Four strains of the coccolithophore E. huxleyi (RCC1212, RCC1216, RCC1238, RCC1256) were grown in dilute batch culture at four CO₂ levels ranging from ~200 μatm to ~1200 μatm. Growth rate, particulate organic carbon content, and particulate inorganic carbon content were measured, and organic and inorganic carbon production calculated. The four strains did not show a uniform response to carbonate chemistry changes in any of the analysed parameters and none of the four strains displayed a response pattern previously described for this species. We conclude that the sensitivity of different strains of E. huxleyi to acidification differs substantially and that this likely has a genetic basis. We propose that this can explain apparently contradictory results reported in the literature.

The Mg/Ca ratio of Foraminifera calcium carbonate tests is used as proxy for seawater temperature and widely applied to reconstruct global paleo-climatic changes. However, the mechanisms involved in the carbonate biomineralization process are poorly understood. The current paradigm holds that calcium ions for the test are supplied primarily by endocytosis of seawater. Here, we combine confocal-laser scanning-microscopy observations of a membrane-impermeable fluorescent marker in the extant benthic species Ammonia aomoriensis with dynamic 44Ca-labeling and NanoSIMS isotopic imaging of its test. We infer that Ca for the test in A. aomoriensis is supplied primarily via trans-membrane transport, but that a small component of passively transported (e.g., by endocytosis) seawater to the site of calcification plays a key role in defining the trace-element composition of the test. Our model accounts for the full range of Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca observed for benthic Foraminifera tests and predicts the effect of changing seawater Mg/Ca ratio. This places foram-based paleoclimatology into a strong conceptual framework.

Until recently the influence of solution stoichiometry on calcite crystal growth kinetics has attracted little attention, despite the fact that in most aqueous environments calcite precipitates from non-stoichiometric solution. In order to account for the dependence of the calcite crystal growth rate on the cation to anion ratio in solution, we extend the growth model for binary symmetrical electrolyte crystals of Zhang and Nancollas (1998) by combining it with the surface complexation model for the chemical structure of the calcite-aqueous solution interface of Wolthers et al. (2008). To maintain crystal stoichiometry, the rate of attachment of calcium ions to step edges is assumed to equal the rate of attachment of carbonate plus bicarbonate ions. The model parameters are optimized by fitting the model to the step velocities obtained previously by atomic force microscopy (AFM, Teng et al., 2000; Stack and Grantham, 2010). A variable surface roughness factor is introduced in order to reconcile the new process-based growth model with bulk precipitation rates measured in seeded calcite growth experiments. For practical applications, we further present empirical parabolic rate equations fitted to bulk growth rates of calcite in common background electrolytes and in artificial seawater-type solutions. Both the process-based and empirical growth rate equations agree with measured calcite growth rates over broad ranges of ionic strength, pH, solution stoichiometry and degree of supersaturation