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Coccolith size rules – what controls the size of coccoliths during coccolithogenesis?

B. Suchéras-Marx,S. Viseur,C. Walker,L. Beaufort,I. Probert,C. Bolton

Published 2021 in Marine Micropaleontology

ABSTRACT

Coccoliths are calcite platelets produced inside coccolithophore cells and extruded to form a covering on the cell surface called a coccosphere. The size of coccoliths is an important parameter often used to identify species, and observations on extant species have shown an influence of abiotic parameters (e.g., CO2, light, nutrient concentration) on coccolith size. However, the sometimes large range of coccolith sizes occurring within a single coccosphere questions the mechanisms controlling coccolith size. A link was previously shown between cell/coccosphere size and coccolith size called the “coccolithophore size rule”. In this study, we query the mechanisms controlling the size of a coccolith during coccolithogenesis. Two working hypotheses are formulated: (1) coccolith size is smaller than cell diameter, and (2) coccolithogenesis mainly occurs during a specific growth phase (G1 interphase). We propose two numerical models (each with two variants) to test the constraining effect of these hypotheses on coccolith size distribution within a population. Neither model can accurately reproduce the size distribution of an empirical coccolith population, indicating that additional factors likely influence coccolith size. According to both hypotheses, the comparison of coccolith size and cell size is only pertinent at the time of formation of a coccolith. In light of these results, we suggest that application of the coccolithophore size rules model should be limited to multipopulational studies, and we confirm the basis of the link between coccolith number and cell cycle. The coccolith size rule model proposed here requires verification with further observations of coccolithophore and coccolith growth data.

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