Wilkes Land Late Pleistocene diatom age model: From bio-events to quantitative biostratigraphy

• Published in: Revue de Micropaléontologie
• Main Authors: Tolotti, R., Bárcena, M. A., Macrì, Patrizia, Caburlotto, A., Bonci, M. C., de Santis, Laura, Donda, F., Corradi, Nicola, Crosta, X.
• Other Authors: Dipartimento Scienze della Terra, Università degli studi di Genova = University of Genoa (UniGe), Universidad de Salamanca, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia - Sezione di Roma (INGV), Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Environnements et Paléoenvironnements OCéaniques (EPOC), Observatoire aquitain des sciences de l'univers (OASU), Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 (UB)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 (UB)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2018
• Subjects: Matuyama-Brunhes Transition; Mid Pleistocene Transition; Late Pleistocene; Quantitative Biostratigraphy; Diatom Biomarkers; Paleomagnetic dataset; [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; [SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography; [SDU.STU.CL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Climatology; East Antarctica; Wilkes Land; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-02105533; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.revmic.2018.05.001

International audience A new method merges conventional and quantitative biostratigraphic approaches, supported by magnetic polarity data, to develop a chronological framework for sediment core MD03-2595 retrieved on the continental rise off Wilkes Land, East Antarctica before proceeding to paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic analysis. This combined method helped to identify climatic cycles, highlight stratigraphic discontinuities and reworking, and assess regional sedimentological and diatom biostratigraphic evolution. Core MD03-2595 spans the last 0.8 Ma, from the Mid Pleistocene Transition (MPT) to the Early Holocene. A hiatus including Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 19, 18 and 17 was identified, and a decreasing trend in sediment accumulation rates from MIS 16 to the Holocene was observed. This quantitative diatom biostratigraphic dataset, placed in its own sedimentological and paleomagnetic context, provides new information regarding the paleobiogeographic distribution and ecological responses of biostratigraphically significant diatom species, such as Thalassiosira elliptipora and T. fasciculata, for the Matuyama-Brunhes (M-B) transition, and Actinocyclus ingens, Hemidiscus karstenii and Rouxia spp. for the middle and late Pleistocene diatom biozonation.