Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T15:44:12.717Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Plankton Ecology and the Paleoceanographic–Climatic Record

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Paul Loubere
Paul Loubere*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, Illinois 60115
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The paleoceanographic–climatic record represented by deep-sea microfossils reflects conditions for only certain times of the year. Also, the relative abundances of microfossil species in deep-sea sediments do not usually reflect only one paleoceanographic variable, such as temperature. Rather, species distributions represent the integration of many factors that control biological production in the oceans. This influences the information on past climates that can be extracted from fossil material. The seasonal limitation is due to the cyclic nature of biological production in the open ocean. Case studies of the sediment record in the Atlantic for two species of planktonic Foraminifera, left-coiling Neogloboquadrina pachyderma (Ehrenberg) and Globigerinoides ruber (d'Orbigny), illustrate seasonal bias in environmental data reported by the relative abundances of species in deep-sea sediments. In addition, the study of G. ruber illustrates the operation of two oceanographic parameters in controlling a species distribution. These examples demonstrate that the environmental signal in the sediments is the result of the interplay of the ecological tolerance of the plankton species with seasonally variable biological and physical properties of the upper ocean.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , May 1982 , pp. 314 - 324
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

Bandy, O. (1960). The geologic significance of coiling ratios in the Foraminifera Globigerina pachyderma (Ehrenberg). Journal of Paleontology 34, 671–681.Google Scholar
Barry, R. (1975). Climate models in paleoclimatic reconstruction. Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology 17, 123–137.Google Scholar
Bé, A. (1977). Recent planktonic Foraminifera. Oceanic Micropaleontology Ramsay, A. Vol. 1 Academic Press. New York 1–100.Google Scholar
Bé, A. Tolderlund, D. (1971). Distribution and ecology of living planktonic Foraminifera in surface waters of the Atlantic and Indian oceans. The Micropaleontology of Oceans Funnell, B. Riedel, W. Cambridge Univ. Press. London/New York 105–149.Google Scholar
Berger, W. (1976). Biogenous deep sea sediments. Chemical Oceanography Riley, J. Chester, R. Vol. 5 Academic Press. London 265–388.Google Scholar
Berger, W. Gardner, J. (1975). On the determination of Pleistocene temperatures from planktonic Foraminifera. Journal of Foraminiferal Research 5, 102–113.Google Scholar
Chayes, F. (1971). Ratio Correlation. Univ. of Chicago Press. Chicago.Google Scholar
Chayes, F. (1975). Apriori and experimental approximation of simple ratio correlations. Concepts in Geostatistics McCammon, R. Springer-Verlag. New York 106–137.Google Scholar
CLIMAP, Project Members, . 1976. The surface of the Ice Age Earth. Science 191, 1131–1137.Google Scholar
Corlett, J. (1953). Net phytoplankton at ocean weather stations ‘I’ and ‘J’. Journal for the Permanent International Council for the Exploration of the Sea 19 2 178–190.Google Scholar
Ericson, D. (1959). Coiling direction of Globigerina pachyderma as a climatic index. Science 130, 219–220.Google Scholar
Gates, L. 1976a. Modelling the Ice Age climate. Science 191, 1138–1144.Google Scholar
Gates, L. 1976b. The numerical simulation of Ice Age climate with a global general circulation model. Journal of Atmospheric Science 33, 1844–1873.Google Scholar
Holmes, R. (1956). The annual cycle of phytoplankton in the Labrador Sea, 1950-51. Bulletin of the Bingham Oceanographic Collection 16, 3–73.Google Scholar
Imbrie, J. Kipp, N. (1971). A new micropaleontological method for quantitative paleoclimatology, application to a late Pleistocene Caribbean core. The Late Cenozoic Glacial Ages Turekian, K. Yale Univ. Press. New Haven, Conn 71–181.Google Scholar
Kipp, N. (1976). New transfer function for estimating past surface conditions from sea-bed distribution of planktonic Foraminiferal assemblages in the North Atlantic. Geological Society of America Memoirs 145, 3–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynts, G. Judd, J. (1971). Late Pleistocene paleotemperatures at Tongue of the Ocean, Bahamas. Science 171, 1143–1144.Google Scholar
Manabe, S. Hahn, D. (1977). Simulation of the tropical climate of an Ice Age. Journal of Geophysical Research 82 27 3889–3911.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McConnaughey, B. (1978). Introduction to Marine Biology. Mosby. St. Louis.Google Scholar
McGill, D. (1966). Fertility of the oceans. The Encyclopedia of Oceanography Fairbridge, R. Van Nostrand Reinhold. New York 268–272.Google Scholar
Neter, J. Wasserman, W. (1974). Applied Linear Statistical Models. Richard D. Irwin. Homewood, Ill.Google Scholar
Riley, G. (1942). The relationship of vertical turbulence and spring diatom flowerings. Journal of Marine Research 5 1 67–87.Google Scholar
Riley, G. (1943). Physiological aspects of spring diatom flowerings. Bulletin of the Bingham Oceanographic Collection 8 4 1–53.Google Scholar
Sachs, H. Webb, T. Clark, D. (1977). Paleoecological transfer functions. Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Science 5, 159–178.Google Scholar
Steeman-Nielson, E. (1958). Light and organic production in the sea. Reports of the Permanent International Council for the Exploration of the Sea 144, 141–147.Google Scholar
Sverdrup, H. Johnson, M. Fleming, R. (1942). The Oceans. Prentice-Hall. New York.Google Scholar
Tolderlund, D. Bé, A. (1971). Seasonal distribution of planktonic Foraminifera in the western North Atlantic. Micropaleontology 17 3 297–329.Google Scholar
U.S. Naval Oceanographic Atlas of the North Atlantic, . 1967. Section 2: Physical Properties. U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Webb, T. Clark, D. (1977). Calibrating micropaleontological data in climatic terms: A critical review. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 288, 93–118.Google Scholar
Williams, J. (1978). A brief comparison of model simulations of glacial period maximum atmospheric circulation. Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology 25, 191–198.Google Scholar