Robert G. Douglas

Tertiary marine paleotemperatures

Oxygen isotopic compositions of the tests of planktonic foraminifera from several Deep Sea Drilling Project sites provide a general picture of low-latitude marine temperatures from Maastrichtian time to the present. Bottom temperatures determined from the isotopic compositions of benthonic foraminifera are interpreted as being indicative of high-latitude surface temperatures. Prior to the beginning of middle Miocene time, high- and low-latitude temperatures changed in parallel fashion. Following an apparently small and short-lived drop in temperature near the Tertiary-Cretaceous boundary, temperatures remained warm and relatively constant through Paleocene and early and middle Eocene time; bottom temperatures then were on the order of 12°C. A sharp temperature drop in late Eocene time was followed by a more gradual lowering of temperature, culminating in a late Oligocene high-latitude temperature minimum of about 4°C. A temperature rise through early Miocene time was followed in middle Miocene time by a sudden divergence of high- and low-latitude temperatures: high-latitude temperatures dropped dramatically, perhaps corresponding to the onset of major glaciation in Antarctica, but low-latitude temperatures remained constant or perhaps increased. This uncoupling of high-and low-latitude temperatures is postulated to be related to the establishment of a circum-Antarctic circulation similar to that of today. A further drop in high-latitude temperatures in late Pliocene time probably signaled the onset of a major increase in polar glaciation, including extensive sea-ice formation. Early Miocene, small-amplitude (1 per mil) sympathetic fluctuations in isotopic compositions of planktonic and benthonic foraminifera have been identified. These have a period of several hundred thousand years. Superimposed upon these are much more rapid and smaller fluctuations (0.2 to 0.5 per mil) with a period of about 80,000 to 90,000 yr. This is similar to the period observed for Pleistocene isotopic temperature fluctuations. In low latitudes, much smaller vertical temperature gradients seem to have existed during Maastrichtian and Paleogene time than exist at present. The absence of a sharply defined thermocline during early Tertiary time is also suggested.

Biological fractionation of oxygen and carbon isotopes by recent benthic foraminifera

Abstract Recent deep-sea benthic foraminifera from five East Pacific Rise box core tops have been analyzed for oxygen and carbon isotopic composition. The five equatorial stations, with water depths of between 3200 and 4600 m, yielded fourteen specific and generic taxonomic groups. Of the taxa analyzed, Uvigerina spp. most closely approaches oxygen isotopic equilibrium with ambient sea water. Pyrgo spp. was next closest to isotopic equilibrium, being on the average 0.59 ‰ depleted in 18 O relative to Uvigerina spp. Oridorsalis umbonatus also has relatively high δ 18 O values. Most other taxa were depleted in 18 O by large amounts. In no taxa was the carbon in the CaCO 3 secreted in carbon isotopic equilibrium with the dissolved HCO 3 − of ambient sea water.

Down-core distribution of live and dead deep-water benthic foraminifera in box cores from the Weddell Sea and the California continental borderland

Five short cores sub-sampled from box cores from three sites in the eastern Weddell Sea off Antarctica and in the eastern Pacific off southern California, covering a range in water depth from 500 to 2000 m, were analysed for the down-core distribution of live (stained with Rose Bengal) and dead benthic foraminifera. In the California continental borderland, Planulina ariminensis, Rosalina columbiensis and Trochammina spp. live attached to agglutinated polychaetes tubes that rise above the sediment-water interface. Bolivina spissa lives exclusively in or on the uppermost sediment. Stained specimens of Chilostomella ovoidea are found down to 6 cm within the sediment and specimens of Globobulimina pacifica down to a maximum of 8 cm. δ13C values of live G. pacifica decrease with increasing depth from the sediment surface down to 7 cm core depth, indicating that this infaunal species utilizes 13C-depleted carbon from pore waters. In the dead, predominantly calcareous benthic forminiferal assemblage, selective dissolution of small delicate tests in the upper sediment column causes a continuous variation in species proportions. In the eastern Weddell Sea, the calcareous Bulimina aculeata lives in a carbonate corrosive environment exclusively in or on the uppermost sediment. The arenaceous Cribrostomoides subglobosum, Recurvoides contorus and some Reophax species are frequently found within the top 4 cm of the sediment, whereas stained specimens of Haplophragmoides bradyi, Glomospira charoides and Cribrostomoides wiesneri occur in maximum abundance below the uppermost 1.5 cm. Species proportions in the dead, predominantly arenaceous, benthic foraminiferal assemblage change in three distinct steps. The first change is caused by calcite dissolution at the sediment-water interface, the second coincides with the lower boundary of intense bioturbation, and the third results from the geochemical shift from oxidizing to reducing conditions below a compacted ash layer.

Stable Isotope and Magnesium Geochemistry of Recent Planktonic Foraminifera from the South Pacific

O 18 /O 16 , C 13 /C 12 , and magnesium analyses were performed on a large number of Recent planktonic Foraminifera from South Pacific Ocean sediments. Results show that oxygen isotopic temperatures of Foraminifera tests may be used to locate ocean currents and to define the orientation of large crustal plates relative to the earth9s rotational poles. Selective solution effects may cause isotopic temperatures of some species to become progressively colder with increasing water depth of the sediments from which they are taken. Where this is not taken into account, erroneous conclusions may result from the comparison of isotopic temperatures of samples from different locations. Depths at which Foraminifera secrete their tests appear to be determined by density and ultimately by osmotic equilibration with surrounding sea water. Susceptibility of Foraminifera tests to selective solution after death increases with magnesium content. Carbon isotope ratios correlate crudely with both temperature and salinity. The C 13 /C 12 ratio of dissolved or particulate carbon in the oceans is probably the most important factor in determining the C 13 /C 12 ratio of the test.

Generation and Maintenance of Gradients in Taxonomic Diversity

Latitudinal gradients in diversity of organisms represent an equilibrium distribution for at least the last 270 x 106 years. Faunas endemic to tropical regions evolved significantly faster than extra-tropical faunas. The latitude-dependent difference in rates of evolution also represents an equilibrium condition for at least the last 270 x 106 years and has consequences for paleontological correlation of rocks because the attainable resolution depends on rate of evolution and will thus be greater in tropic regions than in extra-tropical ones.

Oxygen isotopic evidence for the depth stratification of tertiary and cretaceous planktic foraminifera

Abstract Oxygen isotope analyses of Tertiary and Cretaceous planktic foraminifera indicate that species have been stratified with respect to depth in the water column at least since Albian time. There is a relationship between morphology and depth habitat. Species with globigerine morphology have consistently occupied shallower depths than have species with globorotalid morphology. Biserially arranged species occupied both shallow and deep levels in the water column. On the average, it appears that ancient species with shallow habitats have been more susceptible to dissolution and have been preserved less well than species dwelling in deeper habitats. This relationship is similar to that observed for Recent planktic foraminifera. Comparison of carbon isotope ratios of adult and juvenile forms indicates that either the source of the carbon found in the shell or the carbon isotopic fractionations which occur during calcite secretion change during the development of individual foraminifera. The carbon isotopic ratios do not provide a reliable means for reconstructing the depth habitats of ancient species. Temperature-depth profiles for tropical Tertiary oceans have been reconstructed from the isotopic temperatures of planktic and benthic foraminifera. The vertical thermal structure of Oligocene oceans resembled that of modern oceans most closely. Those of Paleocene and Maastrichtian times differed most from that of modern oceans.

Miocene benthic foraminiferal isotope records: A synthesis

Abstract 18 O 16 O and 13 C 12 C ratios of Miocene benthic foraminifera from a number of Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean DSDP sites (71, 77B, 206, 208, 238, 279, 289, 296, 329, 357 and 366A) have been compiled. These provide a rather detailed history of Miocene deep water especially in the Pacific Ocean. Bottom-water temperatures rose during the early Miocene and then declined rapidly during the middle Miocene. This decline was accompanied by an increase in Antarctic glaciation. Late Miocene bottom temperatures and Antarctic ice volumes are inferred to be similar to todays, but exhibited some fluctuation. The early Miocene ocean was less thermally stratified at intermediate and abyssal depths while the late Miocene deep ocean had a thermal structure generally similar to the modern ocean. Foraminiferal carbon isotope ratios at most of the sites varied quasi-sympathetically throughout the Miocene. These variations must reflect comparable variations in the mean 13 C 12 C of marine HCO 3 − . However, the causes of such variations are not yet clear.

Late Miocene marine carbon-isotopic shift and synchroneity of some phytoplanktonic biostratigraphic events

A search for stable-isotopic signals and biostratigraphic events in Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) cores to improve chronologic resolution with an aim to reconstruct the paleoenvironment of the preglacial and postglacial Miocene oceans has led to the recognition of an apparently global decrease in the benthic foraminiferal δ 13 C in the latest Miocene. This carbon-isotopic shift is consistently bracketed by the first evolutionary appearances of several taxa of phytoplankton the ages of which have been accurately estimated from paleomagnetically dated piston cores. The first appearance of nannofossils Amaurolithus primus and A. delicatus at 6.25 m.y. B.P. and the diatoms Thalassiosira praeconvexa and Nitzschia miocenica elongata at 6.10 and 6.00 m.y. B.P., respectively, and the carbon-isotopic shift itself (dated between 6.10 and 5.90 m.y. B.P.) provide convenient synchronous events to aid in the reconstruction of the late Miocene world ocean. Magnetostratigraphically estimated ages of other useful late Miocene nannofossil events include first appearances of Discoaster quinqueramus at 8.00 m.y. B.P., D. surculus at 6.40 m.y. B.P., Amaurolithus tricorniculatus s.s. at 5.70 m.y. B.P., A. amplificus at 5.65 m.y. B.P., and Ceratolithus acutus at 5.20 m.y. B.P., and the last appearances of D. quinqueramus at 5.45 m.y. B.P. and A. amplificus at 5.30 m.y. B.P.

Geological history of the western North Pacific

A considerable portion of the abyssal floor of the western North Pacific was already receiving pelagic sediment in late Jurassic time. Carbonate sediments were later replaced by abyssal clays as the basin deepened and bottom waters became more aggressive. The resulting facies boundary, which can be recognized on seismic profiles, is broadly transgressive; it ranges in age from mid-Cretaceous in the western Pacific to Oligocene in the central Pacific. Cherts are encountered at and below the major facies boundary and appear to have been formed by postdepositional processes.

Increased dissolved oxygen in Pacific intermediate waters due to lower rates of carbon oxidation in sediments.

Concentrations of dissolved oxygen in the ocean seem to correlate well with climate instabilities over the past 100,000 years. For example, the concentration of dissolved oxygen in Pacific intermediate waters was considerably higher during Pleistocene glacial periods than it is today. This has been inferred from the presence of bioturbated sediments, implying that oxygen levels were sufficient for burrowing organisms to live. Today, basins in the northeastern Pacific Ocean are floored by laminated sediments implying lower oxygen levels, which may be explained by reduced ventilation. Here we report a recent return to bioturbated sediments in the northeastern Pacific Ocean since the late 1970s. From the carbon isotope composition of benthic foraminifers living in the sediment, we infer a twofold decrease in the carbon oxidation rate occurring within sediments, equivalent to an increase in dissolved oxygen concentration of 15–20 micromoles per litre. These changes, at the edges of the Santa Barbara, Santa Monica and Alfonso basins, are coincident with a change in North Pacific climate which has reduced upwelling by 20–30% and increased sea surface temperatures by 1.5–3 °C. This suggests that climate effects on surface productivity, reducing the supply organic matter to sediments, may have had a greater effect on benthic oxygen levels than changes in ocean circulation patterns.