Using sedaDNA to reconstruct planktonic communities across 385’000 years old marine sedimentary core from a tropical sea.

Sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) is becoming a paleo-proxy of choice for many marine environments. However, there are few studies from tropical sites and even fewer from tropical marine sediments exposed to factors damaging the DNA such as elevated sea surface water temperature or UV radiation. Here, we report successful extraction of DNA from a marine sedimentary core retrieved from the Bismarck Sea, off New Papua Guinea, where the mean annual temperature is about 29°C. The core MD05-2920 covers the last 385 000 years. We analyzed samples from 20 layers, where the isotopic measures of δ¹⁸O isotopic composition of benthic foraminifera show significant palaeoceanographic changes from glacial to interglacial periods. We apply a metabarcoding approach using specific 18S primers for planktonic foraminifera, diatoms, and radiolarians. Even if the amount of DNA declines throughout the core, the patterns of successional changes in species communities of these three taxonomic groups are well archived. Our study shows that it is possible to reconstruct the planktonic community even from very old sedaDNA samples from a tropical marine sedimentary core.