Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/C516928/1
Biostratigraphy and Paleoceanographic significance of Benthic Foraminifera from the Lomonosov Ridge.
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Professor M Kaminski, University College London, Earth Sciences
- Grant held at:
- University College London, Earth Sciences
- Science Area:
- Marine
- Overall Classification:
- Marine
- ENRIs:
- Global Change
- Biodiversity
- Science Topics:
- Environmental Microbiology
- Palaeoenvironments
- Systematics & Taxonomy
- Climate & Climate Change
- Abstract:
- The sediments recovered during this summer's Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX) give us unique insight into the nature of Climatic and Biotic history in the Central Arctic Ocean. This proposal is to study the nature of the foraminifera in the Paleogene and Upper Cretaceous part of the stratigraphic record, roughly between 80 and 50 million years before present. During the ACEX cruise we recovered a thick section of Paleogene and Upper Cretaceous sediments that will enable us to study (for the first time), the nature of the Polar marine fauna, and its response to climatic and oceanographic changes caused by the Late Paleocene Thermal Maximum Our preliminary shipboard observations reveal that the late Paleocene to early Eocene interval is present in a comparatively thick, expanded section. I observed a massive faunal change among the agglutinated benthic foraminifera over the Paleocene/Eocene boundary interval in Hole M0004A. The Late Paleocene fauna is diverse, with many specialized forms. Many of these disappear at the Paleocene/Eocene boundary. The Lower Eocene faunas, by contrast, display lower diversity and are made up of environmentally tolerant, stratigraphically long-ranging forms. The 'benthic foraminiferal extinction' at the Paleocene/Eocene boundary appears therefore to be a global event which not only affected the low-latitude calcareous benthic foraminiferal faunas, but the Arctic agglutinated faunas as well. This event has never before been documented in the Arctic Ocean. The fauna from Hole M0004A will provide much-needed information about the response of the Arctic Ocean to this rapid warming event. We propose to study the benthic foraminifera from Hole M0004A drilled in August 2004 on the Lomonosov Ridge, to document the taxonomy and investigate the response of the benthic foraminifera to the Late Paleocene Thermal Maximum. A high-resolution set of samples will be collected from the core and the benthic foraminifera will be studied quantitatively to provide estimates of the water depth and oxygen content. We will make comparisons with benthic foraminiferal faunas described from other areas of the Arctic Ocean, such as the Beaufort Sea, Spitsbergen, and Western Siberia. Therefore, it will be necessary to attend the International Workshop on Agglutinated Foraminifera in October 2005, to consult with other colleagues who have worked in the Arctic. As the Lomonosov Ridge was attached to Spitsbergen during the Cretaceous and early Paleocene, it will be useful to make direct comparisons with Paleogene faunas from Spitsbergen housed in the collections of Oslo University. The biostratographic results and age models will be published in the IODP volume, and the detailed taxonomy will be submitted to an international micropaleontological journal.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/C516928/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Directed Pre FEC
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- IODP
This grant award has a total value of £25,780
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Staff | Total - T&S | Total - Other Costs | Total - Indirect Costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| £15,783 | £1,026 | £1,712 | £7,260 |
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