Cosmic radiation drives quasi-periodic changes in the diversity of siliceous marine microplankton (2402.09163v1)

Abstract: Radiolarians are significant contributors to the oceanic primary productivity and the global silica cycle in the last 500 Myr. Their diversity throughout the Phanerozoic shows periodic fluctuations. We identify a possible abiotic candidate for driving these patterns which seems to potentially influence radiolarian diversity changes during this period at a significance level of $\sim 2.2 \sigma$. Our finding suggests a significant correlation between the origination of new radiolaria species and maximum excursions of the Solar system from the Galactic plane, where the magnetic shielding of cosmic rays is expected to be weaker. We connect the particularly strong radiolaria blooming during the Middle Triassic to the so-called Mesozoic dipole-low of the geomagnetic field, which was in its deepest state when radiolarias were blooming. According to the scenario, high-energy cosmic rays presumably implied particular damage to the DNA during the maximum excursions which may trigger large chromosomal abnormalities leading to the appearance of a large number of new genera and species during these periods.