Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4hhp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-09T02:59:37.746Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Identification of Density-Stratified Waters in the Late-Pleistocene North Atlantic: A faunal Derivation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Joseph J. Morley
Joseph J. Morley*
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964 USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An expanded study of the radiolarian Cycladophora davisiana in late-Pleistocene North Atlantic marine sediments shows that over the last several hundred thousand years this species exhibits large variations in relative abundance. The C. davisiana curves in the North Atlantic cores are quite similar, with easily recognizable features common to all records. Minor deviations from the general pattern of this species' abundance apparently reflect the response of C. davisiana to specific oceanographic conditions characteristic of a particular area within the North Atlantic. C. davisiana occurs today in high abundance (>20%) only in the Sea of Okhotsk. Extensive winter and early spring sea-ice cover coupled with low surface-water salinities during summer and fall is responsible for maintaining near-freezing subsurface temperatures in this northwest Pacific marginal sea as well as relatively stable temperatures and salinities at depths below a shallow subsurface temperature minimum. During periods in the late Pleistocene, high C. davisiana abundances (>20%) in the North Atlantic were probably associated with oceanographic properties similar to those that exist in the Sea of Okhotsk today. Because of the relationship between relatively stable subsurface temperatures and salinities and high abundance levels of C. davisiana, analysis of this species' abundance pattern at several locations throughout the high-latitude North Atlantic should assist in identifying source areas of deep-water formation and determining the duration of deep convective processes at these sites.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , November 1983 , pp. 374 - 386
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

CLIMAP Project Members McIntyre A., Leader LGM Project 1981 Seasonal Reconstructions of the Earth's Surface at the Last Glacial MaximumGeological Society of America Map and Chart Series MC-36Google Scholar
Denton, G.H. Hughes, T.J. 1981 The Arctic Ice Sheet: An outrageous hypothesis Denton, G.H. Hughes, T.J. The Last Great Ice Sheets Wiley-Interscience New York 440–467 Google Scholar
Duplessy, J.-C. Delibrias, G. Turon, J.L. Pujol, C. Duprat, J. 1981 Deglacial warming of the northeastern Atlantic Ocean: Correlation with the paleoclimatic evolution of the European continent Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 35 121–144 Google Scholar
Hays, J.D. Lozano, J.A. Shackleton, N. Irving, G. 1976 Reconstruction of the Atlantic and western Indian Ocean sectors of the 18,000 yr B.P. Antarctic Ocean Cline, R.M. Hays, J.D. Investigation of Late Quaternary Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology. Geological Society of America Memoir 145 337–372 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kruglikova, S.B. 1975 Radiolarians in the surface layer of the sediments of the Okhotsk Sea Oceanology 15 116–122 Google Scholar
Ling, H.-Y. 1974 Polycystine radiolaria and silico-flagellates from the surface sediments of the Sea of Okhotsk Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Japan 1–11 Google Scholar
McIntyre, A. Kipp, N.G. Bé, A.W.H. Crowley, T. Kellogg, T. Gardner, J.V. Prell, W. Ruddiman, W.F. 1976 Glacial North Atlantic 18,000 years ago: A CLIMAP reconstruction Cline, R.M. Hays, J.D. Investigation of Late Quarternary Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology Geological Society of America Memoir 145 43–76 Google Scholar
Moore, T.C. Jr. 1973 Method of randomly distributing grains for microscopic examination Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 43 904–906 Google Scholar
Morley, J.J. 1980 Analysis of the abundance variations of the subspecies of Cycladophora davisiana Marine Micropaleontology 5 205–214 Google Scholar
Morley, J.J. Hays, J.D. 1979 Cycladophora davisiana: A stratigraphic tool for Pleistocene North Atlantic and interhemispheric correlation Earth and Planetary Science Letters 44 383–389 Google Scholar
Morley, J. J. Hays, J. D. (in press). Oceanographic conditions associated with high abundances of the radiolarian Cycladophora davisiana Earth and Planetary Science Letters.Google Scholar
Parkinson, C.L. Gratz, A.J. 1983 On the seasonal sea ice cover of the Sea of Okhotsk Journal of Geophysical Research Google Scholar
Petrushevskaya, M.G. 1967 Radiolaria of orders spumellaria and nassellaria of the Antarctic region Biological Reports of the Soviet Antarctic Expedition (1955–1958) Vol. 3 Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Zoological Institute Leningrad 1–186[Transl. from Russian in 1968]Google Scholar
Petrushevskaya, M.G. 1971 Radiolaria in the plankton and recent sediments from the Indian Ocean and Antarctic Funnell, B.M. Riedel, W.R. The Micropaleontology of Oceans Cambridge Univ. Press Cambridge 319–329 Google Scholar
Reid, J.L. 1965 Intermediate waters of the Pacific Ocean Johns Hopkins Oceanographic Studies Series 2 Johns Hopkins Press Baltimore Google Scholar
Reid, J.L. 1973 Northwest pacific Ocean waters in winter Johns Hopkins Oceanographic Studies Series 5 Johns Hopkins Press Baltimore Google Scholar
Robertson, J.R. 1975 Glacial to Interglacial Oceanographic Changes in the Northwest Pacific, Including a Continuous Record of the Last 400,000 Years Doctoral dissertation Columbia University New York Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W.F. Glover, L.K. 1972 Vertical mixing of ice-rafted volcanic ash in North Atlantic sediments Geological Society of America Bulletin 83 2817–2836 Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W.F. Glover, L.K. 1975 Subpolar North Atlantic circulation at 9300 yr B.P.: Faunal evidence Quaternary Research 5 361–389 Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W.F. McIntyre, A. 1973 Time-transgressive deglacial retreat of polar waters from the North Atlantic Quaternary Research 3 117–130 Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W.F. McIntyre, A. 1981 The North Atlantic Ocean during the last deglaciation Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 35 145–214 Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W.F. McIntyre, A. Niebler-Hunt, V. Durazzi, J.T. 1980 Oceanic evidence for the mechanism of rapid northern hemisphere glaciation Quaternary Research 13 33–64 Google Scholar
Streeter, S.S. Shackleton, N.J. 1979 Paleocirculation of the deep North Atlantic: A 150,000 year record of benthic foraminifera and oxygen-18 Science 203 168–171 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tully, J.P. 1957 Some characteristics of sea water structure Proceedings of the 8th Pacific Science Congress of Oceanography 3 643–661 Google Scholar
Vinogradov, M. 1954 Diurnal vertical migrations of the zooplankton in the Far East Seas Transactions of the Institute of Oceanology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR 8 Google Scholar
Yasuoka, T. 1967 Hydrography in the Okhotsk Sea (1) Oceanographical Magazine 19 61–72 Google Scholar
Zenkevitch, L.A. 1963 Biology of the Seas of the USSR Wiley-Interscience New York[Transl. from Russian by S. Botcharskaya.]Google Scholar