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Updated: Mar 1, 2026

Unraveling the Unseen Players in the Ocean - A Field Guide to Water Chemistry and Marine Microbiology
Published on: November 5, 2014
Emergence of modern marine ecosystems
1Department of Geology & Geophysics, Yale University, PO Box 208109, New Haven, CT 06520-8109, USA.
Abstract:
The structure and function of marine ecosystems are not fixed. Instead, major innovations - from the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis, to the evolution of reefs or of deep bioturbation, to the rise of pelagic calcifiers - have changed biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem dynamics. As a result, modern marine ecosystems are fundamentally different from those in the distant past.
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