Distribution of benthic foraminifera in surface sediments of the Portuguese continental margin

Living and dead benthic Foraminifera of 26 sediment surface samples from the East Atlantic continental margin (off Portugal) are studied. The stations are located on two profiles off Cape Mondego and off Cape Sines, ranging in water depth from 45 to 3905 meters. The highest values of standing crop are on the shelf (200 m) (up to 420 specimens/10 cm**3). Below 1000 m water depth standing crop is low (5 -24 specimens/10 cm**3). 151species and species groups are distinguished. Most of the living species do occur in a wide depth range. Faunal depth boundaries are at 50/100m, at 600/800 m, and at 1000 m. Results published from the North Atlantic and the East Mediterranean do not differ from those obtained in samples off Portugal. Depth of water (e.g. hydrostatic pressure) or another factor being controlled by depth (e.g. limitation of food supply) seems to be the most important factor of the benthic foraminiferal distribution.

Alkenone stable carbon isotopes, planktic foraminfera stable carbon isotopes, alkenone unsaturation indices and calculated sea surface temperatures and atmospheric pCO2 for ODP Site 165-999

Temperature reconstructions indicate that the Pliocene was ~3 °C warmer globally than today, and several recent reconstructions of Pliocene atmospheric CO2 indicate that it was above pre-industrial levels and similar to those likely to be seen this century. However, many of these reconstructions have been of relatively low temporal resolution, meaning that these records may have failed to capture variations associated with the 41 Kyr glacial-interglacial cycles thought to operate in the Pliocene. Here we present a new, high temporal resolution alkenone carbon isotope based record of pCO2 spanning 2.8 to 3.3 million years ago from ODP Site 999. Our record is of high enough resolution (~19 Kyrs) to resolve glacial-interglacial changes beyond the intrinsic uncertainty of the proxy method. The record suggests that Pliocene CO2 levels were relatively stable, exhibiting variation less than 55 ppm. We perform sensitivity studies to investigate the possible effect of changing sea surface temperature, which highlights the importance of accurate and precise SST reconstructions for alkenone palaeobarometry, but demonstrate that these uncertainties do not affect our conclusions of relatively stable pCO2 levels during this interval.