The Late Cretaceous environment of the Arctic: A quantitative reassessment based on plant fossils

Spicer, Robert A.; Herman, Alexei B.

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.02.025

Cited by 164 publications

(124 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…However subsequent papers now propose that the TEX86 method yields a summer SST maximum rather than an annual average (Sluijs et al, 2006) so that significantly colder winter temperatures may have occurred. The evidence from the CESAR 6 core for the presence of intermittent winter sea ice is consistent with wider evidence for cold winters (Spicer and Herman, 2010), that includes estimates of polar temperatures down to -10°C from late Campanian-Maastrichtian Alaskan vertebrate enamels (Amiot et al, 2004), evidence for possible frosts from Campanian-Maastrichtian age tree rings from Ellesmere Island (FalconLang et al, 2004), CLAMP estimates of cold month mean temperatures of -2.7°C from the Campanian-Maastrichtian of central Alaska (Tomsich et al, 2010) as well as models of the Late Cretaceous ocean that suggest the formation of seasonal sea ice (Otto-Bliesner et al, 2002).…”

Section: Origins and Palaeoclimatic Significance Of Lithogenic Sedimesupporting

confidence: 70%

“…The slightly older, shallower water, coastal and shelf sequences in Canadian Arctic Islands show evidence for widespread diatom productivity and the presence of a vigorous marine ecosystem (Chin et al, 2008;Witkowski et al, 2011). The Late Cretaceous Arctic summers were temperate, but there is widespread evidence for freezing winter temperatures from fossil leaf analysis (Spicer and Herman, 2010;Tomsich et al, 2010) possible frosts from tree rings (Falcon-Lang et al, 2004) and vertebrate enamels (Amiot et al, 2004). These contradict the postulated 15 °C mean annual sea surface temperature derived from TEX86 (Jenkyns et al, 2004).…”

Section: Cesar 6 Core From the Alpha Ridgementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Aeolian contributions would be expected to have strong modes in the medium to coarse silt grade without the abundant clay and also lacking the coarser sand grains (Holz et al, 2004). Furthermore, the humid, forested land areas surrounding the Late Cretaceous Arctic lacked the necessary arid or desert areas to supply dust (Otto-Bliesner and Upchurch, 1997; Spicer and Herman, 2010). Although organic rafting of marine sediment may be locally important, the high frequency of the Alpha Ridge rafting events together with the lack of material coarser than fine sand makes this an unlikely agent (Emery, 1963).…”

Section: Origins and Palaeoclimatic Significance Of Lithogenic Sedimementioning

confidence: 99%

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Late Cretaceous seasonal palaeoclimatology and diatom palaeoecology from laminated sediments

Davies

Kemp

2016

Cretaceous Research

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Laminated diatom-rich marine sediments from California and the Arctic Ocean provide a window into the seasonal climate and oceanography of the mid-and high-latitude Late Cretaceous. These remarkable shallow-buried sediments constitute palaeo-sediment traps that record exceptionally well-preserved sequential biogenic and lithogenic flux events. Many of the diatom laminae are composed of a few dominant taxa, and we use a species-based approach for palaeoecological interpretation. Contrary to many earlier interpretations, results indicate that both sites preserve a major flux of taxa adapted to exploit a strongly stratified ocean. The uppermost Maastrichtian Marca Shale of California records a seasonal cycle initiated with a spring bloom flux of diatom resting spores followed by a summer lithogenic sediment input likely driven by monsoonal storms providing river runoff and aeolian input. This is followed by a dominant diatom flux of species that thrived in the summer stratification in deep chlorophyll maxima and were sedimented in the fall when this stratification broke down. Dominant taxa comprising this group include Hemiaulus, Stephanopyxis, Stellarima and Rhizosolenia. The uppermost Campanian CESAR 6 core from the Arctic Alpha Ridge, records a spring bloom flux of resting spores followed by a more dominant summer and fall flux of diatom vegetative cells which were likely concentrated in subsurface summer blooms that generated a "summer export pulse" and by the breakdown of stratification in the fall that gave massive flux of deep chlorophyll maxima species in the fall dump. The dominance and diversity of Hemiaulus in the CESAR 6 core together with widespread evidence of N 2 -fixation may indicate that some diatom blooms were powered by intracellular N 2 -fixing cyanobacteria as in the modern oligotrophic ocean. Thin lenses of fine lithogenic sediment that occur mostly in the spring layer represent rafting by winter sea ice and support other evidence that suggests intermittent winter freezing in the Late Cretaceous Arctic.Keywords: Late Cretaceous; Diatom blooms; Paleoecology; California; Arctic; Sea Ice 3 1.Introduction Laminated pelagic and hemipelagic marine sediments often constitute "palaeosediment traps" that preserve sequential flux events from which the ancient seasonal flux cycle may be reconstructed. They commonly preserve both the biogenic flux events from surface ocean productivity and also the terrigenous sediment input common in hemipelagic or marginal settings. Within rare, exceptionally well-preserved Cretaceous sediments, fossil diatom algae record the seasonal cycle of marine production and flux to the sea bed. In the modern ocean diatom algae are the dominant, bloom-forming phytoplankton in many environments and are key players in the marine biological carbon pump. The relative contribution of diatoms to total primary production has been estimated to range from 35% in the oligotrophic oceans to 75% in the coastal zone and in the Antarctic (Nelson et al., 1995), while their contribution...

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Section: Origins and Palaeoclimatic Significance Of Lithogenic Sedimesupporting

confidence: 70%

Section: Cesar 6 Core From the Alpha Ridgementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Origins and Palaeoclimatic Significance Of Lithogenic Sedimementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Late Cretaceous seasonal palaeoclimatology and diatom palaeoecology from laminated sediments

Davies

Kemp

2016

Cretaceous Research

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“…Although considerably milder than today, paleobotanical evidence indicates a mean annual temperature for the Maastrichtian of northern Alaska at around 5-6°C, with a cold month mean warmer than 2.0±3.9°C (Parrish and Spicer 1988;Spicer and Parrish 1990;Spicer et al 1992;Spicer and Herman 2010). From pedogenic and paleobotanical evidence Flaig et al (2013) concluded that the Arctic coastal plain had polar woodlands with an angiosperm understory, and that it experienced both strong dry and wet seasons.…”

Section: Geological Setting and Taxonomic Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Description of two partialTroodonbraincases from the Prince Creek Formation (Upper Cretaceous), North Slope Alaska

Fiorillo

Tykoski

Currie

et al. 2009

Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology

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“…At a paleolatitude of ~75 o S , the growing season of LP1 and LP2 forests was ~ 7 months based on light availability (Spicer and Herman, 2010). However, estimates based on number of cells in growth rings and rate of cell production in modern trees suggests a growing season of ~3 months or less.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Highly productive polar forests from the Permian of Antarctica

Miller

Knepprath

Cantrill

et al. 2016

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

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Two stratigraphically closely spaced bedding planes exposed at Lamping Peak in the Upper Buckley Formation, Beardmore Glacier area, Antarctica contain abundant in situ stumps (n=53, n=21) and other plant fossils that allow reconstruction of forest structure and biomass of Glossopteris forests that thrived at Presence of these highly productive fossil forests at high paleolatitude is consistent with hothouse conditions during the Late Permian, prior to the eruption of the Siberian flood basalts.

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The Late Cretaceous environment of the Arctic: A quantitative reassessment based on plant fossils

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Cited by 164 publications

References 86 publications

Late Cretaceous seasonal palaeoclimatology and diatom palaeoecology from laminated sediments

Late Cretaceous seasonal palaeoclimatology and diatom palaeoecology from laminated sediments

Description of two partialTroodonbraincases from the Prince Creek Formation (Upper Cretaceous), North Slope Alaska

Highly productive polar forests from the Permian of Antarctica

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