The Micropaleoecology Framework: Evaluating Biotic Responses to Global Change Through Paleoproxy, Microfossil, and Ecological Data Integration

Abstract

The microfossil record contains abundant, diverse, and well-preserved fossils spanning multiple trophic levels from primary producers to apex predators. In addition, microfossils often constitute and are preserved in high abundances alongside continuous high-resolution geochemical proxy records. These characteristics mean that microfossils can provide valuable context for understanding the modern climate and biodiversity crises by allowing for the interrogation of spatiotemporal scales well beyond what is available in neo-ecological research. Here, we formalize a research framework of "micropaleoecology," which builds on a holistic understanding of global change from the environment to ecosystem level. Location: Global. Time period: Neoproterozoic-Phanerozoic. Taxa studied: Fossilizing organisms/molecules. Our framework seeks to integrate geochemical proxy records with microfossil records and metrics, and draws on mechanistic models and systems-level statistical analyses to integrate disparate records. Using multiple proxies and mechanistic mathematical frameworks extends analysis beyond traditional correlation-based studies of paleoecological associations and builds a greater understanding of past ecosystem dynamics. The goal of micropaleoecology is to investigate how environmental changes impact the component and emergent properties of ecosystems through the integration of multi-trophic level body fossil records (primarily using microfossils, and incorporating additional macrofossil data where possible) with contemporaneous environmental (biogeochemical, geochemical, and sedimentological) records. Micropaleoecology, with its focus on integrating ecological metrics within the context of paleontological records, facilitates a deeper understanding of the response of ecosystems across time and space to better prepare for a future Earth under threat from anthropogenic climate change.

Keywords: IODP; biogeochemistry; biomarkers; climate change; conservation paleobiology; ecosystems; microfossils; oceanography; paleoceanography; paleontology.

FIGURE 1

Geographical occurrence records of (A) marine macrofossils (from Paleobiology Database) and (B) microfossils (combined records from BioDeepTime, Triton and Sibert et al. , , and unpublished data). (C) and (D) show the same records on a paleolatitudinal‐time axis of 1‐million‐year time bins and 5° paleolatitudinal bands.

FIGURE 2

A dominantly marine‐based selection of (bio)geochemical & ecological proxies and their respective archives to reconstruct various environmental parameters. Dark purple fields indicate existing studies (see Supporting Information for specific references), light purple fields indicate potential measurements based on the geochemical proxy which can be applied to different archives in the future, grey fields indicate no application so far. * = e.g., Na/Ca, Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca etc., ** = e.g., Ca/Cd, Ca/Ba, Ca/Zn.

FIGURE 3

An overview of the proposed micropaleoecology framework with example case studies. An ideal micropaleoecology study includes data from multiple taxonomic groups and biogeochemical data, evaluated in an analytical framework informed by ecological theory with mechanistic models or systems‐level statistical analyses. AE, analysis element; PE, primary element; SE, secondary element.