Massive and permanent decline of symbiont bearing morozovellids and δ13C perturbations across the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum at the Possagno section (Southern Alps of northeastern Italy).

The Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO) records the highest prolonged global temperatures over the past 70 Ma. Understanding the causes and timing of Eocene climate change remains a major challenge in Cenozoic paleoceanography, which includes the biotic response to climate variability and the changes among planktic foraminifer5 al assemblages across the EECO. The symbiont bearing and shallow dwelling genera Morozovella and Acarinina were important calcifiers in the tropical-subtropical early Paleogene oceans but almost completely disappeared at about 38 Ma, near the Bartonian/ Priabonian boundary. We show here that morozovellids record a first critical step across the EECO through a major permanent decline in relative abundance from the Tethyan Possagno section and ODP Site 1051 in the western subtropical North Atlantic. Possible causes may include increased eutrophication, weak water column stratification, changes in ocean chemistry, loss of symbiosis and possible complex interaction with other microfossil groups. Relative abundances of planktic foraminiferal taxa at Possagno parallel negative shifts in both δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O of bulk sediment from Chron C24r to basal Chron C20r. The post-EECO stable isotopic excursions towards lighter values are of modest intensity. Significant though ephemeral modifications in the planktic foraminiferal communities occur during these minor isotopic excursions. These modifications are marked by pronounced increases in relative abundance of acarininids, in a manner similar to their behaviour during pre-EECO hyperthermals in the Tethyan settings, which suggest a pronounced biotic sensitivity to climate change of planktic foraminifera even during the post-EECO interval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]