Reorganization of Southern Ocean Plankton Ecosystem at the Onset of Antarctic Glaciation

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Houben, Alexander J. P., Bijl, Peter K., Pross, Jörg, Bohaty, Steven M., Passchier, Sandra, Stickley, Catherine E., Röhl, Ursula, Sugisaki, Saiko, Tauxe, Lisa, van de Flierdt, Tina, Olney, Matthew, Sangiorgi, Francesca, Sluijs, Appy, Escutia, Carlota, Brinkhuis, Henk
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2013
• Subjects: Antarctic; Southern Ocean; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1223646; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1223646

Southern Change Antarctica has been mostly covered by ice since the inception of large-scale continental glaciation during the Oligocene, which profoundly altered the isotopic and mineralogical records of the sediments surrounding the continent. Houben et al. (p. 341 ) found records of the corresponding living systems in the fossil marine dinoflagellate cysts, which revealed that a microplankton ecosystem, similar to the one that exists today, appeared simultaneously with the first major Antarctic glaciation approximately 34 million years ago.