{"id":19982,"date":"2022-10-21T07:54:15","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T23:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/study-finds-effect-of-earths-orbit-around-the-sun-on-ancient-microorganisms\/"},"modified":"2022-12-08T10:23:27","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T02:23:27","slug":"study-finds-effect-of-earths-orbit-around-the-sun-on-ancient-microorganisms","status":"publish","type":"media-release","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/study-finds-effect-of-earths-orbit-around-the-sun-on-ancient-microorganisms\/","title":{"rendered":"Study finds effect of Earth\u2019s orbit around the sun on ancient microorganisms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Curtin University researchers studying molecular fossils or \u2018biomarkers\u2019 from deep beneath the Chicxulub impact crater<\/a> have found evidence of how microorganisms changed in response to fluctuations in the Earth\u2019s climate, offering clues about how the planet and life forms may respond to climate change in our modern world.<\/p>\n

Lead author, Curtin PhD graduate Dr Danlei Wang, from Curtin\u2019s WA-Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre (WA-OIGC) said variations in the Earth\u2019s orbit around the Sun over thousands of years were known to cause changes to our planet\u2019s climate and environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO) about 50 million years ago, which was the Earth\u2019s warmest period in the past 65 million years, has been linked to the orbital cycles of our planet around the Sun,\u201d Dr Wang said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe performed geochemical studies including biomarker analysis on a sediment core retrieved from the Chicxulub crater in the Gulf of Mexico, to learn how microbial ecosystems responded to Earth\u2019s orbital cycles near the end of the EECO. Cyclostratigraphy, which studies astronomically-driven climate cycles within sedimentary deposits, was carried out in collaboration with Kiel University.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur study found orbital cycles that control Earth\u2019s climatic variations such as rainfall and terrestrial run-off result in changes in microbial communities, onset of algal blooms and stagnation of the oceans including toxic conditions at the Chicxulub site.\u201d<\/p>\n

Research co-author ARC Laureate Fellow, John Curtin Distinguished Professor Kliti Grice, Director of WA-OIGC, said it was the highest-resolution molecular-level geochemical study ever undertaken to provide evidence of a link between variations in the Earth\u2019s orbit and the effect of this on ancient environments preserved in rock record at the end of the EECO period.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we found as having happened near the Chicxulub site at the end of the EECO cycle may have also occurred elsewhere around the world at other times during the Paleogene period, which spanned about 43 million years and included the EECO,\u201d Professor Grice said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, geologic records containing such orbital-driven geochemical signals from a \u2019greenhouse\u2019 period in the Earth\u2019s history can provide clues to predict how environments and life may respond to climate change in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The authors are also affiliated with The Institute for Geoscience Research (TIGeR), Curtin\u2019s flagship Earth Sciences research institute.<\/p>\n

The paper, \u2018Eccentricity paced paleoenvironment evolution and microbial community structure in the Gulf of Mexico during the outgoing Early Eocene Climate Optimum\u2019<\/em>, was published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters<\/em> and can be found online here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The research was supported by Kiel University and funded through the Australian Research Council Discovery Program, the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) and Australian and New Zealand Legacy IODP. Ms Wang was supported by an Australian-Chinese doctoral scholarship from the Chinese Scholarship Council and Curtin University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers studying molecular fossils from deep beneath the Chicxulub impact crater have found evidence of how microorganisms changed in response to fluctuations in the Earth’s solar orbit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4307,"featured_media":14399,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,81,41,4,40],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-19982","media-release","type-media-release","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-and-global-community","category-earth-science","category-environment","category-research","category-technology"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/30029652440_eb660aa033_o.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Lucien","last_name":"Wilkinson","display_name":"Lucien Wilkinson"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/19982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/media-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/19982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19982"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=19982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}