Description: Marine calcareous sediments provide a fundamental basis for palaeoceanographic studies aiming to reconstruct past oceanic conditions and understand key biogeochemical element cycles. Calcifying unicellular phytoplankton (coccolithophores) are a major contributor to both carbon and calcium cycling by photosynthesis and the production of calcite (coccoliths) in the euphotic zone, and the subsequent long-term deposition and burial into marine sediments. Here we present data from controlled laboratory experiments on four coccolithophore species and elucidate the relation between the divalent cation (Sr, Mg and Ca) partitioning in coccoliths and cellular physiology (growth, calcification and photosynthesis). Coccolithophores were cultured under different seawater temperature and carbonate chemistry conditions. The partition coefficient of strontium (DSr) was positively correlated with both carbon dioxide (pCO2) and temperature but displayed no coherent relation to particulate organic and inorganic carbon production rates. Furthermore, DSr correlated positively with cellular growth rates when driven by temperature but no correlation was present when changes in growth rates were pCO2-induced. Our results demonstrate the complex interaction between environmental forcing and physiological control on the strontium partitioning in coccolithophore calcite and challenge interpretations of the coccolith Sr / Ca ratio from high-pCO2 environments (e.g. Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum). The partition coefficient of magnesium (DMg) displayed species-specific differences and elevated values under nutrient limitation. No conclusive correlation between coccolith DMg and temperature was observed but pCO2 induced a rising trend in coccolith DMg. Interestingly, the best correlation was found between coccolith DMg and chlorophyll a production, suggesting that chlorophyll a and calcite associated Mg originate from the same intracellular pool. These and previous findings indicate that Mg is transported into the cell and to the site of calcification via different pathways than Ca and Sr. Consequently, the coccolith Mg / Ca ratio should be decoupled from the seawater Mg / Ca ratio. This study gives an extended insight into the driving factors influencing the coccolith Mg / Ca ratio and should be considered for future palaeoproxy calibrations.

Description: Coccolithophore calcite refers to the plates of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) produced by the calcifying phytoplankton, coccolithophores. The empirical study of the elemental composition has a great potential in the development of paleoproxies. However, the difficulties to separate coccolithophore carbonates from organic phases hamper the investigation of coccoliths magnesium to calcium ratios (Mg/Ca) in biogeochemical studies. Magnesium (Mg) is found in organic molecules in the cells at concentrations up to 400 times higher than in inorganically precipitated calcite in present-day seawater. The aim of this study was to optimize a reliable procedure for organic Mg removal from coccolithophore samples to ensure reproducibility in measurements of inorganic Mg in calcite. Two baseline methods comprising organic matter oxidations with (1) bleach and (2) hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) were tested on synthetic pellets, prepared by mixing reagent grade CaCO3 with organic matter from the non-calcifying marine algae Chlorella autotrophica and measured with an ICP-AES (inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometer). Our results show that treatments with a reductive solution [using hydroxylamine-hydrochloride (NH2OH·HCl + NH4OH)] followed by three consecutive oxidations (using H2O2) yielded the best cleaning efficiencies, removing 〉99% of organic Mg in 24 h. P/Ca and Fe/Ca were used as indicators for organic contamination in the treated material. The optimized protocol was tested in dried coccolithophore pellets from batch cultures of Emiliania huxleyi, Calcidiscus leptoporus and Gephyrocapsa oceanica. Mg/Ca of treated coccolithophores were 0.151 ± 0.018, 0.220 ± 0.040, and 0.064 ± 0.023 mmol/mol, respectively. Comparison with Mg/Ca literature coccolith values, suggests a tight dependence on modern seawater Mg/Ca, which changes as a consequence of different seawater origins (〈10%). The reliable determination of Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca, and the low levels of organic contamination (Fe/Ca and P/Ca) make this protocol applicable to field and laboratory studies of trace elemental composition in coccolithophore calcite