An expanded database of Southern Hemisphere surface sediment dinoflagellate cyst assemblages and their oceanographic affinities
Thöle, Lena Mareike; Nooteboom, Peter Dirk; Hou, Suning; Wang, Rujian; Nie, Senyan; Michel, Elisabeth; Sauermilch, Isabel; Marret, Fabienne; Sangiorgi, Francesca; Bijl, Peter Kristian
(2023) Journal of Micropalaeontology, volume 42, issue 1, pp. 35 - 56
(Article)
Abstract
Dinoflagellate cyst assemblages present a valuable proxy to infer paleoceanographic conditions, yet factors influencing geographic distributions of species remain largely unknown, especially in the Southern Ocean. Strong lateral transport, sea-ice dynamics, and a sparse and uneven geographic distribution of surface sediment samples have limited the use of dinocyst assemblages as
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a quantitative proxy for paleo-environmental conditions such as sea surface temperature (SST), nutrient concentrations, salinity, and sea ice (presence). In this study we present a new set of surface sediment samples (nCombining double low line66) from around Antarctica, doubling the number of Antarctic-proximal samples to 100 (dataset wsi_100) and increasing the total number of Southern Hemisphere samples to 655 (dataset sh_655). Additionally, we use modelled ocean conditions and apply Lagrangian techniques to all Southern Hemisphere sample stations to quantify and evaluate the influence of lateral transport on the sinking trajectory of microplankton and, with that, to the inferred ocean conditions. k-means cluster analysis on the wsi_100 dataset demonstrates the strong affinity of Selenopemphix antarctica with sea-ice presence and of Islandinium spp. with low-salinity conditions. For the entire Southern Hemisphere, the k-means cluster analysis identifies nine clusters with a characteristic assemblage. In most clusters a single dinocyst species dominates the assemblage. These clusters correspond to well-defined oceanic conditions in specific Southern Ocean zones or along the ocean fronts. We find that, when lateral transport is predominantly zonal, the environmental parameters inferred from the sea floor assemblages mostly correspond to those of the overlying ocean surface. In this case, the transport factor can thus be neglected and will not represent a bias in the reconstructions. Yet, for some individual sites, e.g. deep-water sites or sites under strong-current regimes, lateral transport can play a large role. The results of our study further constrain environmental conditions represented by dinocyst assemblages and the location of Southern Ocean frontal systems.
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Keywords: Offshore wilkes land, Antarctic ice-sheet, Southwest pacific, Overturning circulation, Sea, Cysts, Reconstruction, Framework, Holocene, Closure, Palaeontology
ISSN: 0262-821X
Publisher: Geological Society of London
Note: Funding Information: We thank Mariska Hoorweg for the analytical support in the GeoLab of the Faculty of Geosciences. We thank CNR_ISMAR, Bologna; and INGV, Pisa, Italy; and the predecessors of the International Ocean Discovery Program for providing the surface sediment samples for this project. This work was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 42030401 and 41776191). We thank the 29th and 33rd Chinese Antarctic Expedition cruise members for retrieving the sediments. The authors wish to thank the CSIRO Marine National Facility (MNF) for its support in the form of sea time on RV Investigator, support personnel, scientific equipment, and data management. All data and samples acquired on the voyage are made publicly available in accordance with the MNF Policy. The constructive and detailed reviews by Joe Prebble and one anonymous reviewer, as well as the language suggestions by the editor, significantly improved this paper. Funding Information: This research has been supported by the seventh framework programme of the European Research Council (ERC Starting grant no. 802835, OceaNice to Peter Kristian Bijl). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Lena Mareike Thöle et al.
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