Deep-sea biodiversity in space and time: What tiny crustacean fossils tell

Abstract

Deep-sea biodiversity changes both in space and time. Regarding spatial patterns, for example, there are more species in the tropics and less species in the Arctic Ocean, constituting the latitudinal diversity gradient, one of the most pervasive ecological patterns on Earth. We know much less regarding the biodiversity changes with time, because deep-sea long-term monitoring is difficult and do not persist beyond a few decades. Fossils are basically the only direct records of deep past biodiversity. Ostracods are small, bivalved crustaceans with the finest-scale fossil resolution of any metazoan, and thus an ideal model system to study deepsea biodiversity both in space and time. This presentation will show a synthesis of the patterns and possible causes of deep-sea species diversity variation for the last two million years, using benthic deep-sea ostracod as a model system. Deep-sea biodiversity has clearly responded to global climate changes.