he impact of global warming on shallow marine life approximately 56 million years ago is the subject of a significant, new paper by researchers at Syracuse University.
he impact of global warming on shallow marine life approximately 56 million years ago is the subject of a significant, new paper by researchers at Syracuse University.
Linda Ivany, professor of Earth sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), is the lead author of an article in Science Advances (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2018). Her team’s research is the first to address the effects of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM)—a relatively brief period of global climate change, spanning 200,000 years—on marine invertebrates, including snails, clams and other mollusks.
Marine invertebrates are animals without a backbone or an internal skeleton, occupying shallow seas and reefs. Invertebrates presently account for more than 98 percent of all animal life.
“The response of ecosystems [to the PETM] has been well documented for marine plankton, terrestrial plants and land vertebrates, but, until now, almost nothing has been published on marine shelf faunas,” Ivany says. “This is because the stratigraphic record, showing where marine invertebrates are preserved on the continental margins, is full of gaps because of erosion. The chances of preserving a short-duration event, such as the PETM, are small.
Continue reading at Syracuse University.
Image via Syracuse University.
