Cosmic radiation drives quasi-periodic changes in the diversity of siliceous marine microplankton

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Auteurs principaux: Ozsvárt, Péter, Kun, Emma
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Ozsvárt, Péter
Kun, Emma
author_facet Ozsvárt, Péter
Kun, Emma
contents Radiolarians are significant contributors to the oceanic primary productivity and the global silica cycle in the last 500 Myr. Their diversity throughout the Phanerozoic shows periodic fluctuations. We identify a possible abiotic candidate for driving these patterns which seems to potentially influence radiolarian diversity changes during this period at a significance level of $\sim 2.2 σ$. Our finding suggests a significant correlation between the origination of new radiolaria species and maximum excursions of the Solar system from the Galactic plane, where the magnetic shielding of cosmic rays is expected to be weaker. We connect the particularly strong radiolaria blooming during the Middle Triassic to the so-called Mesozoic dipole-low of the geomagnetic field, which was in its deepest state when radiolarias were blooming. According to the scenario, high-energy cosmic rays presumably implied particular damage to the DNA during the maximum excursions which may trigger large chromosomal abnormalities leading to the appearance of a large number of new genera and species during these periods.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_09163
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Cosmic radiation drives quasi-periodic changes in the diversity of siliceous marine microplankton
Ozsvárt, Péter
Kun, Emma
Populations and Evolution
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Radiolarians are significant contributors to the oceanic primary productivity and the global silica cycle in the last 500 Myr. Their diversity throughout the Phanerozoic shows periodic fluctuations. We identify a possible abiotic candidate for driving these patterns which seems to potentially influence radiolarian diversity changes during this period at a significance level of $\sim 2.2 σ$. Our finding suggests a significant correlation between the origination of new radiolaria species and maximum excursions of the Solar system from the Galactic plane, where the magnetic shielding of cosmic rays is expected to be weaker. We connect the particularly strong radiolaria blooming during the Middle Triassic to the so-called Mesozoic dipole-low of the geomagnetic field, which was in its deepest state when radiolarias were blooming. According to the scenario, high-energy cosmic rays presumably implied particular damage to the DNA during the maximum excursions which may trigger large chromosomal abnormalities leading to the appearance of a large number of new genera and species during these periods.
title Cosmic radiation drives quasi-periodic changes in the diversity of siliceous marine microplankton
topic Populations and Evolution
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.09163