Cretaceous nannofossils from the Northwest African Margin

Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 79 recovered Cretaceous nannofossils at two localities, Sites 545 and 547. Species diversity of the Cretaceous coccoliths is high, and the assemblages range in age from early Valanginian-early Hauterivian to latest Maestrichtian. Site 545 and portions of Site 547 can be combined to form a composite section ranging from the upper Aptian-lower Albian to the middle to upper Cenomanian. As defined by nannofossil events, this section represents a complete record of sedimentary deposition. The interval appears to be the most extensive and complete Cretaceous section yet drilled off the Northwest African margin. The Campanian and Maestrichtian sediments found at Site 547 (Hole 547A) are the youngest Cretaceous strata found on the Northwest African margin. Like the middle Cretaceous sections, the uppermost Maestrichtian of this interval also represents a complete record of sedimentation.

Age model, radiocarbon dates and dinoflagellate cyst measurements from sediment core DA06-139G

A marine sediment core from Vaigat in Disko Bugt, West Greenland, has been analysed in terms of lithology, dinoflagellate cysts and foraminifera in order to evaluate the influence of oceanographic variability on West Greenland glacier stability. The data show that during the past 5200 years the Atlantic foraminiferal abundance in the subsurface waters of the West Greenland Current (WGC) episodically increased, indicating periods of increases in the inflow of subsurface warm Atlantic water at 2000 - 1500 cal. yr BP and 1300 cal. yr BP as well as periods of less pronounced increased bottom-water temperatures around 4700 - 4000 cal. yr BP, 3100 - 2800, 2600, 1000 - 800, 500 - 400, and at 200 cal. yr. The sedimentological and dinoflagellate cyst data indicate that these episodes with enhanced advection of Irminger Sea-derived waters are accompanied by increased iceberg rafting, which we link to increased iceberg calving in relation to destabilization of the Jakobshavn Isbrae. The long-term trend in the data documents the end of a late-Holocene Thermal Maximum between 5200 and 4300 cal. yr BP and a final onset of the Neoglaciation at 3500 cal. yr BP. Increased responses of the iceberg rafting after 3500 cal. yr BP, reflects a westward/seaward advance of the glacier margin in relation to onset of Neoglaciation and a development of the glacier into a floating tongue after 2000 cal. yr BP. A comparison of our record with a record from the eastern North Atlantic indicates that a NAO-like anomaly pattern between subsurface waters in West Greenland and atmospheric temperature in the Eastern North Atlantic may have been operating during most of the late Holocene. However, during the past 1000 years the NAO signal may have weakened as some other mode of climate variability overprints the anti-phase climate signal in this region.

Abundance and biomass of mesozooplankton collected in front of the Danube Delta in May and October 1978

The Gurile Dunarii 1978 dataset contains zooplankton data collected in May and October 1978 in 14 station allong 3 transect in front of the Danube Delta (45°05' - 44°45'N, 30°02'- 29°27'E). Zooplankton sampling was undertaken at 14 stations where samples were collected using a Juday closing net in the 0-10, 10-20, 20-30, 30-40 and 40-50m layer (depending also on the water masses). The dataset includes samples analysed for mesozooplankton species composition and abundance. Sampling volume was estimated by multiplying the mouth area with the wire length. Taxon-specific mesozooplankton abundance was count under microscope. Total abundance is the sum of the counted individuals. Total biomass Fodder, Rotifera , Ctenophora and Noctiluca was estimated using a tabel with wet weight for each species an stage.

Dinoflagellate cyst species composition of recent surface samples (Appendix)

Dinoflagellate cysts and other organic-walled microfossils have been studied in recent surface sediments from the entire Norwegian-Greenland Sea. More than 30 taxa have been recognized, of which only few show a distinct distribution pattern, and allow description of four assemblages. The occurrence of most taxa is related to the relatively warmer waters of the Norwegian Sea. Algidaspaeridium? minutum s.1., Brigantedinium simplex and Impagidinium? pallidum are the only species showing a preference for colder water masses. Two species, I.? pallidum and Nematosphaeropsis labyrinthus are mainly restricted to the oceanic environment, whereas the other species have also been reported from neritic environments in previous studies. Due to the limited knowledge of the ecological and sedimentological factors influencing the occurrence of dinoflagellate cysts in oceanic environments, their distribution in recent sediments can be only related to surface water masses in a broad sense. Although the distribution of assemblages correlates with specific surface water masses, comparison with assemblages recovered from sediment traps deployed basinwide in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea (Dale and Dale, 1992) revealed some major discrepancies in species composition and percentage abundances. The differences cannot be explained with certainty at the moment, although there is some evidence that transport of dinoflagellate cysts and other fossilizable microplankton in water masses by currents, in sea-ice and sediments may modify the assemblages found in recent oceanic surface sediments from the Norwegian-Greenland Sea.

Geographic distribution of dinoflagellate cysts in surface sediments

Dinoflagellate cysts are useful for reconstructing upper water conditions. For adequate reconstructions detailed information is required about the relationship between modern day environmental conditions and the geographic distribution of cysts in sediments. This Atlas summarises the modern global distribution of 71 organicwalled dinoflagellate cyst species. The synthesis is based on the integration of literature sources together with data of 2405 globally distributed surface sediment samples that have been preparedwith a comparable methodology and taxonomy. The distribution patterns of individual cyst species are being comparedwith environmental factors that are knownto influence dinoflagellate growth, gamete production, encystment, excystment and preservation of their organic-walled cysts: surface water temperature, salinity, nitrate, phosphate, chlorophyll-a concentrations and bottom water oxygen concentrations. Graphs are provided for every species depicting the relationship between seasonal and annual variations of these parameters and the relative abundance of the species. Results have been compared with previously published records; an overview of the ecological significance as well as information about the seasonal production of each individual species is presented. The relationship between the cyst distribution and variation in the aforementioned environmental parameters was analysed by performing a canonical correspondence analysis. All tested variables showed a positive relationship on the 99% confidence level. Sea-surface temperature represents the parameter corresponding to the largest amount of variance within the dataset (40%) followed by nitrate, salinity, phosphate and bottom-water oxygen concentration, which correspond to 34%, 33%, 25% and 24% of the variance, respectively. Characterisations of selected environments as well as a discussion about how these factors could have influenced the final cyst yield in sediments are included.

Early Cretaceous planktonic foraminifera from the Tethys

Early Cretaceous planktonic foraminiferal assemblages include rare planispiral and pseudoplanispiral morphotypes with elongate chambers that BouDagher-Fadel et al. assigned to Schackoina or accommodated in the new genus Claviblowiella. New findings of well-preserved planktonic foraminiferal faunas from the Lesches en Diois (SE France) section, the Cismon core (NE Italy), the Calabianca (NW Sicily) section and the Upper Aptian of Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Site 545 drilled off Morocco, have allowed a better understanding of the morphological features of these rare, unevenly distributed taxa. Our data demonstrate that each small planispiral species with globular chambers has a corresponding "clavate" morphotype which (as the "normal" forms) exhibits a smooth, finely perforate wall. Consequently, the latter have been assigned here to the genus Globigerinelloides and treated as subspecies of the "non-clavate" taxa. The (clavate) subspecies belonging to the genus Globigerinelloides here retained are G. duboisi sigali Longoria, G. maridalensis elongatus subsp. nov., G. blowi lobatus subsp. nov. and G. paragottisi clavatus subsp. nov., while Globigerinelloides minai Obregòn de la Parra is not retained. In addition, a new genus, Pseudoschackoina, type species Planomalina saundersi Bolli (senior synonym of Hastigerinoides cepedai Obregòn de la Parra, has been formalised for individuals possessing elongate, pointed, laterally compressed chambers, bearing tubulospines arranged on a pseudoplanispiral (dysaxial) coiling mode. Stratigraphically, in the sections studied the first taxon to appear is Pseudoschackoina saundersi, in the uppermost part of the Selli Level (=OAE1a), immediately followed, just above the OAE1a, by all the "clavate" globigerinelloidids. Regarding the last occurrences, Pseudoschackoina saundersi and G. maridalensis elongatus disappear in the lower part of the Globigerinelloides algerianus Zone, Globigerinelloides paragottisi clavatus at the top of the same zone, while Globigerinelloides blowi lobatus and G. duboisi sigali range up to the lower part of the Ticinella bejaouaensis Zone.

(Table 2) Dinoflagellate cysts in surface sediment samples of METEOR cruises M20/2, M23/1, M34/2 and M34/2

The organic walled cyst content of 41 surface sediment samples from the south-eastern South Atlantic Ocean have been studied to create a dataset that can be used for palaeoceanographic reconstructions. In order to obtain insight into which environmental factors influence the distribution of individual cyst species, the cyst associations have been compared with oceanographic characteristics of the overlying water masses, i.e. temperature, salinity, density and stratification gradients. The associations and relationships have been established by visual examination of the dataset and the multivariate ordination techniques, Detrended Correspondence Analysis and Canonical Correspondence Analysis. Special attention has been given to the factors of transport and preservation of the cysts. Five associations have been recognised as being characteristic of (1) areas influenced by coastal upwelling and/or river outflow, (2) open ocean, (3) Agulhas Current and southern Benguela Current, (4) Benguela Current and (5) Walvis Bay, shelf break area. The factors dominant in influencing either directly or indirectly the cyst distributions appear to be the stratification in the upper 50 m of the water column, nutrient concentration and seasonality. Variations in sea surface temperatures and salinities have only minor effect on cyst distribution.

Cretaceous nannofossils of southeast France

The Aptian-lower Albian succession of the Vocontian Basin (SE France) consists of marine hemipelagic sediments including several black shale horizons. The latter are partly of regional and partly of global distribution. This sedimentary succession records the nannoplankton evolution of the Aptian-early Albian interval and thus provides an excellent opportunity to calibrate the calcareous nannofossil record with Tethyan ammonite and planktic foraminiferal biostratigraphy. The calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy presented in this paper supports previous zonations, but it also provides a much higher resolution and thus improves the correlation of different black shale horizons on a supraregional scale. Up to 23 major (supraregionally significant) and minor (regionally significant) first and last occurrences of calcareous nannofossil taxa are recognized. Nannoconid abundances decrease rapidly in the upper Lower Aptian (nannoconid crisis I, NCI) and in the middle Upper Aptian (nannoconid crisis II, NCII). Both decreases correlate with carbonate-platform drowning events. The upper Lower Aptian interval above the NCI is characterized by high abundances of large specimens of Assipetra infracretacea and Rucinolithus terebrodentarius probably of supraregional significance. The uppermost Aptian-Lower Albian is characterized by high abundances of the calcareous nannoplankton taxon Repagulum parvidentatum, reflecting boreal influence on the Tethyan Realm. This suggests a temporary decrease in surface-water temperatures in the Vocontian Basin.

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.

Dinocyst assemblages of site HM52-43

Past sea-surface conditions over the northern North Atlantic during the last glacial maximum were examined from the study of 61 deep-sea cores. The last glacial maximum time slice studied here corresponds to an interval between Heinrich layers H2 and H1, and spanning about 20-16 ka on a 14C time scale. Transfer functions based on dinocyst assemblages were used to reconstruct sea-surface temperature, salinity, and sea-ice cover. The results illustrate extensive sea-ice cover along the eastern Canadian margins and sea-ice spreading, only during winter, over most of the northern North Atlantic. On the whole, much colder winter prevailed, despite relatively mild conditions in August (10-15°C at most offshore sites), thus suggesting a larger seasonal contrast of temperatures than today. Lower salinity than at present is reconstructed, especially along the eastern Canadian and Scandinavian margins, likely because of meltwater supply from the surrounding ice sheets. These reconstructions contrast with those established by CLIMAP on the basis of planktonic foraminifera. These differences are discussed with reference to the stratigraphical frame of the last glacial maximum, which was not the coldest phase of the last glacial stage. The respective significance of dinocyst and foraminifer records is also examined in terms of the thermohaline characteristics of surface waters and the vertical structure of upper water masses, which was apparently much more stratified than at present in the northern North Atlantic, thus preventing deep-water formation.