Large-scale ocean deoxygenation during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
Fishin' gone?
Because gas solubility decreases as temperatures increase, global warming is likely to cause oxygen loss from the oceans. This could have a detrimental impact on fish populations, the fishing industry, and global food availability. Have such impacts occurred before? Yao et al. report sulfur isotopic data from the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, an interval around 55 million years ago when atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and global temperatures were also high. They found widespread anoxia and resulting high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide, which is toxic to marine organisms. Similar effects could have severe negative effects on ocean ecosystems.
Science, this issue p. 804
Abstract
The consequences of global warming for fisheries are not well understood, but the geological record demonstrates that carbon cycle perturbations are frequently associated with ocean deoxygenation. Of particular interest is the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), where the carbon dioxide input into the atmosphere was similar to the IPCC RCP8.5 emission scenario. Here we present sulfur-isotope data that record a positive 1 per mil excursion during the PETM. Modeling suggests that large parts of the ocean must have become sulfidic. The toxicity of hydrogen sulfide will render two of the largest and least explored ecosystems on Earth, the mesopelagic and bathypelagic zones, uninhabitable by multicellular organisms. This will affect many marine species whose ecozones stretch into the deep ocean.
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Supplementary Material
Summary
Materials and Methods
Figs. S1 to S8
Tables S1 and S2
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File (aar8658_yao_sm.pdf)
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Science
Volume 361 | Issue 6404
24 August 2018
24 August 2018
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Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.
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Submission history
Received: 27 December 2017
Accepted: 7 July 2018
Published in print: 24 August 2018
Acknowledgments
We thank G.R. Dickens and S. Markovic for discussions and comments on an early draft of this paper; H. Li for support with the isotope analysis; and the three anonymous reviewers for helping to improve this manuscript. Funding: This research was supported by a Discovery Grant of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to U.G.W. and a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER grant OCE-0449732 to A.P. Author contributions: All authors contributed to the ideas expressed in this manuscript. W.Y. and U.G.W. developed the project. A.P. provided barite samples. W.Y. performed isotope measurements, data analysis, and computations and did the art work. W.Y., U.G.W., and A.P. were responsible for data interpretation and manuscript writing. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interest. Data and materials availability: All data are available in supplementary materials.
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National Science Foundation: OCE-0449732
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