Global wind-induced change of deep-sea sediment budgets, new ocean production and CO 2 reservoirs ca . 3.3-2.35 Ma BP

The late Pliocene phase of large-scale climatic deterioration about 3.2-2.4 Ma BP is well documented in a number of (benthic) δ 18 O records. To test the global implications of this event, we have mapped the distribution patterns of various sediment variables in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans during two time slices, 3.4-3.18 and 2.43-2.33 Ma BP. The changes of bulk sedimentation and bulk sediment accumulation rates are largely explained by the variations of CaCO 3 -accumulation rates (and the accumulation rates of the complementary siliciclastic sediment fraction near continents in higher latitudes). During the late Pliocene, the CaCO 3 -accumulation rate increased along the equatorial Pacific and Atlantic and in the northeastern Atlantic, but decreased elsewhere. The accumulation rate of organic carbon (C org ) and net palaeoproductivity also increased below the high-productivity belts along the equator and the eastern continental margins. From these patterns we may conclude that (trade-) wind- induced upwelling zones and upwelling productivity were much enhanced during that time. This change led to an increased transfer of CO 2 from the surface ocean to the ocean deep water and to a reduction of evaporation, which resulted in an aridification of the Saharan desert belt as depicted in the dust sediments off northwest Africa.

Geochronology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan C. Lougheed ◽  
Philippa Ascough ◽  
Andrew M. Dolman ◽  
Ludvig Löwemark ◽  
Brett Metcalfe

Abstract. The current geochronological state of the art for applying the radiocarbon (14C) method to deep-sea sediment archives lacks key information on sediment bioturbation. Here, we apply a sediment accumulation model that simulates the sedimentation and bioturbation of millions of foraminifera, whereby realistic 14C activities (i.e. from a 14C calibration curve) are assigned to each single foraminifera based on its simulation time step. We find that the normal distribution of 14C age typically used to represent discrete-depth sediment intervals (based on the reported laboratory 14C age and measurement error) is unlikely to be a faithful reflection of the actual 14C age distribution for a specific depth interval. We also find that this deviation from the actual 14C age distribution is greatly amplified during the calibration process. Specifically, we find a systematic underestimation of total geochronological error in many cases (by up to thousands of years), as well as the generation of age–depth artefacts in downcore calibrated median age. Even in the case of “perfect” simulated sediment archive scenarios, whereby sediment accumulation rate (SAR), bioturbation depth, reservoir age and species abundance are all kept constant, the 14C measurement and calibration processes generate temporally dynamic median age–depth artefacts on the order of hundreds of years – whereby even high SAR scenarios (40 and 60 cm kyr−1) are susceptible. Such age–depth artefacts can be especially pronounced during periods corresponding to dynamic changes in the Earth's Δ14C history, when single foraminifera of varying 14C activity can be incorporated into single discrete-depth sediment intervals. For certain lower-SAR scenarios, we find that downcore discrete-depth true median age can systematically fall outside the calibrated age range predicted by the 14C measurement and calibration processes, thus leading to systematically inaccurate age estimations. In short, our findings suggest the possibility of 14C-derived age–depth artefacts in the literature. Furthermore, since such age–depth artefacts are likely to coincide with large-scale changes in global Δ14C, which themselves can coincide with large-scale changes in global climate (such as the last deglaciation), 14C-derived age–depth artefacts may have been previously incorrectly attributed to changes in SAR coinciding with global climate. Our study highlights the need for the development of improved deep-sea sediment 14C calibration techniques that include an a priori representation of bioturbation for multi-specimen samples.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan C. Lougheed

Abstract. The systematic bioturbation of single particles (such as foraminifera) within deep-sea sediment archives leads to the apparent smoothing of any temporal signal as record by the downcore, discrete-depth mean signal. This smoothing is the result of the systematic mixing of particles from a wide range of depositional ages into the same discrete depth interval. Previous sediment models that simulate bioturbation have specifically produced an output in the form of a downcore, discrete-depth mean signal. Palaeoceanographers analysing the distribution of single foraminifera specimens from sediment core intervals would be assisted by a model that specifically evaluates the effect of bioturbation upon single specimen populations. Taking advantage of recent increases in computer memory, the single-specimen SEdiment AccuMUlation Simulator (SEAMUS) was created in Matlab, whereby large arrays of single specimens are simulated. This simulation allows researchers to analyse the post-bioturbation age heterogeneity of single specimens contained within discrete-depth sediment core intervals, and how this heterogeneity is influenced by changes in sediment accumulation rate (SAR), bioturbation depth (BD) and species abundance. The simulation also assigns a realistic 14C activity to each specimen, by considering the dynamic Δ14C history of the Earth and temporal changes in reservoir age. This approach allows for the quantification of possible significant artefacts arising when 14C dating multi-specimen samples with heterogeneous 14C activity. Users may also assign additional desired carrier signals to specimens (e.g., stable isotopes, trace elements, temperature, etc.) and consider a second species with an independent abundance. Finally, the model can simulate a virtual palaeoceanographer by randomly picking whole specimens (whereby the user can set the percentage of older, broken specimens) of a prescribed sample size from discrete depths, after which virtual laboratory 14C dating and 14C calibration is carried out within the model.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin Leslie ◽  
Daniel J. Peppe ◽  
Thomas E. Williamson ◽  
Dario Bilardello ◽  
Matthew Heizler ◽  
...  

Lower Paleocene deposits in the San Juan Basin document one of the best records of mammalian change and turnover following the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinctions and are the type section for the Puercan (Pu) and Torrejonian (To) North America Land Mammal age biozones (NALMA). One of the largest mammalian turnover events in the early Paleocene occurs between the Torrejonian 2 (To2) and Torrejonian 3 (To3) NALMA biozones. The Nacimiento Formation are the only deposits in North America where the To2-To3 mammalian turnover can be constrained, however the precise age and duration of the turnover is poorly understood due to the lack of a precise chronostratigraphic framework. We analyzed paleomagnetic samples, produced a 40Ar/39Ar detrital sanidine age, and developed a detailed lithostratigraphy for four sections of the upper Nacimiento Formation in the San Juan Basin, New Mexico (Kutz Canyon, Escavada Wash, Torreon West and East) to constrain the age and duration of the deposits and the To2-To3 turnover. The polarity stratigraphy for the four sections can be correlated to chrons C27r-C26r of the geomagnetic polarity time scale (GPTS). Using the local polarity stratigraphy for each section, we calculated a mean sediment accumulation rate and developed a precise age model, which allows us to determine the age of important late Torrejonian mammalian localities. Using the assigned ages, we estimate the To2-To3 turnover was relatively rapid and occurred over ~120 kyr (-60/+50 kyr) between 62.59 and 62.47 Ma. This rapid duration of the mammalian turnover suggests that it was driven by external forcing factors, such as environmental change driven by the progradation of the distributive fluvial system across the basin and/or changes in regional or global climate. Additionally, comparisons of the mean sediment accumulation rates between the sections that span from the basin margin to the basin center indicate that sediment accumulation rates equalized across the basin from the end of C27r through the start of C26r, suggesting an accommodation minima in the basin associated with the progradation of a distributive fluvial system into the basin. This accommodation minimum also likely led to the long hiatus of deposition between the Paleocene Nacimiento Formation and the overlying Eocene San Jose Formation.


1992 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 2013-2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Scott Anderson ◽  
H. W. Borns Jr. ◽  
D. C. Smith ◽  
C. Race

The sediment accumulation rate within a small Spartina alterniflora marsh in Maine has been determined by measuring the amount of peat accretion on top of human-produced boards protruding from an exposed face of the marsh. Boards are at depths of 50–140 cm, suggesting sediment accumulation rates of 6.2–7.0 mm/year. Based on these data and a review of other relevant studies, aggradation in small marshes such as Shipyard Cove should be able to keep pace marginally with the anticipated sea-level rise due to "greenhouse" warming, given sufficient sediment supply. Local 19th century land clearance and subsequent erosion, activities that are greatly reduced today, probably supplied the bulk of the inorganic marsh sediment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth P. Kodama

A combined magnetostratigraphy for the Rainstorm Member of the Ediacaran Johnnie Formation was constructed using the sediment accumulation rates determined by rock magnetic cyclostratigraphy for three localities of the Rainstorm Member to provide a high resolution, time-calibrated record of geomagnetic field reversal frequency at a critical time period in Earth history. Two previously reported magnetostratigraphy records from Death Valley, California, the Nopah Range and Winters Pass Hills (Minguez et al., 2015), were combined with new paleomagnetic and cyclostratigraphic results from the Desert Range locality of the Rainstorm Member in south central Nevada, United States . The Johnnie oolite marker bed is at the base of each of the three sections and allows their regional correlation. The Nopah Range and Desert Range localities have similar sediment accumulation rates of ∼5 cm/ka, so their stratigraphic sections can be combined directly. The Winters Pass Hills locality has a higher sediment accumulation rate of 8.4 cm/ka, therefore its stratigraphic positions are multiplied by 0.6 to combine with the Desert Range and Nopah Range magnetostratigraphy. The thermal demagnetization results from the Desert Range locality isolates characteristic remanent magnetizations that indicate two nearly antipodal east-west and shallow directions and a mean paleopole (11.7˚N, 348.4˚E) that is consistent with “shallow” Ediacaran directions. The Desert Range also yields a magnetic susceptibility rock magnetic cyclostratigraphy that records short eccentricity, obliquity, and precession astronomically-forced climate cycles in the Ediacaran. The high-resolution combined magnetostratigraphy with nearly meter-scale stratigraphic spacing (nominally 23 ka, based on the Desert Range sediment accumulation rate), indicates 11 polarity intervals in a cyclostratigraphy-calibrated duration of 849 ka, indicating a reversal frequency of 13 R/Ma. The Rainstorm Member records the Shuram carbon isotope excursion, hence its age is ∼574 Ma. Given the recent cyclostratigraphy-calibrated reversal frequency of 20 R/Ma from the Zigan Formation (Levashova et al., 2021) at 547 Ma, our results show that reversal frequency was high but fluctuated during the Ediacaran.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 542 ◽  
Author(s):  
NOUR EL HOUDA HASSEN ◽  
NAFAÂ REGUIGUI ◽  
MOHAMED AMINE HELALI ◽  
NEZHA MEJJAD ◽  
ABDELMOURHIT LAISSAOUI ◽  
...  

The sediment accumulation rate in the Sardinia and Sicily channels in the central part of the Mediterranean Sea was studied by using short-lived radionuclides (210Pb and 137Cs) in two deep sediment cores. Different sedimentation regimes were identified indicating substantial differences in accumulation rates and historical patterns. The 210Pb-derived mean accumulation rate found in the Strait of Sardinia was 0.05 g.cm-2.y-1, lower than that in Sicily Channel (0.1 g.cm-2.y-1) suggesting an inverse correlation with water depth. Excess 210Pb inventories were 24 ± 1 and 6.0 ± 0.4 kBq.m-2, while the fluxes to the sediment were 745 ± 31 and 188 ± 11 Bq.m-2.y-1 in Sicily and Sardinia channels, respectively. 137Cs failed to use for the validation of the established chronologies, while its inventories found 450 Bq.m-2 and 355 Bq.m-2 in the Sicily and Sardinia channel, respectively.


1992 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 31-31
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Bown ◽  
Mary J. Kraus ◽  
Andres Aslan

The Willwood Fm. of the southern Bighorn Basin of Wyoming, U.S.A., comprises 700 m of lower Eocene alluvial molasse, nearly all of which contains relict pedogenic features. These rocks are grouped into pedofacies–alluvial sediment prisms, thick with immature paleosols proximal to streams and thinner with mature paleosols distally. Pedofacies are bounded by either trunk-stream channel or crevasse-splay deposits, which represent time-stratigraphic markers. The floodplain widths of the Willwood rivers varied from 15 to 20+ km. Paleosols occur throughout the Willwood Formation and the most mature paleosols required about 60 Ka to form whereas the least mature, required 0.5 to 1.0 Ka. Paleosol thicknesses vary from about 0.3–8.0 m and are directly related to net sediment accumulation rate (NSAR) and profile maturity. Pedofacies also reflect NSAR controls; pedofacies are continuously superposed, 15–35-m-thick, and represent time intervals of 30–60 Ka.In the earliest Eocene, paleosol maturity rose sharply, and NSAR plummeted (Fort Union Fm./Willwood Fm. contact), after which maturity gradually declined (and NSAR rose) throughout the early Eocene. This decline was punctuated by two episodes of severe decline, each corresponding with major increases in NSAR, increased tectonism, and episodes of faunal turnover (“Biohorizons” A and B). Above the biohorizons, species earlier tied to particular paleosol maturities were replaced by closely related though more generalized species with no marked paleosol preferences. Time-stratigraphic reconstruction of the Willwood Fm. shows that “Biohorizons” B and C record the same faunal event; B the extinctions, and C the immigrations.The 1,300 Willwood fossil vertebrate localities, which are distributed throughout the entire formation, occur in the surface horizons of cumulative alluvial paleosols. All fossil accumulations in paleosols are attritional and formed during pedogenesis. The most complete remains occur in immature paleosols, whereas the most abundant remains are found in mature paleosols. Within the large-scale Willwood ecologic setting, studies of discrete (m's to tens of m's thick) stratigraphic intervals suggest that the paleontology and sedimentology of these intervals can be significantly influenced by lateral differences in paleosol hydromorphy (soil wetness) and maturity (lateral position of a fossil-bearing paleosol with respect to an ancient river channel). These smaller-scale controls on fossil occurrences are important for distinguishing between real and apparent changes in faunal compositions over time and emphasize the value of three-dimensional stratigraphic analysis for interpreting paleontologic events.Supported by National Geographic Society grant 3985-89.


1994 ◽  
Vol 51 (10) ◽  
pp. 2312-2321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda J. Hann ◽  
Peter R. Leavitt ◽  
Philip S. S. Chang

The response of pelagic zooplankton to experimental fertilization was compared with the fossil record of Cladocera obtained from the annually laminated sediments of Lake 227, Experimental Lakes Area, northwestern Ontario. Constrained cluster analysis of both total fossil Cladocera and littoral chydorid communities clearly distinguished between pre- and post-eutrophication communities and further differentiated between years of high and low nitrogen:phosphorus fertilization ratios. However, there were few chydorid species extirpations resulting from the manipulation. Total chydorid accumulation rates and indices of species diversity, richness, and equitability were relatively constant over the last century and were not affected by fertilization. Among pelagic Cladocera, Bosmina longirostris abundance declined > 60% after initial fertilization. Although harsh chemical conditions (pH > 10) may have contributed to reduced abundance of pelagic Cladocera, Bosmina populations were also naturally variable prior to manipulation. Changes in Bosmina morphology (mucrone, antennule, and carapace length) and cladoceran size ratios (Daphnia/[Daphnia + Bosmina]) suggested that zooplanktivory by fish and invertebrates exercised important control of herbivore populations. Fossil Bosmina concentration (remains∙[g dry wt]−1 or remains∙[g organic matter]−1) were significantly correlated (r = 0.66, P < 0.01, 1970–1989) to standing crop in the water column (animals∙m−2). Fossil accumulation rate (remains∙cm−2∙yr−1) was not significantly correlated to Bosmina abundance, perhaps because of errors in determining bulk sediment accumulation rates.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 3107-3120 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Schulz ◽  
U. von Rad

Abstract. Due to the lack of bioturbation, the varve-laminated muds from the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) off Pakistan provide a unique opportunity to precisely determine the vertical and lateral sediment fluxes in the nearshore part of the northeastern Arabian Sea. West of Karachi (Hab area), the results of two sediment trap stations (EPT and WPT) were correlated with 16 short sediment cores on a depth transect crossing the OMZ. The top of a distinct, either reddish- or light-gray silt layer, 210Pb-dated as AD 1905 ± 10, was used as an isochronous stratigraphic marker bed to calculate sediment accumulation rates. In one core, the red and gray layer were separated by a few (5–10) thin laminae. According to our varve model, this contributes < 10 years to the dating uncertainty, assuming that the different layers are almost synchronous. We directly compared the accumulation rates with the flux rates from the sediment traps that collected the settling material within the water column above. All traps on the steep Makran continental slope show exceptionally high, pulsed winter fluxes of up to 5000 mg m−2 d−1. Based on core results, the flux at the seafloor amounts to 4000 mg m−2 d−1 and agrees remarkably well with the bulk winter flux of material, as well as with the flux of the individual bulk components of organic carbon, calcium carbonate and opal. However, due to the extreme mass of remobilized matter, the high winter flux events exceeded the capacity of the shallow traps. Based on our comparisons, we argue that high-flux events must occur regularly during winter within the upper OMZ off Pakistan to explain the high accumulations rates. These show distribution patterns that are a negative function of water depth and distance from the shelf. Some of the sediment fractions show marked shifts in accumulation rates near the lower boundary of the OMZ. For instance, the flux of benthic foraminifera is lowered but stable below ~1200–1300 m. However, flux and sedimentation in the upper eastern Makran area are dominated by the large amount of laterally advected fine-grained material and by the pulsed nature of the resuspension events at the upper margin during winter.


Paleobiology ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman MacLeod

The depositional history of Upper Miocene through Recent sediments from DSDP Site 214 (Ninetyeast Ridge, Indian Ocean) is reexamined. Samples of the Globorotalia tumida planktic foraminiferal lineage, originally obtained from these sediments by Malmgren et al. (1983), serve as the empirical basis for the recognition of punctuated anagenesis as a distinct mode of phenotypic evolution and have been the subject of numerous additional investigations. However, conclusions reached by previous authors depend strictly on the validity of the original chronostratigraphic interpretation of these sediments. Graphic correlation analysis of first- and last-appearance datum levels for a total of 41 planktic foraminiferal, radiolarian, and calcareous nannoplankton taxa provides evidence for a more complex depositional history at this deep-sea site than originally believed. Based on a conservative model of variation in the pattern of sediment accumulation rates, the lowermost portion of the studied section (6.5-4.3 Ma) represents an interval of temporally condensed sediment accumulation (1.88 cm/1,000 yr) followed by an interval (4.3-2.8 Ma) of temporally expanded sediment accumulation (3.97 cm/1,000 yr). This interval, in turn, is followed by a depositional hiatus or an extremely condensed interval, at least 800,000 yr in duration, which is followed by another relatively condensed (1.36 cm/1,000 yr) interval from 2.0 Ma-Recent. Although this chronostratigraphic reinterpretation deviates substantially from the original, which recognized Site 214 as being both temporally continuous and exhibiting a constant sediment accumulation rate from the Upper Miocene through the Upper Pliocene, it is more consistent with expectations based on Neogene eustatic sea-level fluctuations and global surveys of Neogene hiatus distributions. Age assignments for samples of the Gr. tumida lineage based on the revised chronostratigraphic model reverse some findings of previous investigators with respect to the distinctiveness of phenotypic evolutionary rates characterizing the transition from Gr. plesiotumida to Gr. tumida. Finally, a brief survey of similar marine invertebrate lineage studies shows that changes in the rate of phenotypic evolution often appear to coincide with major physical changes in the paleoceanographic environment. Such correspondences may be due, at least in part, to the effect of these environmental changes on sediment accumulation rates. Paleobiologists who seek to understand patterns of phenotypic change over time must remove the effects of variations in sediment accumulation rates from their data before evolutionary hypothesis testing and remain aware of the limitations imposed on their interpretations by the uncertain nature of chronostratigraphic inference.


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