changes from predominantly overbank to predominantly channel avulsion deposition with the latter periodically halting soil formation because of high sediment accumulation a new age model was developed for the paleocene eocene carbon isotope excursion cie at polecat bench based on the precessional origin of paleosol clusters the main body of the cie spans 5 5 precession cycles or 115 k y and the recovery tail of the cie spans 2 precession cycles or 42 k y this outcome is consistent with and independently confirms recent estimates of cie duration based on deep sea cores

shelf and open ocean calcareous phytoplankton assemblages across the paleocene eocene thermal maximum implications for global productivity gradients abrupt global warming and profound perturbation of the carbon cycle during the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm ca 55 ma have been linked to a massive release of carbon into the ocean atmosphere system increased phytoplankton productivity has been invoked to cause subsequent co2 drawdown cooling and environmental recovery however interpretations of geochemical and biotic data differ on when and where this increased productivity occurred here we present high resolution nannofossil assemblage data from a shelf section the u s geological survey usgs drill hole at wilson lake new jersey and an open ocean location ocean drilling program odp site 1209 paleoequatorial pacific these data combined with published biotic records indicate a transient steepening of shelf offshelf trophic gradients across the petm onset and peak with a decrease in open ocean productivity coeval with increased nutrient availability in shelf areas productivity levels recovered in the open ocean during the later stages of the event which coupled with intensified continental weathering rates may have played an important role in carbon sequestration and co2 drawdown

nannofossil assemblage fluctuations during the paleocene eocene thermal maximum at sites 213 indian ocean and 401 north atlantic ocean palaeoceanographic implications the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm was an abrupt global warming event at f55 ma this event had profound effects on the biosphere quantitative investigations of calcareous nannofossil assemblages were performed across the petm at deep sea drilling project site 213 in the tropical indian ocean and site 401 in the bay of biscay north atlantic ocean at a temperate latitude calcareous nannofossil assemblages from both sites show major changes before during and after the petm fluctuations at site 213 are affected by selective dissolution of the least robust taxa by contrast assemblages in the lower part of the petm at site 401 show less diagenetic alteration and display high abundances of genera such as discoaster fasciculithus and ericsonia these taxa reflect relatively warm and probably oligotrophic surface waters abundances of the genus chiasmolithus an indicator of relatively cool and eutrophic waters decreased dramatically the upper portion of the petm is characterized by an increase in the abundance of toweius spp and zygrhablithus bijugatus interpreted as a return to cooler and more eutrophic conditions the elimination of fasciculithus was probably due to competition with the holococcolith species z bijugatus which occupied the same ecological niche the occurrences of long armed and asymmetrical discoaster species such as discoaster araneus discoaster anartios and discoaster okadai and rhomboaster species such as rhomboaster calcitrapa and rhomboaster cuspis are characteristic of the petm interval d 2004 elsevier b v all rights reserved

evidence of surface water oligotrophy during the paleocene eocene thermal maximum nannofossil assemblage data from ocean drilling program site 690 maud rise weddell sea 1 nannoplankton assemblages at ocean drilling program site 690 maud rise weddell sea experienced an abrupt and dramatic transformation at the onset of the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm at 55 m y the major assemblage shift suggests a change from colder more productive surface waters to warmer more oligotrophic conditions significant restructuring of assemblages during the later part of the petm indicates that nannoplankton communities were not stable and that surface water conditions changed although they remained warm and oligotrophic combined with benthic foraminiferal assemblage data nannoplankton assemblage results suggest increased sequestration of nutrients in shelf environments and starvation of the open ocean although the petm was a short lived event it appears to have had long term effects on nannoplankton leading to the extinction of fasciculithus a dominant paleocene genus

the response of calcareous nannofossil assemblages to the paleocene eocene thermal maximum at the walvis ridge in the south atlantic compositions and abundances of calcareous nannofossil taxa have been determined in a ca 170 kyrs long time interval across the paleocene eocene boundary at 1 cm to 10 cm resolution from two odp sites 1262 1263 drilled along the flank of the walvis ridge in the south atlantic the results are compared to published data from odp site 690 in the weddell sea the assemblages underwent rapid evolution over a 74 kyrs period indicating stressed unstable and or extreme photic zone environments during the petm hyperthermal this rapid evolution which created 5 distinct stratigraphic horizons is consistent with the restricted brief occurrences of malformed and or weakly calcified morphotypes the production of these aberrant morphotypes is possibly caused by major global scale changes in carbon cycling in the ocean atmosphere system affecting also photic zone environments no marked paleoecologically induced changes are observed in abundances of the genera discoaster fasciculithus and sphenolithus at the walvis ridge sites surprisingly there is no significant correlation in abundance between these three genera presumed to have had a similar paleoecological preference for warm and oligotrophic conditions

calcareous nannofossils from the paleocene eocene thermal maximum of the equatorial atlantic odp site 1260b evidence for tropical warming abstract independent geological and micropaleontological lines of evidence suggest a 200 kyr period of intense warming covering the paleocene eocene boundary interval petm it has been suggested that this warming was initiated by a massive release of methane from the continental slopes among other groups of organisms calcareous nannofossils are characterized by a remarkable increase of warm water taxa during this interval here we report the tropical response of calcareous nannofossils to the paleocene eocene interval in odp site 1260b 283 15 276 35 mbsf the petm is about 1 38 m thick 279 88 278 5 mbsf as defined by the onset and termination of the 13c excursion and is marked by a 12 cm thick laminated clay layer at the start of the excursion a 30 cm thick interval 279 75 279 45 mbsf directly above the clay layer is characterized by common discoaster spp and coccolithus subpertusus syn ericsonia subpertusus and the first occurrences of discoaster araneus rhomboaster cuspis and tribrachiatus bramlettei all five taxa are interpreted as proxies for warm surface waters the increase of discoaster spp during the petm is solely caused by the onset of the new species d araneus which is here seen as a malformed discoaster related to specific petm conditions these possibly include an acidification of the surface waters and or higher salinity the rhomboaster tribrachiatus group which first occurs in the petm is also thought to be a proxy for increased salinity the abundance of the genus toweius indicative for mesotrophic conditions declines simultaneously discoaster abundance decreases in the later stages of the petm being substituted by chiasmolithus and campylosphaera indicating a change to more eutrophic conditions the genus fasciculithus very common in the tropical paleocene suffered a dramatic decline in the clay layer basal petm without recovering later in the eocene this decline and the subsequent extinction of fasciculithus a solid robust nannolith are here thought to be related to a calcification crises perhaps caused by a high co2 concentration and an acidification of the oceans the observed changes in the composition of the calcareous nannofossils were relatively short lived following the course of the petm which was characterized by warm surface waters with possibly low ph conditions

eocene biostratigraphy and magnetic stratigraphy from possagno italy the calcareous nannofossil response to climate variability a study of quantitative calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy of a 68 m thick marine limestone section of late paleocene middle eocene age outcropping at possagno in northern italy shows that the section encompasses nannofossil zones np9 np15 equivalent to cp8 cp13b and chrons c24r c21n the paleocene eocene boundary was placed at the base a of d 13 c negative excursion from the literature that was found virtually coincident with the base of zone np9b the base of the middle eocene lutetian was placed at the base of chron c21r biostratigraphic events were generally found to be consistent with parallel events in recent time scales several potentially useful new events are also described in particular we detected the earliest specimens of dictyococcites at the base of chron c22r np12 np13 zonal transition which is several million years older than previous estimates correlation of possagno data to the oxygen isotope record from the literature allowed us to describe the temporal relationships between climate variability and calcareous nannofossil assemblages modifications in the nannofossil assemblage coeval to both the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm and the early middle eocene long term climatic trend are recognized the short lived petm was coeval to provisional adaptations malformations and or ecophenotypes in the coccolithophores communities that were reabsorbed upon return to long term varying climatic conditions the early middle eocene long term climatic trend was instead coeval to true evolutionary trends with the appearance of the very successful noelaerhabdaceae clade whose offsprings include the most important bloom forming coccolithophorids in the modern ocean the early middle eocene can thus be considered the time in which nannoplankton communities set course toward modern structure triggering a reconfiguration of the global ocean life chain d 2005 elsevier b v all rights reserved

present rate of uplift in fennoscandia from grace and absolute gravimetry abstract fennoscandia is a key region for studying effects of glacial isostatic adjustment the associated mass variations can be detected by the gravity recovery and climate experiment grace satellite mission which observes the earth s gravity field since april 2002 as well as by absolute gravimetry field campaigns since 2003 annual absolute gravity ag measurements have been performed in fennoscandia by the institut fur erdmessung ife institute of geodesy of the leibniz universitat hannover germany within a multi national cooperation this offers a unique opportunity for validation and evaluation of the grace results in this preliminary study the grace results are compared to secular gravity changes based on the surveys from 2004 to 2007 with the fg5 220 gravimeter of the ife the results from grace monthly solutions provided by different analysis centres show temporal gravity variations in fennoscandia the included secular variations are in good agreement with former studies the uplift centre is located west of the bothnian bay the whole uplift area comprises northern europe nevertheless the differences between the grace solutions are larger than expected and the different centre specific processing techniques have a very strong effect on possible interpretations of grace results the comparison of grace to the ag measurements reveals that the determined trends fit well with results from grace at selected stations especially for the solution provided by the gfz variations of land hydrology clearly influence results from grace and the ag measurements

limited range of interspecific vital effects in coccolith stable isotopic records during the paleocene eocene thermal maximum 1 small but significant differences exist among stable carbon and oxygen isotopic excursions measured in coccolith dominated bulk carbonate and planktic foraminifera during the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm one hypothesis suggests that the bulk carbonate isotopic record is compromised by changing nannofossil assemblages since modern nannofossils show a large 5 permil range of interspecific vital effects new techniques are employed here to separate different size fractions of coccoliths from petm sediments at odp site 690 for isotopic analysis removing a major portion of the variation in nannofossil assemblages isotopic compositions of coarse and fine coccolith fractions dominated by coccoliths of genus chiasmolithus and toweius respectively differ by less than 0 5 permil for both oxygen and carbon the near monogeneric toweius record closely parallels the main trends in the bulk carbonate isotope records including multiple steps in the negative carbon isotopic excursion suggesting that the trends in the bulk carbonate record are not artifacts of changing species assemblages because both coccolithophorids and symbiont bearing foraminifera like acarinina must inhabit the photic zone it is unlikely that the 103 year lags in isotope event onset between coccoliths and acarinina reflect true time transgressive invasion of isotopically depleted co2 into the water column the small range of vital effects among paleocene coccoliths is unlikely to result from diagenetic homogenization and instead may reflect more similar carbon acquisition strategies of paleocene coccolithophorid algae due to larger and or more similar cell sizes and higher atmospheric carbon dioxide the small range of vital effects suggests that bulk carbonate records are likely reliable for other early and pre cenozoic sediments where foraminifera are often scarce