Stable oxygen and stable carbon isotopes of foraminifera are widely applied in paleoceanographic reconstructions. Oxygen and carbon isotopes are typically measured using pooled sample analysis (i.e., the combination of several shells) or single-shell analysis (typically restricted to heavier shells that weigh above 10 µg). With pooled sample analysis, where many...
Planktonic foraminiferal faunal assemblages were used to estimate sea-surface temperatures (SST) in the southeast Pacific Ocean during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and off the coast of Peru over the last 150,000 years. Temperatures along the eastern boundary of South America were 6-8° C cooler during the LGM than at...
Here we investigate the relationships between modern foraminiferal assemblages from Atlantic and Pacific surface sediment samples and multiple environmental properties including water column and preservation variables using Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA). CCA finds two fauna] dimensions that are highly correlated to the environmental variables included in the analysis, and then...
Westward transport of water vapor across the Panama Isthmus helps to
maintain the salinity contrast between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, important in
thermohaline circulation and global climate. Relatively low sea-surface salinities and a
strong, shallow pycnocline in the eastern Pacific warm pool (EPWP) region near
Central America reflect high...
Paleoclimate archives have revealed abrupt climate events that are superimposed on more gradual climate changes throughout the last glacial and deglacial periods. The underlying causes of such rapid climate changes are still poorly understood, but the strong expression of these events in northern hemisphere records likely points to climatic mechanisms...
Modern upwelling conditions and corresponding oceanographic properties are investigated and reconstructed for the Late Quaternary. The oceanographic conditions considered influence diatom ecology and the record of fossil diatom frustules in the sediments.
Diatoms from modern sediments are evaluated as paleoceanographic proxies and transfer functions (TFs) are calibrated using the Imbrie...
Deep-sea bamboo coral (Isidella sp.) SE000901A from the southern Oregon coast (water depth 1048m) provides a high-resolution record of variability of North Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW) and carbon rain to the sea floor, related to coastal upwelling, from 1808 to 2000AD. Counting of annual layers in magnesium to calcium (Mg/Ca)...