The marine ecosystem has been severely disturbed by several transient paleoenvironmental events (<200 kyr duration) during the early Paleogene, of which the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, ~56 Ma) was the most prominent. Over the last decade a number of similar events of Paleocene and Eocene age have been discovered. However, relatively little attention has been paid to pre-PETM events,...

Deposits spanning the Radotruncana calcarata Taxon Range Zone at the Postalm section, Northern Calcareous Alps (Austria) are examined quantitatively for foraminiferal assemblages, especially the planktonic group. This study focuses on establishing a high resolution record spanning an 800 ka long stratigraphic interval from the active continental margin of the Penninic Ocean. The Postalm section...

Planktic foraminifera have traditionally been classified within a single order: Globigerinida. However, recent phylogenetic studies, both molecular and stratophenetic, are evidencing the polyphyletic origin of planktic from several benthic ancestors. At least four independent events benthic-planktic transition identified. One them occurred after Cretaceous&ndash;Paleogene boundary mass extincti...

Large benthic foraminifera (LBF) are crucial marine calcifiers in coral reefs, and sensitive to environmental changes. Yet, many species successfully colonise a wide range of habitats including highly fluctuating environments. We tested the combined effects of ocean warming, local impacts and different light levels on populations of the common LBF Amphistegina lobifera collected along a cross-s...

[1] Magnesium/calcium ratios in benthic foraminifera (Cibicidoides pachyderma) from a sediment core on the Laurentian Slope (1854 m) exhibit strong millennial-scale fluctuations during the past 4000 years. We convert these data to seawater paleotemperatures using a new monospecific linear equation. Results suggest that the temperature of upper North Atlantic Deep Water (dominated by Labrador Se...

Foraminifera are an important faunal element of the benthos in oxygen-depleted settings such as Oxygen Minimum Zones (OMZs) where they can play a relevant role in the processing of phytodetritus. We investigated the uptake of phytodetritus (labeled with (13)C and (15)N) by calcareous foraminifera in the 0-1 cm sediment horizon under different oxygen concentrations within the OMZ in the eastern ...