美国哈佛大学Swain, Anshuman和德克萨斯大学Woodhouse, Adam合作，报道了海洋浮游生物对新生代环境变化的生物地理学响应。这一研究成果发表在2024年4月17日出版的国际学术期刊《自然》上。

据了解，在古生物学研究中，研究人员将进化支系历史上具有一致的生态和形态特征的类群(功能类群)，与进化上短暂的物种和属进行对比，提供了不同的生物多样性动态视角。

本文分析了Triton数据库(一个新生代大孔浮游有孔虫的发现全球数据库)，与纬度均衡梯度、功能多样性、古纬度专一化和群落均衡的变化的关系。

研究发现，白垩纪-古近纪灭绝后，全球形态群落在丰富度增加之前变得不那么专门化；始新世早期气候最适期的生态特化，表明新生代热变峰期间存在抑制性赤道温度；在形态多样性丧失之前，始新世—渐新世过渡期间的环流变化增加了特化；大约1900万年前的形态特化和丰富度的变化，与远洋鲨鱼的灭绝同期；中新世中期浮游生物多样化过程中，半球间功能群丰富度和特化变化的延迟发生。

Triton数据集的详细性质允许研究人员，对新生代远洋宏观演化进行独特的时空观察，其中功能群落和丰富度的全球生物地理响应在新生代气候事件中解耦。功能群对类似的非生物选择压力的全球响应，可能取决于其所适应的背景气候状态(温室或冰室)。

附：英文原文

Title: Biogeographic response of marine plankton to Cenozoic environmental changes

Author: Swain, Anshuman, Woodhouse, Adam, Fagan, William F., Fraass, Andrew J., Lowery, Christopher M.

Issue&Volume: 2024-04-17

Abstract: In palaeontological studies, groups with consistent ecological and morphological traits across a clade’s history (functional groups) afford different perspectives on biodiversity dynamics than do species and genera, which are evolutionarily ephemeral. Here we analyse Triton, a global dataset of Cenozoic macroperforate planktonic foraminiferal occurrences, to contextualize changes in latitudinal equitability gradients1, functional diversity, palaeolatitudinal specialization and community equitability. We identify: global morphological communities becoming less specialized preceding the richness increase after the Cretaceous–Palaeogene extinction; ecological specialization during the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum, suggesting inhibitive equatorial temperatures during the peak of the Cenozoic hothouse; increased specialization due to circulation changes across the Eocene–Oligocene transition, preceding the loss of morphological diversity; changes in morphological specialization and richness about 19million years ago, coeval with pelagic shark extinctions; delayed onset of changing functional group richness and specialization between hemispheres during the mid-Miocene plankton diversification. The detailed nature of the Triton dataset permits a unique spatiotemporal view of Cenozoic pelagic macroevolution, in which global biogeographic responses of functional communities and richness are decoupled during Cenozoic climate events. The global response of functional groups to similar abiotic selection pressures may depend on the background climatic state (greenhouse or icehouse) to which a group is adapted.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07337-9

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07337-9