Recalibrating the base of the Palaeozoic food chain : towards a quantified link between progenitor plankton, the ancient carbon cycle and one of the largest mass extinctions in the history of life on Earth Ghent University
Marine phytoplankton grow via photosynthesis by fixing carbon from CO2 in the atmosphere. Carbon (C) in these tiny organisms serves as the base of the food chain. The balance between the C returned to the atmosphere upon death and decay of these algae (and their consumers) and that sequestered and buried in sediments controls much of the Earth’s C-cycle. Disruptions of this complex C balance may have triggered changes in the planet’s climate, ...