Freshwater fern Azolla in and around Arctic and Nordic seas, supplement to: Barke, Judith; van der Burgh, Johan; van Konijnenburg-van Cittert, Johanna H A; Collinson, Margaret E; Pearce, Martin A; Bujak, Jonathan; Heilmann-Clausen, Claus; Speelman, Eveline N; van Kempen, Monique M L; Reichart, Gert-Jan; Lotter, André F; Brinkhuis, Henk (2012): Coeval Eocene blooms of the freshwater fern Azolla in and around Arctic and Nordic seas. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 337-338, 108-119

For a short time interval (c. 1.2 Myr) during the early middle Eocene (~49 Myr), the central Arctic Ocean was episodically densely covered by the freshwater fern Azolla, implying sustained freshening of surface waters. Coeval Azolla fossils in neighboring Nordic seas were thought to have been source...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Barke, Judith, van der Burgh, Johan, van Konijnenburg-van Cittert, Johanna H A, Collinson, Margaret E, Pearce, Martin A, Bujak, Jonathan, Heilmann-Clausen, Claus, Speelman, Eveline N, van Kempen, Monique M L, Reichart, Gert-Jan, Lotter, André F, Brinkhuis, Henk
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2012
Subjects:
Integrated Ocean Drilling Program / International Ocean Discovery Program IODP
Arctic
Arctic Ocean
Monique
Nordic Seas
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.787105
https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.787105
Description
Summary:For a short time interval (c. 1.2 Myr) during the early middle Eocene (~49 Myr), the central Arctic Ocean was episodically densely covered by the freshwater fern Azolla, implying sustained freshening of surface waters. Coeval Azolla fossils in neighboring Nordic seas were thought to have been sourced from the Arctic. The recognition of a different Azolla species in the North Sea raised doubts about this hypothesis. Here we show that no less than five Azolla species had coeval blooms and spread in the Arctic and NW European regions. A likely trigger for these unexpected Azolla blooms is high precipitation prevailing by the end of the warmest climates of the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO).

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