Research

19 pages, 1817 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Towards an Integrated and Accurate Planktonic-Foraminiferal-Deduced Bio-Chrono-Stratigraphic Framework of Late Quaternary Mediterranean Marine Cores

by George Kontakiotis, Assimina Antonarakou, Evangelia Besiou, Elisavet Skampa and Maria V. Triantaphyllou

J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2023, 11(12), 2345; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11122345 - 12 Dec 2023

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Abstract

The late Quaternary is a key stratigraphic interval as it encompasses the Late Glacial to Holocene transition, which is characterized by a series of pronounced centennial climate oscillations and subsequent short-term events of paleoceanographic variability. Across this stratigraphic interval, significant turnovers and faunal [...] Read more.

The late Quaternary is a key stratigraphic interval as it encompasses the Late Glacial to Holocene transition, which is characterized by a series of pronounced centennial climate oscillations and subsequent short-term events of paleoceanographic variability. Across this stratigraphic interval, significant turnovers and faunal changes in the composition and abundance of planktonic foraminiferal assemblages are well-documented through their high-resolution quantitative analysis performed in the south Aegean core NS-18. The identification of 10 synchronous bioevents among the Mediterranean sub-basins allows accurate inter-basinal correlations over the study time interval, thus contributing to the development of a robust chronostratigraphic framework for this setting. Moreover, the identification and timing of additional 20 diachronous bioevents, in conjunction with the already established bio-ecozonation scheme of the Aegean Sea, provide a continuous record of faunal changes (in terms of species-specific distributional abundances) which can be used as an additional locally expressed biochronological tool for the eastern Mediterranean deep-sea cores. The present study certainly indicates that the cause-and-effect relationships between the paleoceanographic/paleoclimatic perturbations and biological response require a highly resolved regional chronostratigraphy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Marine Micropaleontology)

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15 pages, 6502 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Characteristics of Early Neoproterozoic Stromatolites from Southern Liaoning, North China: Insights into the Formation of Stromatolites

by Yongli Zhang, Guanming Lai, Enpu Gong, Dingcheng Yuan, Mark A. Wilson and Yu Li

J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2023, 11(9), 1709; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11091709 - 29 Aug 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 919

Abstract

Stromatolites, among the earliest fossils in Earth’s history, are widely distributed on the margins of the North China Precambrian carbonate platform. The formation processes of stromatolites reveal the biomineralization and evolution of early life in the Precambrian. The well-preserved stromatolitic dolostones recorded in [...] Read more.

Stromatolites, among the earliest fossils in Earth’s history, are widely distributed on the margins of the North China Precambrian carbonate platform. The formation processes of stromatolites reveal the biomineralization and evolution of early life in the Precambrian. The well-preserved stromatolitic dolostones recorded in the Ganjingzi Formation are developed around Yuanjiagou village, in southern Liaoning Province. The morphology of the Ganjingzi stromatolites manifests in stratiform, columnar, and domal forms. A tripartite lamina structure including light laminae and two types of dark laminae is observed in thin sections. The origins of dark laminae were related to microbial metabolism, while the light laminae were the result of the recrystallization of synsedimentary marine cement. Hardground substrate and carbonate fragments were suitable for microbes to colonize, suggesting that microbes can adapt to various current energy settings. A comparison of the growth environment, morphology, and laminae features between the Ganjingzi stromatolites and modern carbonate stromatolites from Hamelin Pool and Lagoa Vermelha suggest that the Ganjingzi stromatolites may have been formed in a restricted tidal-flat setting with high salinity and evaporation. The role of microbes that form modern stromatolites in inducing precipitation of carbonate or binding sediments, might contribute to the formation of the Ganjingzi stromatolites. The formation process of the Ganjingzi stromatolites indicates that the microbial communities, favorable substrate, and synsedimentary marine cement were the key factors in promoting the development of the Neoproterozoic stromatolites on the northeastern margin of the North China Craton. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Marine Micropaleontology)

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15 pages, 2566 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sea Surface Temperature Changes Reflected by Diatoms in the P6-10 Core from 1893 to 2013 from Prydz Bay, Antarctica

by Yue Huang, Ruiwen Ma, Jie Li and Shuyu Tu

J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2023, 11(7), 1428; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11071428 - 17 Jul 2023

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Abstract

Identification and analysis was conducted on the diatoms from the 19 cm sediment of the P6-10 core, drilled from China’s 29th Antarctic Expedition, to attempt to semi-quantitatively reconstruct the annual sea surface temperature (SST) of Prydz Bay from 1893 to 2013. There were [...] Read more.

Identification and analysis was conducted on the diatoms from the 19 cm sediment of the P6-10 core, drilled from China’s 29th Antarctic Expedition, to attempt to semi-quantitatively reconstruct the annual sea surface temperature (SST) of Prydz Bay from 1893 to 2013. There were 30 species within the 12 genera of diatoms found, and the main contributors were Fragilariopsis curta, F. cylindrus, F. sublinearis, F. ritscheri, and Thalassiosira antarctica. They were divided into three categories based on their ecological affinity. The percentages of four specific species, i.e., F. curta, F. cylindrus, F. ritscheri, and F. separanda, which might be low SST indicators, were added together to represent the SST of Prydz Bay. With the help of cluster analysis, diatom assemblages were divided into diatom zones. Therefore, SST changes were divided into five stages by both the percentage of those four diatom species and the diatom zones: the high-temperature stage from 1893 to 1903, the cooling stage from 1903 to 1936, the stable and warm stage from 1936 to 1983, the low-temperature stage from 1983 to 1996, and the temperature rising stage from 1996 to 2013. On the multidecadal scale, SST change was affected by adjustments to solar radiation. On the contrary, the ENSO events mainly affected SST on the interannual scale. In addition, regarding the unique geographical environment (such as regional atmospheric circulation and a wind field) in Prydz Bay, volcanic eruptions and the like also played important roles in some exceptional periods. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Marine Micropaleontology)

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20 pages, 3016 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evolutionary Palaeoecological and Morphological Response of Globorotalia menardii to Environmental Stress Conditions Preceding the Tortonian–Messinian Boundary in the Mediterranean Basin

by Evangelia Besiou, George Kontakiotis, Iuliana Vasiliev, Pierre Moissette, Jean-Jacques Cornée and Assimina Antonarakou

J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2023, 11(6), 1228; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11061228 - 15 Jun 2023

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Abstract

The Tortonian–Messinian transition is associated with important climatic and oceanographic changes in the Mediterranean Basin, which have shaped both the biotic and abiotic nature of this setting. The morphological variability of the planktonic foraminifera Globorotalia menardii, a species that is highly sensitive [...] Read more.

The Tortonian–Messinian transition is associated with important climatic and oceanographic changes in the Mediterranean Basin, which have shaped both the biotic and abiotic nature of this setting. The morphological variability of the planktonic foraminifera Globorotalia menardii, a species that is highly sensitive to water column structure, has been investigated from the sedimentary archive of three Cretan sections across a west–east transect covering the Tortonian–Messinian Boundary. The present work explicitly focuses on test-size and coiling direction changes occurring during the 7.36–7.24 Ma time slice. On such a short timescale, the most important morphological differentiation accounts for the average size of G. menardii, which is mostly associated with evolutionary adaptation to new ecological niches during the latest Tortonian as a response to the environmental perturbations and ecological stress conditions preceding the Tortonian–Messinian Boundary. A combined thermal and/or salinity-driven stratification and thermocline development hypothesis has been suggested to explain the observed size variability. To ameliorate the accuracy of the proposed model and further determine which environmental parameter reflects the optimum conditions of the analysed species, additional sea surface temperature and salinity data derived from the same sampling intervals of the studied or additional Mediterranean sites are needed. The coiling direction of this species within the study time interval remained constant and not environmentally controlled. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Marine Micropaleontology)

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22 pages, 10567 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Toward an Astrochronology-Based Age-Model for a Messinian Pre-Evaporitic Succession: The Example of Torrente Vaccarizzo Section in Sicily (Italy)

by Rosanna Maniscalco, Martina Forzese, Viviana Barbagallo, Laura Borzì, Natale Maria D’Andrea, Salvatore Distefano, Chiara Giustolisi, Ádam Nádudvari, Alessandra Giovanna Pellegrino, Luca Maria Foresi and Agata Di Stefano

J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2023, 11(5), 915; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11050915 - 25 Apr 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1143

Abstract

Tectonic, paleoenvironmental, and paleoclimatic unstable conditions preceding the onset of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) highly affected marine life. Changes in calcareous plankton association are overall registered in the Mediterranean. They consist of a general transition from abundant and well-diversified planktonic associations to [...] Read more.

Tectonic, paleoenvironmental, and paleoclimatic unstable conditions preceding the onset of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) highly affected marine life. Changes in calcareous plankton association are overall registered in the Mediterranean. They consist of a general transition from abundant and well-diversified planktonic associations to strictly oligotypic assemblages that precede their total disappearance at the onset of evaporitic precipitation. In this work, an accurate quantitative analysis of calcareous plankton, both foraminifers and nannofossils, has been carried out in the Torrente Vaccarizzo Section of Sicily (southern Italy). The aim is to independently define a chronostratigraphic pattern of bioevents preceding the MSC in the absence of magnetostratigraphic or radiometric constraints. The fluctuating abundance of the genus Orbulina fits well with the 100 ky Eccentricity maxima, and it is successfully applied to build an astronomically calibrated age-model for the section. On this basis, all the biohorizons have been recalibrated and discussed with regard to the previous literature. Abundant influxes of selected species demonstrated to be of local significance since they are highly affected by paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic conditions. A chronological sequence of foraminifer and nannofossil events marks the onset of the MSC with a derived age of 5.957 My, which agrees well with previous findings from other Mediterranean sections. This methodology and the new biostratigraphic events may be useful for future studies on pre-evaporitic successions of the Mediterranean. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Marine Micropaleontology)

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23 pages, 16482 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Age and Depositional Environment of Whale-Bearing Sedimentary Succession from the Lower Pliocene of Tuscany (Italy): Insights from Palaeomagnetism, Calcareous Microfossils and Facies Analyses

by Mattia Marini, Luca Maria Foresi, Viviana Barbagallo, Michelangelo Bisconti, Agata Di Stefano, Giovanni Muttoni and Ivan Martini

J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2023, 11(2), 455; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11020455 - 19 Feb 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1542

Abstract

A c. 31 m thick section straddling the fossil find of an Early Pliocene baleen whale (“Brunella”, hereafter), made in 2007 in the sedimentary fill of the Middle Ombrone Basin of Tuscany, is investigated for depositional age and environment combining palaeomagnetic, micropalaeontological (Foraminifera [...] Read more.

A c. 31 m thick section straddling the fossil find of an Early Pliocene baleen whale (“Brunella”, hereafter), made in 2007 in the sedimentary fill of the Middle Ombrone Basin of Tuscany, is investigated for depositional age and environment combining palaeomagnetic, micropalaeontological (Foraminifera and calcareous nannofossils) and sedimentary facies analyses. Resting unconformably onto Late Miocene continental deposits, the Early Pliocene marine deposits include, from bottom to top, a coarse-grained wave-winnowing lag, the few metres-thick fossiliferous sandstone bedset from which Brunella was unearthed, and several metres of clays. The stratigraphic organisation of these deposits indicate deposition in a deepening upward inner shelf environment. Successful isolation of characteristic remanent magnetisation and calcareous nannofossil content indicate the investigated marine section was deposited during the interval of polarity Chron C3n.2n corresponding to the basal part of the Mediterranean nannofossil zone MNN13 (between Helicosphaera sellii Base common and the Amaurolithus primus Top) and allow estimating the depositional age of Brunella to c. 4.6 Ma. Sedimentary facies, benthic Foraminifera association and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility characterising the deposits that embedded Brunella suggest deposition above the fair-weather base level. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Marine Micropaleontology)

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20 pages, 8206 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Calcareous Nannofossil Biostratigraphy and Biochronology at ODP Site 1123 (Offshore New Zealand): A Reference Section for the Last 20 Myr in the Southern Ocean

by Agata Di Stefano, Natale Maria D’Andrea, Salvatore Distefano, Salvatore Urso, Laura Borzì, Niccolò Baldassini and Viviana Barbagallo

J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2023, 11(2), 408; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11020408 - 13 Feb 2023

Viewed by 1885

Abstract

The quantitative analysis of the calcareous nannofossil content yield in the 600 m thick succession drilled at ODP Site 1123 (offshore New Zealand), considered as a reference section for the Southern Ocean region, allowed the recognition of 43 bioevents distributed along the last [...] Read more.

The quantitative analysis of the calcareous nannofossil content yield in the 600 m thick succession drilled at ODP Site 1123 (offshore New Zealand), considered as a reference section for the Southern Ocean region, allowed the recognition of 43 bioevents distributed along the last 20 Myr. The correlation with the excellent magnetostratigraphic record resulted in the attribution of numerical ages for the position of the detected horizons. Many of the marker species used in previous zonation were detected also at ODP Site 1123, but others revealed to be absent or of scarce applicability. On the other hand, the good applicability of additional events was verified and proved to be useful for the biostratigraphic subdivision and correlation. The obtained average bio- and chronostratigraphic resolution is about 0.6 Myr along the whole section, which increases to about 0.3 in the Pliocene–Holocene time interval. The final result is a detailed southern mid-to-high latitude nannofossil biochronology for the last 20 Myr, which confirms that the ODP Site 1123 succession represents a reference section for the Southern Ocean. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Marine Micropaleontology)

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13 pages, 4167 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A New Method to Speed Up Nannofossil Picking for Monospecific Geochemical Analyses

by Manuela Bordiga, Claudia Lupi, Mario Zanoni, Stefania Bianco, Marina Cabrini, Giulia Fiorentino, Silvia Garagna, Maurizio Zuccotti and Andrea Di Giulio

J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2022, 10(12), 1829; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10121829 - 29 Nov 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1445

Abstract

Investigating the trace elements contained in the coccoliths, i.e., the carbonate exoskeleton, of unicellular marine phytoplankton called coccolithophores, is fundamental for calibrating environmental climate proxies, which are key tools for studying past and future climate changes. To date, lab-cultivated coccolithophores have been mainly [...] Read more.

Investigating the trace elements contained in the coccoliths, i.e., the carbonate exoskeleton, of unicellular marine phytoplankton called coccolithophores, is fundamental for calibrating environmental climate proxies, which are key tools for studying past and future climate changes. To date, lab-cultivated coccolithophores have been mainly used for measuring the elements retained within the coccoliths, whereas geochemical studies in fossil records have been limited by the difficulty in isolating monospecific samples from sediments containing highly diversified fossil assemblages. Since a comparison of the geochemical data collected from both fossil and living species is fundamental for calibrating the environmental proxies, an improvement of coccolith-picking methodology should be envisaged. Here, we present a significant advancement in the isolation of fossil species-specific coccolith achieved using a hydraulic micromanipulation system together with wet samples, never applied before on coccoliths. Our technique allows the picking of around 100 monospecific coccoliths per h, a number never achieved before with other isolation methodologies. This method opens up new possibilities in applying monospecific geochemical analyses to the fossil record not attainable before (e.g., the use of the mass spectrometer), leading to an increase in knowledge of environmental proxy calibration and coccolithophore element incorporation strategies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Marine Micropaleontology)

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