T44 Across Space and through Time: Understanding Evolution and Ecology Using Biogeography II

Sunday, 25 September 2016
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Mile High Ballroom 3C

GEOGRAPHIC VARIATIONS IN BODY SIZE FOR THE NORTHERN ATLANTIC PELAGIC BIOME

Paper number: T44-9
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 3:30 PM – 3:45 PM

Authors

Abstract

Body size is often considered the most important quantitative trait of an individual organism. This is because it can be directly correlated with multiple life-history traits, both physiological (e.g., metabolic rate) and fitness-related (e.g., generation time, fecundity). With body size encapsulating such a significant quantity of biological information, measurements of body size provide a simple metric for assessing the dynamics of ecological networks and the phenotypic response of communities to rapid ongoing global change.

This study undertakes a broad scale assessment of foraminifera body size in the oceanic pelagic biome, focusing on 26 sites in the Northern Atlantic. We generate new high resolution measurements of biovolume for ~55,000 planktonic foraminifera and, using existing plankton tow data, establish both geographic and bathymetric species associations. Correlating these data with physical, chemical and biological environmental variables, we identify the drivers of within species and cross-species body size variation.

To assess the generality of our findings, our results for planktonic foraminifera are considered in light of a new global scale compilation of body size distributions for the pelagic biota. This dataset is comprised of clades that form the majority of pelagic biodiversity and biomass; includes autotrophs, heterotrophs and mixotrophs as well as both unicellular and multicellular groups; and covers 17 orders of magnitude in body mass. Assessed together, these results provide new insights into the biotic and abiotic controls on body size at the macro-scale.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 48, No. 7

doi: 10.1130/abs/2016AM-285948

© Copyright 2016 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.