Phytoplanktonic microfossil groups of sediments from the South and Equatorial Atlantic

• Main Authors: Vink, Annemiek, Baumann, Karl-Heinz, Boeckel, Babette, Esper, Oliver, Kinkel, Hanno, Volbers, Andrea N A, Willems, Helmut, Zonneveld, Karin A F
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2003
• Subjects: 06MT15_2; 06MT41_3; A-21; A-24; A-30; A-32; A-38; A-39; A-9; Amazon Fan; Amazon Shelf/Fan; Angola Basin; ANT-X/4; ANT-X/6; Ascencion Island; Atlantic Caribbean Margin; AWI_Paleo; B_LANDER; B-32; B-39; B-47; B-5; BC; Bottom lander; Box corer; Brazil Basin; Cape Basin; Ceara Rise; Central Brazil Basin; Central South Atlantic; Continental slope off Brazil; East Brazil Basin; Eastern Niger fan; Eastern Rio Grande Rise; Equatorial Atlantic; GeoB; GeoB1101-4; GeoB1102-3; GeoB1103-3; GeoB1104-5; GeoB1105-3; GeoB1106-5; GeoB1108-6; GeoB1111-5; GeoB1113-7; GeoB1114-3; GeoB1115-4; GeoB1116-1; GeoB1117-3; GeoB1118-2; Planktonic foraminifera
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.779587; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.779587

Individual planktonic microfossil species, or assemblage groups of different species, are often used to, qualitatively and/or quantitatively, reconstruct past (sub)surface-water conditions of the world's oceans and seas. Until now, little information has been available on the surface sediment distribution patterns and paleoenvironmental reconstruction potential of coccolith, calcareous dinoflagellate cyst and organic-walled dinoflagellate cyst assemblages of the South and equatorial Atlantic, especially at the species level. This paper (i) summarizes the distributions of these three phytoplanktonic microfossil groups in numerous Atlantic surface sediments from 20°N-50°S and 30°E-65°W and determines their relationship with the physicochemical and trophic conditions of the overlying (sub)surface-waters, and (ii) determines the synecology of the three phytoplankton groups by carrying out statistical analyses (i.e. detrended and canonical correspondence analyses) on all groups simultaneously. Ecological relationships are additionally strengthened by statistically comparing the distribution patterns of the phytoplankton groups with those of planktonic foraminifera (Pflaumann et al. 1996; Niebler et al. 1998), as the ecological preferences of the latter are much better known. Many of the analyzed phytoplanktonic microfossil species or groups of species in the surface sediments do show restricted distributions which primarily reflect the environmental conditions of the upper water masses above them (e.g. sea-surface temperature, productivity, stratification). The acquired 'reference' data sets are large and diverse enough to allow future development of transfer functions for the reconstruction of past surface-water conditions, and show that there is still an enormous paleoenvironmental reconstruction potential concealed in many fossil coccolith and dinoflagellate cyst assemblages.