Can patchiness explain habitat variability in planktonic foraminifera?

• Applicant: Dr. Julie Meilland
• Subject Area: Oceanography ; Palaeontology
• Term: from 2018 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 413534516

Final Report Abstract

The project FOPA aimed to determine the existence and extent of patchiness in planktonic foraminifera population distribution and to better characterise species vertical habitats and their fluctuations in the subtropical eastern north Atlantic Ocean. Using unique material sampled in summer 2017 with plankton tow and with the support of collaborators and student helper, we showed that planktonic foraminifera concentration in the surface ocean could change by two orders of magnitude at the scale of kilometers and in less than 26 hours. We showed that planktonic foraminifera have species-specific depth habitat at the regional scale and that they do not contribute to the diel vertical migration. We could quantify the percentage of the population following a canonical path of synchronized reproduction associated to ontogenic vertical migration (about 20%). FOPA also diversified, taking advantage of unforeseen opportunities and opened new doors to, for example, the rapid characterisation of modern planktonic foraminifera lining using µFTIR. Despite limited access to the laboratory due to COVID and other difficulties inherent to the samples, we were able to validate/invalidate our initial hypotheses.

Publications

• 2019. Highly replicated sampling reveals no diurnal vertical migration but stable species-specific vertical habitats in planktonic foraminifera. Journal of Plankton Research, (41)2, 127-141
  J. Meilland, M. Siccha, M. Weinkauf, L. Jonkers, R. Morard, U. Baranowski, A. Baumeister, J. Bertlich, G. J. Brummer, P. Debray, T. Fritz-Endres, J. Groeneveld, L. Magerl, P. Munz, M. Rillo, C. Scmidt, H. Takagi, G. Theara, M. Kucera
  
• 2021. Export flux succession of dinoflagellate cysts and planktonic foraminifera in an active upwelling cell off Cape Blanc (NW Africa). European Journal of Phycology
  K. Zonneveld, J. Meilland, B. Donner, G. Versteegh
  
• 2021. Linking zoplankton time series to the fossil record. ICES Journal of Marine Science
  L. Jonkers, J. Meilland, M. C. Rillo, T. de Garidel-Thoron, J. A. Kitchener, M. Kucera
  
• 2021. Population dynamics and reproduction strategies of planktonic Foraminifera in the open ocean. Biogeosciences
  J. Meilland, M. Siccha, M. Kaffenberger, J. Bijma, M. Kucera
  
• 2022. Identification guide to extant planktonic foraminifera, Part 1: Family Candeinidae and genera Berggrenia, Bolivina, Dentigloborotalia, and Neogallitellia. ICES Identification Leaflets for Plankton No. 196
  J. Meilland, P. Cornuault, R. Morard, G. J. Brummer, M. Kucera