An expanded database of Southern Hemisphere surface sediment dinoflagellate cyst assemblages and their oceanographic affinities

Abstract

Abstract. Dinoflagellate cyst assemblages present a valuable proxy to infer paleoceanographic conditions, yet factors influencing geographic distributions of species remain largely unknown, especially in the Southern Ocean. Strong lateral transport, sea-ice dynamics, and a sparse and uneven geographic distribution of surface sediment samples have limited the use of dinocyst assemblages as a quantitative proxy for paleo-environmental conditions such as sea surface temperature (SST), nutrient concentrations, salinity, and sea ice (presence). In this study we present a new set of surface sediment samples (n=66) from around Antarctica, doubling the number of Antarctic-proximal samples to 100 (dataset wsi_100) and increasing the total number of Southern Hemisphere samples to 655 (dataset sh_655). Additionally, we use modelled ocean conditions and apply Lagrangian techniques to all Southern Hemisphere sample stations to quantify and evaluate the influence of lateral transport on the sinking trajectory of microplankton and, with that, to the inferred ocean conditions. k-means cluster analysis on the wsi_100 dataset demonstrates the strong affinity of Selenopemphix antarctica with sea-ice presence and of Islandinium spp. with low-salinity conditions. For the entire Southern Hemisphere, the k-means cluster analysis identifies nine clusters with a characteristic assemblage. In most clusters a single dinocyst species dominates the assemblage. These clusters correspond to well-defined oceanic conditions in specific Southern Ocean zones or along the ocean fronts. We find that, when lateral transport is predominantly zonal, the environmental parameters inferred from the sea floor assemblages mostly correspond to those of the overlying ocean surface. In this case, the transport factor can thus be neglected and will not represent a bias in the reconstructions. Yet, for some individual sites, e.g. deep-water sites or sites under strong-current regimes, lateral transport can play a large role. The results of our study further constrain environmental conditions represented by dinocyst assemblages and the location of Southern Ocean frontal systems.

Dinoflagellate cysts as proxies of environmental, ocean and climate changes in the Atlantic realm during the quaternary

“…Hence, lateral transport of dinoflagellate cysts before burial as any other small-size particles cannot be ruled out. Nevertheless, the sharp boundaries in the cyst distribution on the sea floor suggest a limited impact of distal transport on the assemblages (e.g., de Vernal et al, 2020), as also shown at the zonal scale through modelling experiment (Thöle et al, 2023). The analyses of other microfossils recovered in palynological slides such as pollen and spores that are necessarily allochthonous provide clues about potential nearshore-offshore transport, which appears very limited beyond the estuarine and inner neritic zone (e.g., de Vernal and Giroux, 1991;Rochon and de Vernal, 1994).…”

Southern Ocean control on atmospheric CO2 changes across late-Pliocene Marine Isotope Stage M2

“…The bulk of the late Pliocene pCO2 record is generated from ODP Site 999, of which the surface air-sea disequilibrium for CO2 is close to 0 (Martínez-Botí et al, 2015). Thus, this Caribbean Sea site has been frequently used to reconstruct global past pCO2 (Foster, 2008;Chalk et al, 2017;De la Vega et al, 2020, 2023.…”