Time Machine Biology: Cross-Timescale Integration of Ecology, Evolution, and Oceanography

International audienceDirect observations of marine ecosystems are inherently limited in theirtemporal scope. Yet, ongoing global anthropogenic change urgently requires improvedunderstanding of long-term baselines, greater insight into the relationship between climateand biodiversity, and knowledge of the evolutionary consequences of our actions.Sediment cores can provide this understanding by linking data on the responses ofmarine biota to reconstructions of past environmental and climatic change. Givencontinuous sedimentation and robust age control, studies of sediment cores have thepotential to constrain the state and dynamics of past climates and ecosystems on timescalesof centuries to millions of years. Here, we review the development and recentadvances in “ocean drilling paleobiology”—a synthetic science with potential to illuminatethe interplay and relative importance of ecological and evolutionary factors duringtimes of global change. Climate, specifically temperature, appears to control Cenozoicmarine ecosystems on million-year, millennial, centennial, and anthropogenic timescales.Although certainly not the only factor controlling biodiversity dynamics, theeffect size of temperature is large for both pelagic and deep-sea ecosystems