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Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 2008; v. 303; p. 73-85;
DOI: 10.1144/SP303.6
© 2008 Geological Society of London

Articles

The influences of growth rates on planktic foraminifers as proxies for palaeostudies – a review

D. N. Schmidt1, T. Elliott1 & S. A. Kasemann2

1 Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, BS8 1RJ, Bristol, UK (e-mail: d.schmidt{at}bristol.ac.uk)
2 Grant Institute of Earth Science, The University of Edinburgh, The King's Buildings, West Mains Road, EH9 3JW, Edinburgh, UK

Size dependent changes in element concentrations in planktic foraminifers have long been recognized to influence their reliability as an archive for climate change. Traditionally, these changes have been interpreted as changes in element partitioning during the ontogeny of the organism with faster growth rates in the earlier part of the development. These changes, in the light of new culture experiments, can also be interpreted as changes in growth rate throughout the entire life of the organism, with larger, faster-growing specimens discriminating less efficiently against trace element incorporation into the calcite shell. Growth rates of foraminifera are influenced by the environment and hence change geographically and temporally at various scales, e.g. glacial-interglacial or rapid millennial events such as the Younger Dryas. These changes in growth rate can account for some changes in element to calcium ratio between glacial and interglacials, which were previously linked to changes in seawater element ratios.