Current knowledge of terrestrial ecosystem response to the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM; ca. 56 Ma) is largely based on the midlatitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. To more fully reconstruct global terrestrial ecosystem response to the PETM, we generated vegetation and biomarker proxy records from an outcrop section on the southern coast of Australia (~60°S paleolatitude). We documented a rapid, massive, and sustained vegetation turnover as a response to regional PETM warming of ~1–4 °C, abruptly transitioning from a warm temperate to a meso-megathermal rain forest similar to that of present-day northeastern Queensland, Australia. The onset of this vegetation change preceded the characteristic PETM carbon-isotope excursion (CIE) by several thousand years. The reconstructed ecosystem change is much stronger than in other Southern Hemisphere records, highlighting the need for consideration of regional paleoceanographic, paleogeographic, and biogeographic characteristics to fully understand the global terrestrial ecosystem response to PETM climate forcing.

Abstract. Global climate cooled from the early Eocene hothouse (∼52–50 Ma) to the latest Eocene (∼34 Ma). At the same time, the tectonic evolution of the Southern Ocean was characterized by the opening and deepening of circum-Antarctic gateways, which affected both surface- and deep-ocean circulation. The Tasmanian Gateway played a key role in regulating ocean throughflow between Australia and Antarctica. Southern Ocean surface currents through and around the Tasmanian Gateway have left recognizable tracers in the spatiotemporal distribution of plankton fossils, including organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts. This spatiotemporal distribution depends on both the physicochemical properties of the water masses and the path of surface-ocean currents. The extent to which climate and tectonics have influenced the distribution and composition of surface currents and thus fossil assemblages has, however, remained unclear. In particular, the contribution of climate change to oceanographic changes, superimposed on long-term and gradual changes induced by tectonics, is still poorly understood. To disentangle the effects of tectonism and climate in the southwest Pacific Ocean, we target a climatic deviation from the long-term Eocene cooling trend: the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO; ∼40 Ma). This 500 kyr phase of global warming was unrelated to regional tectonism, and thus provides a test case to investigate the ocean's physicochemical response to climate change alone. We reconstruct changes in surface-water circulation and temperature in and around the Tasmanian Gateway during the MECO through new palynological and organic geochemical records from the central Tasmanian Gateway (Ocean Drilling Program Site 1170), the Otway Basin (southeastern Australia), and the Hampden Beach section (New Zealand). Our results confirm that dinocyst communities track specific surface-ocean currents, yet the variability within the communities can be driven by superimposed temperature change. Together with published results from the east of the Tasmanian Gateway, our new results suggest a shift in surface-ocean circulation during the peak of MECO warmth. Simultaneous with high sea-surface temperatures in the Tasmanian Gateway area, pollen assemblages indicate warm temperate rainforests with paratropical elements along the southeastern margin of Australia. Finally, based on new age constraints, we suggest that a regional southeast Australian transgression might have been coincident with the MECO.

Abstract. Detailed, stratigraphically well-constrained environmental reconstructions are available for Paleocene and Eocene strata at a range of sites in the southwest Pacific Ocean (New Zealand and East Tasman Plateau; ETP) and Integrated Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Site U1356 in the south of the Australo-Antarctic Gulf (AAG). These reconstructions have revealed a large discrepancy between temperature proxy data and climate models in this region, suggesting a crucial error in model, proxy data or both. To resolve the origin of this discrepancy, detailed reconstructions are needed from both sides of the Tasmanian Gateway. Paleocene-Eocene sedimentary archives from the west of the Tasmanian Gateway have unfortunately remained scarce (only IODP Site U1356), and no well-dated successions are available for the northern sector of the AAG. Here we present new stratigraphic data for upper Paleocene and lower Eocene strata from the Otway Basin, southeast Australia, on the (north)west side of the Tasmanian Gateway. We analyzed sediments recovered from exploration drilling (Latrobe-1 drill core) and outcrop sampling (Point Margaret) and performed high-resolution carbon isotope geochemistry of bulk organic matter and dinoflagellate cyst (dinocyst) and pollen biostratigraphy on sediments from the regional lithostratigraphic units, including the Pebble Point Formation, Pember Mudstone and Dilwyn Formation. Pollen and dinocyst assemblages are assigned to previously established Australian pollen and dinocyst zonations and tied to available zonations for the SW Pacific. Based on our dinocyst stratigraphy and previously published planktic foraminifer biostratigraphy, the Pebble Point Formation at Point Margaret is dated to the latest Paleocene. The globally synchronous negative carbon isotope excursion that marks the Paleocene-Eocene boundary is identified within the top part of the Pember Mudstone in the Latrobe-1 borehole and at Point Margaret. However, the high abundances of the dinocyst Apectodinium prior to this negative carbon isotope excursion prohibit a direct correlation of this regional bio-event with the quasi-global Apectodinium acme at the PaleoceneEocene Thermal Maximum (PETM; 56 Ma). Therefore, the first occurrence of the pollen species Spinizonocolpites prominatus and the dinocyst species Florentinia reichartii are here designated as regional markers for the PETM. In the Latrobe-1 drill core, dinocyst biostratigraphy further indicates that the early Eocene (∼ 56-51 Ma) sediments are truncated by a ∼ 10 Myr long hiatus overlain by middle Eocene (∼ 40 Ma) strata. These sedimentary archives from southeast Australia may prove key in resolving the model-data discrepancy in this region, and the new stratigraphic data presented here allow for detailed comparisons between paleoclimate records on both sides of the Tasmanian Gateway.

Abstract. Global climate cooled from the early Eocene hothouse (~ 52–50 Ma) to the latest Eocene (~ 34 Ma). At the same time, the tectonic evolution of the Southern Ocean was characterized by the opening and deepening of circum-Antarctic gateways, which affected both surface- and deep-ocean circulation. The Tasman Gateway played a key role in regulating ocean throughflow between Australia and Antarctica. Southern Ocean surface currents through and around the Tasman Gateway have left recognizable tracers in the spatiotemporal distribution of plankton fossils, including organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts. This spatiotemporal distribution depends on physico-chemical properties of the water masses in which these organisms thrived. The degree to which the geographic path of surface currents (primarily controlled by tectonism) or their physico-chemical properties (significantly impacted by climate) have controlled the composition of the fossil assemblages has, however, remained unclear. In fact, it is yet poorly understood to what extent oceanographic response as a whole was dictated by climate change, independent of tectonics-induced oceanographic changes that operate on longer time scales. To disentangle the effects of tectonism and climate in the southwest Pacific Ocean, we target a climatic deviation from the long-term Eocene cooling trend, a 500 thousand year long global warming phase termed the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO; ~ 40 Ma). The MECO warming is unrelated to regional tectonism, and thus provides a test case to investigate the oceans physiochemical response to climate change only. We reconstruct changes in surface-water circulation and temperature in and around the Tasman Gateway during the MECO through new palynological and organic geochemical records from the central Tasman Gateway (Ocean Drilling Program Site 1170), the Otway Basin (southeastern Australia) and the Hampden Section (New Zealand). Our results confirm that dinocyst communities track tectonically driven circulation patterns, yet the variability within these communities can be driven by superimposed temperature change. Together with published results from the east of the Tasman Gateway, our results suggest that as surface-ocean temperatures rose, the East Australian Current extended further southward during the peak of MECO warmth. Simultaneous with high sea-surface temperatures in the Tasman Gateway area, pollen assemblages indicate warm temperate rainforests with paratropical elements along the southeastern margin of Australia. Finally, based on new age constraints we suggest that a regional southeast Australian transgression might have been caused by sea-level rise during MECO.

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