Living and dead planktonic foraminifera faunal data from NE Atlantic multinet hauls

• Main Authors: Rebotim, Andreia, Voelker, Antje H L, Jonkers, Lukas, Waniek, Joanna J, Meggers, Helge, Schiebel, Ralf, Fraile, I, Schulz, Michael, Kucera, Michal
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2017
• Subjects: Canary Islands Azores Gibraltar Observations; CANIGO; North Atlantic; Planktonic foraminifera
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.872477; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.872477

Planktonic foraminifera preserved in marine sediments archive the physical and chemical conditions under which they built their shells. To interpret the paleoceanographic information contained in fossil foraminifera, the proxy signals have to be attributed to the habitat of individual species. Much of our knowledge on habitat depth is based on indirect methods, which reconstruct the depth at which the largest portion of the shell has been calcified. However, habitat depth can be best studied by direct observations in stratified plankton nets. Here we present a synthesis of living planktonic foraminifera abundance data in vertically resolved plankton net hauls taken in the eastern North Atlantic during twelve oceanographic campaigns between 1995 and 2012. Live (cytoplasm-bearing) specimens were counted for each depth interval and the vertical habitat at each station was expressed as average living depth (ALD). This allows us to differentiate species showing an ALD consistently above 100 m (e.g. Globigerinoides ruber white and pink), indicating a shallow habitat; species occurring from the surface to the subsurface (e.g. Globigerina bulloides, Globorotalia inflata, Globorotalia truncatulinoides); and species inhabiting the subsurface (e.g. Globorotalia scitula and Globorotalia hirsuta). For 17 species with variable ALD, we assessed whether their depth habitat at a given station could be predicted by mixed layer (ML) depth, temperature in the ML and chlorophyll a concentration in the ML. The influence of seasonal and lunar cycle on the depth habitat was also tested using periodic regression. In 11 out of the 17 tested species, ALD variation appears to have a predictable component. All of the tested parameters were significant at least in one case, with both seasonal and lunar cyclicity as well as the environmental parameters being able to explain up to >50% of the variance. Whereas G. truncatulinoides, G. hirsuta and G. scitula appear to deepen their living depth towards the summer, populations of Trilobatus ...