Phytoplankton past and present : ecology and biodiversity of marine microalgal communities with particular emphasis on Antarctic ecosystems

• Main Author: McMinn, A
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: Phytoplankton; Ecology; Microbial ecology; Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://eprints.utas.edu.au/20614/; https://eprints.utas.edu.au/20614/13/McMinn_2005_thesis_frontmatter.pdf; https://eprints.utas.edu.au/20614/1/whole_McMinnAndrew2005_thesis.pdf; https://eprints.utas.edu.au/20614/2/whole_McMinnAndrew2005Vol2_thesis.pdf

Dinoflagellate cysts and Diatoms. I have been working with the microalgal Divisions, Bascillariophyta (diatoms) and Dinophyta (dinoflagellates) since I began my PhD project on Late Cretaceous Dinoflagellate cyst biostratigraphy of northwestern Australia in 1978. Fossil microalgae, principally diatoms, dinoflagellates and coccolithophoroids have been used extensively in palaeoecology and biostratigraphy throughout the world. As a result of regional endemism, Australian communities were often different from those elsewhere. This is clearly demonstrated in northern Australia during the Mesozoic (papers 1, 10) and Neogene (papers 9, 15) and in the Neogene of southern Australia (paper 8). Using dinoflagellate cysts I was able to establish regional biostratigraphies of the late Cretaceous (1) and Neogene (9, 15) of northern Australia and the Neogene of southern Australia (8). In order to better understand the palaeo environmental implications of dinoflagellate distributions I began to work on modern, living dinoflagellate communities in 1988. Dinoflagellates and diatoms both respond rapidly to changes in the environment and this allows them to be used in detailed reconstructions of past environmental and climate change. In Australia changes in dinflagellate cyst distributions have been used to demonstrate changes in water temperature, salinity and urbanization. My early work concentrated on determining the relationship between the distribution of dinoflagellate cysts and environmental gradients; in particular temperature and latitude (papers 4, 6, 26), salinity (papers 5, 6, 8) distance from shore (paper 9) and with particular water bodies (papers 17, 22). This information was then used to characterize Quaternary and Holocene climate change around Australia (papers 2, 3, 5, 8, 11, 12, 15, 16, 29, 68). This work was reviewed in paper 68. The dinoflagellate Gymnodinium catenatum produces the paralytic shellfish toxin, saxitoxin, which has been associated with many human shellfish poisonings. It produces a fossilizable ...