Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
The Holocene
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Taylor, F.
Right arrow Articles by McMinn, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
GeoRef
Right arrow GeoRef Citation
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Evidence from diatoms for Holocene climate fluctuation along the East Antarctic margin

Fiona Taylor

Andrew McMinn

Antarctic Co-operative Research Centre and Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies, GPO Box 252–80, Hobart, Tasmania, 7001, Australia

Diatom assemblages in two Holocene sediment cores (GC1 and GC2) from the Mac. Robertson Shelf, East Antarctica, are compared with modern sedimentary diatom assemblages from the same area. Open marine deposition commenced in Iceberg Alley (GC1), on the outer continental shelf, .10.7 adj. 14C kyr BP. Chaetoceros resting spores, which may indicate water-column stabilization from melting glacial and/or sea ice or the maximum summer sea-ice retreat, dominate the diatom assemblage. Approximately 7.5 adj. 14C kyr BP, a sea-ice diatom assemblage was deposited. This assemblage is similar to that being deposited in the surface sediments of the Mac. Robertson Shelf today and suggests that perennial sea ice has persisted in the vicinity of Iceberg Alley since that time. Interbedded within the sea-ice assemblage, however, areCorethron-rich sedi ment layers that suggest mid-to late-Holocene high-productivity events associated with a climatic optimum. The diatom record from Nielsen Basin (GC2), on the inner continental shelf, is relatively uniform compared to that in GC1. Glacial ice was present over the regionc. .5.6 adj. 14C kyr BP and a dissolution diatom assemblage was deposited beneath it. Following ice retreat, an ice-edge diatom assemblage was deposited briefly before sea-ice conditions similar to that on the continental shelf today developed. There is no evidence in GC2 for the mid-to late-Holocene high-productivity events identified in GC1.

Key Words: Diatoms • climatic change • sea ice • sediment • Chaetoceros resting spores • Corethron criophilum • East Antarctic • Holocene

The Holocene, Vol. 11, No. 4, 455-466 (2001)
DOI: 10.1191/095968301678302896
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?