Calcareous nannofossil abundance and datums of ODP Leg 189 sites

Quaternary sediments were recovered at all five sites drilled during Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 189 in the Tasmanian Gateway. Two of these sites lie north of the present-day Subtropical Front (STF), and three sites lie south of the STF. Quaternary sediments recovered at Sites 1168, 1170, 1171, and 1172 were studied in detail to determine the calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy and construct an age model for these sediments. The Pliocene/Pleistocene boundary was identified by the last occurrence (LO) of Discoaster brouweri at Site 1172 and approximated by the LO of Calcidiscus macintyrei at the other sites because of a lack of discoasterids. A hiatus encompassing the entire Helicosphaera sellii Zone was tentatively identified at Sites 1168 and 1172 by the coincident LOs of C. macintyrei and H. sellii. Similar hiatuses have been noted at ODP Site 1127 on the Great Australian Bight, Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 282 off the Tasman subcontinent, and ODP Site 1165 in Prydz Bay, Antarctica.

Calcareous nannofossils in Pliocene and Quaternary sediments of ODP Leg 117 holes

A total of 21 calcareous nannofossil datums was found in the upper Pliocene and Quaternary sediments recovered from the ocean floor of the North Atlantic during DSDP Leg 94. These datums were correlated to magnetostratigraphy, and ages were estimated by interpolation between magnetic reversals. Calcareous nannofossil assemblages from 549 samples recovered during ODP Leg 117 were studied in order to estimate the age of the sediments of Sites 720, 721, 722, and 731 drilled at the Indus Fan and the Owen Ridge in the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean. We also showed that the datums above mentioned can be traced into the Indian Ocean. Two new species, namely Helicosphaera omanica and Reticulofenestra ampla, are described.

Nannofossil datums of ODP Leg 165 holes and nannofossil abundance in ODP Hole 165-998A

A total of 53 calcareous nannofossil datums were detected in Quaternary and Neogene sections recovered during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 165 in the Caribbean Sea. Most of the low-latitude nannofossil zonal markers of Okada and Bukry could be determined at all of the sites. Additionally, size distribution patterns of specimens of Reticulofenestra, a common genus in Neogene and Quaternary sediments, were examined to interpret the biostratigraphic utility of changes in size.

Data compilation on the biological response to ocean acidification: environmental and experimental context of data sets and related literature

The exponential growth of studies on the biological response to ocean acidification over the last few decades has generated a large amount of data. To facilitate data comparison, a data compilation hosted at the data publisher PANGAEA was initiated in 2008 and is updated on a regular basis (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.149999). By January 2015, a total of 581 data sets (over 4 000 000 data points) from 539 papers had been archived. Here we present the developments of this data compilation five years since its first description by Nisumaa et al. (2010). Most of study sites from which data archived are still in the Northern Hemisphere and the number of archived data from studies from the Southern Hemisphere and polar oceans are still relatively low. Data from 60 studies that investigated the response of a mix of organisms or natural communities were all added after 2010, indicating a welcomed shift from the study of individual organisms to communities and ecosystems. The initial imbalance of considerably more data archived on calcification and primary production than on other processes has improved. There is also a clear tendency towards more data archived from multifactorial studies after 2010. For easier and more effective access to ocean acidification data, the ocean acidification community is strongly encouraged to contribute to the data archiving effort, and help develop standard vocabularies describing the variables and define best practices for archiving ocean acidification data.

Compilation of growth rate data for marine pelagic organisms

The metabolic rate of organisms may either be viewed as a basic property from which other vital rates and many ecological patterns emerge and that follows a universal allometric mass scaling law; or it may be considered a property of the organism that emerges as a result of the organism's adaptation to the environment, with consequently less universal mass scaling properties. Data on body mass, maximum ingestion and clearance rates, respiration rates and maximum growth rates of animals living in the ocean epipelagic were compiled from the literature, mainly from original papers but also from previous compilations by other authors. Data were read from tables or digitized from graphs. Only measurements made on individuals of know size, or groups of individuals of similar and known size were included. We show that clearance and respiration rates have life-form-dependent allometries that have similar scaling but different elevations, such that the mass-specific rates converge on a rather narrow size-independent range. In contrast, ingestion and growth rates follow a near-universal taxa-independent ~3/4 mass scaling power law. We argue that the declining mass-specific clearance rates with size within taxa is related to the inherent decrease in feeding efficiency of any particular feeding mode. The transitions between feeding mode and simultaneous transitions in clearance and respiration rates may then represent adaptations to the food environment and be the result of the optimization of tradeoffs that allow sufficient feeding and growth rates to balance mortality.

Calcareous nannofossils and C37 alkenones at ODP Site 162-982

During the late Pliocene (~3 to 2.5 Ma), oceanic records of opal and C37 alkenone accumulation from around the world show a secular shift towards lower values in the high latitudes and higher values in the low and mid latitudes. These shifts are broadly coincident with the intensification of northern hemisphere glaciation and are suggestive of changes in export productivity, with potential implications for Pliocene atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. The interpretation of a global latitudinal shift in productivity, however, requires testing because of the potential uncertainties associated with site to site comparisons of records that can be influenced by highly nonlinear processes associated with production, export, and preservation. Here, we assess the inferred Pliocene latitudinal productivity shift interpretation by presenting new records of C37 alkenone accumulation from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 982 in the North Atlantic and biotic assemblages (calcareous nannoplankton) from this site and ODP Site 846 in the eastern tropical Pacific. Our results corroborate the interpretation of C37 alkenone accumulation as a proxy for gross export productivity at these sites, indicating that large-scale productivity decreases at high latitudes and increases at tropical sites are recorded robustly. We conclude that the intensification of northern hemisphere glaciation during the late Pliocene was associated with a profound reorganisation of ocean biogeochemistry.

(Appendix A) Radiolarian abundance in ODP Hole 202-1241A

A quantitative radiolarian study at Ocean Drilling Program Site 1241 in the eastern tropical Pacific enables us to reconstruct paleoceanographic changes that occurred since the latest middle Miocene. Today, this site is located just under the Eastern Pacific Warm Pool (EPWP). Based on the abundance variations of radiolarian characteristic species which are indicators of upwelling and thermocline changes, it is suggested that three notable changes occurred at 10.6, 9.8, and 4.2 Ma in the region. Four distinct periods of oceanographic conditions bounded by these notable changes were characterized on the basis of the following: (1) stratified seawater (12.0 to 10.6 Ma); (2) a shallowing of the thermocline and an increasing of upwelling (10.6 to 9.8 Ma); (3) significant inflow of warm water to the eastern tropical Pacific caused by an intensified Northern Equatorial Countercurrent (NECC), resulting in the formation of EPWP (9.8 to 4.2 Ma); and (4) the reduction of the EPWP and the NECC, and an increase in upwelling (4.2 to 0 Ma). The timing of these paleoceanographic events indicated the strong relations with the opening and closing of the Indonesian and Central American (Panama) Seaways. The reduction of the EPWP (this study) and the deepening of the thermocline in western Pacific at about 4.2 Ma (Cannariato and Ravelo, 1997; Chaisson and Ravelo, 2000) indicated a change from a state resembling El Niño in the late Miocene and the early Pliocene time to a state resembling La Niña by the late Pliocene

Living benthic foraminifers from the central Arctic Ocean

Fifty short sediment cores collected with a multiple corer and five box cores from the central Arctic Ocean were analysed to study the ecology and distribution of benthic foraminifers. To work out living faunal associations, standing stock and diversity, separate analyses of living (Rose Bengal stained) and dead foraminifers were carried out for the sediment surface. The size fractions between 63 and 125 µm and >125 µm were counted separately to allow comparison with former Arctic studies and with studies from the adjacent Norwegian-Greenland Sea, Barents Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean. Benthic foraminiferal associations are mainly controlled by the availability of food, and competition for food, while water mass characteristics, bottom current activity, substrate composition, and water depth are of minor importance. Off Spitsbergen in seasonally ice-free areas, high primary production rates are reflected by high standing stocks, high diversities, and foraminiferal associations (>125 µm) that are similar to those of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea. Generally, in seasonally ice-free areas standing stock and diversity increase with increasing food supply. In the central Arctic Ocean, the oligotrophic permanently ice-covered areas are dominated by epibenthic species. The limited food availability is reflected by very low standing stocks and low diversities. Most of these foraminiferal associations do not correspond to those of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea. The dominant associations include simple agglutinated species such as Sorosphaerae, Placopsilinellae, Komokiacea and Aschemonellae, as well as small calcareous species such as Stetsonia horvathi and Epistominella arctica. Those of the foraminiferal species that usually thrive under seasonally ice-free conditions in middle bathyal to lower bathyal water depth are found under permanently ice-covered conditions in water depths about 1000 m shallower, if present at all.