Miocene to Recent planktonic foraminifera biochronology and evolution in the Pacific Warm Pool (IODP Expedition 363)

Microscopic fossils are abundant in marine sediments. Our research focuses on a group of organisms called planktonic foraminifera that build their shells out of calcium carbonate. When the planktonic foraminifera die they sink to the seafloor and can be examined from deep sea cores collected from the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP). Planktonic foraminifera provide one of the best fossil records, because of their abundance and diversity. We will use these fossils to determine when different species evolved and went extinct over the last 15 million years.

Expedition 363 will recover sediments with high sedimentation rates and well preserved microfossils from the Western Pacific Warm Pool. We will be able to compare the timing of evolutionary and extinction events from the western Pacific to previous record from elsewhere (such as the Atlantic Ocean). This will allow us to test whether the timing of extinction events is synchronous or diachronous between different ocean basins.

External impact from the research will be fulfilled through liaison with industry stakeholders through the NERC funded Innovation Proposal "Planktonic Foraminifera@Nannotax: A web resource for foraminifera taxonomy and biostratigraphy" NE/N017900/1 (1st April 2016-31st March 2018). This proposal is building an online taxonomic database of planktonic foraminifera taxonomy and biostratigraphy. Wade will co-ordinate the borrowing and examining of type specimens from the Miocene-Recent, including all morphospecies relevant to the Moratorium Award. High resolution SEM images of many holotype specimens have already been obtained from the Smithsonian by Dr. Brian Huber. Successful previous examination of type material has been conducted as part of the Paleogene Planktonic Foraminifera Working Group (of which Wade is currently Chair), which has illustrated over 100 type specimens in SEM for the first time (Pearson et al., 2006; Wade et al., in prep.).

We will engage, meet and communicate with interested industrial stakeholders and end users from the commercial private sector. All new taxonomic and biostratigraphic information will be available to industry stakeholders through NERC Innovation Award "Planktonic Foraminifera@Nannotax: A web resource for foraminifera taxonomy and biostratigraphy". Through this project we are meeting with project partners on a regular basis, as well as communication and feedback through email.