Authors

Linda Armbrecht, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies
Michael E. Weber, Universität Bonn
Maureen E. Raymo, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Victoria L. Peck, British Antarctic Survey
Trevor Williams, Texas A&M University
Jonathan Warnock, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Yuji Kato, University of Tsukuba
Iván Hernández-Almeida, Geologisches Institut
Frida Hoem, Universiteit Utrecht
Brendan Reilly, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Sidney Hemming, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Ian Bailey, University of Exeter
Yasmina M. Martos, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Marcus Gutjahr, GEOMAR - Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel
Vincent Percuoco, Texas A&M University
Claire Allen, British Antarctic Survey
Stefanie Brachfeld, Montclair State UniversityFollow
Fabricio G. Cardillo, Servicio de Hidrografia Naval
Zhiheng Du, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources
Gerson Fauth, Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos
Chris Fogwill, Cranfield University
Marga Garcia, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
Anna Glüder, Oregon State University
Michelle Guitard, University of South Florida St. Petersburg
Ji Hwan Hwang, Korea Basic Science Institute
Mutsumi Iizuka, Tokyo City University
Bridget Kenlee, University of California, Riverside
Suzanne O’Connell, Wesleyan University Middletown
Lara F. Pérez, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland
Thomas A. Ronge, Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung
Osamu Seki, Hokkaido University
Lisa Tauxe, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-1-2022

Journal / Book Title

Nature Communications

Abstract

Antarctica is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change on Earth and studying the past and present responses of this polar marine ecosystem to environmental change is a matter of urgency. Sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) analysis can provide such insights into past ecosystem-wide changes. Here we present authenticated (through extensive contamination control and sedaDNA damage analysis) metagenomic marine eukaryote sedaDNA from the Scotia Sea region acquired during IODP Expedition 382. We also provide a marine eukaryote sedaDNA record of ~1 Mio. years and diatom and chlorophyte sedaDNA dating back to ~540 ka (using taxonomic marker genes SSU, LSU, psbO). We find evidence of warm phases being associated with high relative diatom abundance, and a marked transition from diatoms comprising < 10% of all eukaryotes prior to ~14.5 ka, to ~50% after this time, i.e., following Meltwater Pulse 1A, alongside a composition change from sea-ice to open-ocean species. Our study demonstrates that sedaDNA tools can be expanded to hundreds of thousands of years, opening the pathway to the study of ecosystem-wide marine shifts and paleo-productivity phases throughout multiple glacial-interglacial cycles.

Comments

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

DOI

10.1038/s41467-022-33494-4

Journal ISSN / Book ISBN

85139127669 (Scopus)

Published Citation

Armbrecht, L., Weber, M.E., Raymo, M.E. et al. Ancient marine sediment DNA reveals diatom transition in Antarctica. Nat Commun 13, 5787 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33494-4

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