Diatom abundance in surface sediments of the Southern Ocean

• Main Authors: Esper, Oliver, Gersonde, Rainer, Kadagies, Nicole
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2010
• Subjects: Actinocyclus actinochilus; Actinocyclus curvatulus; Amundsen Sea; ANT-XI/3; ANT-XII/4; ANT-XVIII/5a; Asteromphalus hookeri; Asteromphalus hyalinus; Asteromphalus parvulus; AWI_Paleo; Azpeitia tabularis var. egregius; Azpeitia tabularis var. tabularis; Chaetoceros spp.; Counting; diatoms; DEPTH; sediment/rock; Diatoms indeterminata; Elevation of event; Eucampia antarctica; Event label; Fragilariopsis curta; Fragilariopsis cylindrus; Fragilariopsis doliolus; Fragilariopsis kerguelensis; Fragilariopsis obliquecostata; Fragilariopsis rhombica; Fragilariopsis ritscheri; Fragilariopsis separanda; Fragilariopsis sublinearis; Hemidiscus cuneiformis; Latitude of event; Longitude of event; MUC; MultiCorer; Nitzschia bicapitata; Nitzschia kolaczeckii; Paleoenvironmental Reconstructions from Marine Sediments @ AWI; PLA; Plankton net; Polarstern; Porosira glacialis; PS2546-1; PS2547-2; PS2548-2; PS2550-2; PS2657-1; PS2659-2; PS2661-4; Antarctic; Southern Ocean; The Antarctic; Pacific; Antarc*; Antarctica; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.681699; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.681699

The quantitative analysis of diatom assemblages preserved in 52 samples from the Bellingshausen and the Amundsen Seas provides the first comprehensive view on the distribution of diatoms in surface sediments of the eastern and central Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean. On a latitudinal transect along 120°W, diatom valve accumulation rates (AR) reach maximum values (8–10 × 10**8 valves m**-2 yr**-1) in a zone extending over ca. 900 km between the Antarctic Polar Front and the maximum average winter sea ice extent and exceed those ARs obtained from an eastern transect along 90°W by one order of magnitude. Lowest diatom concentrations (1–3 × 10**6 valves g**-1) were encountered in sediments of the Sea Ice Zone, affected by winter and summer sea ice. The accumulation rate pattern of the most abundant diatom Fragilariopsis kerguelensis (> 50% abundance in 47 samples) mirrors the pattern of the total diatom valve AR and the biogenic silica (BSi) AR, making F. kerguelensis the major contributor to the BSi preserved at the sea floor. Relative abundances of diatom species and species groups were statistically compared with a selection of environmental variables, such as the mean summer sea surface temperature and salinity, mean annual surface nutrient concentration (nitrate, phosphate, silicon), mean annual water column stratification, mixed layer depth in summer, and mean summer and winter sea ice concentrations. Polynomial canonical redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed the biogeographic distribution of diatom species had the strongest relationship with summer sea surface temperature (SSST) out of the nine tested environmental variables. This relationship accounted for 69.6% of the total variance of the diatom distribution, with 29.7% explained by the first gradient (significantly correlated to SSST with r**2 = 0.941) and 15.6% explained by the second gradient (correlated to both summer and winter sea ice and silicon concentration). Azpeitia tabularis, Hemidiscus cuneiformis and Roperia tesselata were associated ...