Early Paleocene Paleoceanography and Export Productivity in the Chicxulub Crater

2021

The Chicxulub impact caused a crash in productivity in the world''s oceans which contributed to the extinction of ~75% of marine species. In the immediate aftermath of the extinction, export productivity was locally highly variable, with some sites, including the Chicxulub crater, recording elevated export production. The long-term transition back to more stable export productivity regimes has been poorly documented. Here, we present elemental abundances, foraminifer and calcareous nannoplankton assemblage counts, total organic carbon, and bulk carbonate carbon isotope data from the Chicxulub crater to reconstruct changes in export productivity during the first 3 Myr of the Paleocene. We sh…