Preliminary investigation of a method for determining past winter temperatures at Ellis Fjord, eastern Antarctica, from fast-ice diatom assemblages

• Main Author: Andrew McMinn
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Antarctic CRC and Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies, University of Tasmania 1994
• Subjects: fast-ice; diatoms; climate; Ellis Fjord; Vestfold Hills; Vestfold; Taynaya Bay; Nella Fjord; Antarc*; Antarctica; Memoirs of National Institute of Polar Research; Polar Research
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=2259; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00002259/; https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=2259&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

The abundance of diatoms from the fast-ice mat community in sediment assemblages from the fjords of the Vestfold Hills has the potential to provide a proxy record of average winter temperature. Fast-ice cover on the fjords determines the proportion of diatoms from the fast-ice mat community in the sedimentary diatom assemblages. ANARE expeditioner records demonstrate a tentative relationship between fjord ice cover and average winter temperature. Short cores from Ellis Fjord, Taynaya Bay and Nella Fjord show fluctuations in the proportion of fast-ice diatoms but so far it has not been possible to correlate these with historical records.