Pedro M. Tapia

A Late Quaternary diatom record of tropical climatic history from Lake Titicaca (Peru and Bolivia)

Abstract A composite high-resolution diatom stratigraphy from three piston cores and one box-core in the deep sub-basin of Lake Titicaca reveals large moisture variations during the past 30 kyr in the Altiplano region. Diatom sequences indicate orbital and millennial-scale variability in water level and salinity. The pelagic freshwater diatom species Cyclotella andina and Cyclotella stelligera dominate Glacial-age sediments, suggesting that the lake was above its present outlet. Generally, wet conditions continued until 11 000 cal yr BP, as indicated by high percentages of freshwater planktonic diatoms. Large pulses of benthic diatom species between about 11 000 and 10 000 cal yr BP suggest brief intervals of large-amplitude declines in lake level. During the early Holocene (10 000–8500 cal yr BP), a freshwater diatom assemblage suggests overflowing conditions. Pelagic freshwater diatoms are replaced ca. 8500 cal yr BP by the salinity-indifferent species Cyclotella meneghiniana and by benthic taxa, indicating the beginning of lake regression. During the mid-Holocene (6000–3500 cal yr BP), the abundance of the saline taxon Chaetoceros muelleri , coupled with high abundances of epiphytic and epipelic diatoms, indicates maximum salinity and lowest lake levels in the entire 30 000 year record. Lake transgression began ca. 4000 cal yr BP, and the lake achieved modern levels by about 1500 cal yr BP. These water-level changes imply changes in effective moisture, most likely resulting from large precipitation changes. Precipitation was high throughout the Last Glacial Maximum (21 000–18 000 cal yr BP), likely due to an enhanced South American Summer Monsoon during peak summer insolation in the Southern Hemisphere. In contrast, the mid-Holocene transition was dryer than today in association with an austral summer insolation minimum and the subsequent weakening of the summer monsoon.

Upper Cretaceous diatom biostratigraphy of the Arctic archipelago and northern continental margin, Canada

Strata in the Canadian Arctic contain diverse and moderately well-preserved Late Cretaceous siliceous microfossil assemblages. One-hundred-twelve samples were analyzed from a composite stratigraphic section (1094m-thick) of the Smoking Hills, Mason River and Kanguk formations. Four sections were examined: (1) Slidre Fjord on Ellesmere Island; (2) Hoodoo Dome on Ellef Ringnes Island; (3) Cape Nares on Eglinton Island; and (4) Horton River on the Anderson Plains, Northwest Territories. Two hundred-three diatom taxa were identified in forty-nine productive samples. Four Upper Cretaceous diatom zones are proposed for the Canadian Arctic based on the biostratigraphic distribution of diatoms: (i) the Upper Cenomanian to Upper Santonian(?) Gladius antiquus Concurrent Range Zone, (ii) the Lower Campanian Costopyxis antiqua Partial Range Zone, (iii) the lower Upper Campanian Trinacria indefinita Interval Zone, and (iv) the upper Upper Campanian Stephanopyxis simonseni Partial Range Zone. The diatom assemblages are similar to those of Alpha Ridge (Arctic Ocean), Ural Mountains (Russia), and Campbell Plateau (SW Pacific Ocean), enabling diatom-based biostratigraphical correlations within the northern high-latitudes and to the southern high-latitudes. A fifth biostratigraphic zone, Azpeitiopsis morenoensis Concurrent Range Zone, is also proposed, based on common and widespread distribution of the nominative taxon in lower to upper Maastrichtian sediments. Sufficient data is now available to establish the construction of a diatom-based standard zonal framework for the Upper Cretaceous. Two new combinations, Trochosira denticulatum (Strelnikova) Tapia and Trochosiropsis polychaeta (Strelnikova) Tapia are here proposed.

DISTRIBUTION AND MORPHOMETRY ANALYSIS OF CYCLOSTEPHANOS ANDINUS COMB. NOV., A PLANKTONIC DIATOM FROM THE CENTRAL ANDES / Distribución y análisis morfométrico de la especie Cyclostephanos andinus comb. nov., una diatomea planctónica de los Andes centrales

The taxonomie position of Cyclotella andina Theriot, Carney et Richerson, a tropical freshwater planktonic diatom originally identified from Lake Titicaca, is modified based on morphological characters. The presence of striae arranged in discrete fascicles on the valve- face, coupled with the placing of fiilto- and rimoportulae on the same internal costa below the position of external spines (or on the valve face/mantle region in spineless individuals), form the basis to transfer this species from the genus Cyclotella Kützing to the genus Cyclostephanos Round. Morphometric analyses of 350 valves from seven populations from three Andean lakes demonstrate a morphological continuum in fossil and modern assemblages. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) shows that three main factors characterize most of the variability in morphology. PCI (λ1 = 71.7%) is a size-related component (e.g. valve diameter); PC2 (λ2 = 23.9%) is a size-free component that relates the length of biseriate to uniseriate areolae, and PC3 (λ3 = 1.73%) represents the ratio between the number and distance of biseriate or uniseriate areolae. We herein propose the taxonomie transfer of Cyclotella andina as Cyclostephanos andinus comb. nov.