Research paperA magnetostratigraphic calibration of Middle Miocene through Pliocene dinoflagellate cyst and acritarch events in the Iceland Sea (Ocean Drilling Program Hole 907A)
Highlights
► A continuous Neogene high-latitude sequence was palynologically investigated. ► 26 dinocyst and acritarch events are defined and calibrated vs magnetostratigraphy. ► We provide first-time independent age control on high-latitude dinocyst events. ► Their stratigraphic utility is evaluated by comparison across the North Atlantic. ► Impagidinium elongatum and Cerebrocysta irregulare are formally described.
Introduction
Following the first published Neogene dinoflagellate cyst (dinocyst) biozonation by Williams (1975) on drill holes from offshore eastern Canada, assemblages of Miocene through Pliocene age have been reported frequently from the Northern Hemisphere, and our knowledge of their (paleo)ecology and stratigraphy has improved significantly (e.g. Williams and Bujak, 1985, Stover et al., 1996). It soon became evident that dinocysts are the only microfossil group with a continuous Neogene record in the high northern latitudes, and their relatively high diversity predisposes them to detailed and reliable biostratigraphic correlations in a region critical for understanding the development of Northern Hemisphere climate (De Schepper and Head, 2008). Despite their biostratigraphic potential, and although Miocene and Pliocene sequences have been drilled successfully in the subpolar/polar North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean (Deep Sea Drilling Project [DSDP] Leg 38, Ocean Drilling Program [ODP] Legs 104, 105, 151, 162, and Integrated Ocean Drilling Program [IODP] Expedition 302), a consistent dinocyst biozonation for the Neogene is still not available.
The independent age calibration of dinocyst events is hampered partly by an incomplete chronostratigraphic framework of DSDP/ODP sites, as few holes have robust age control. First-order absolute age determinations using magnetic polarity reversals are often fragmentary due to incomplete core recovery and drilling disturbances caused by the technical difficulties of drilling at high latitudes. Where available, magnetostratigraphy is primarily supported by calcareous microfossil datums, but the paucity of biogenic carbonate in the high northern latitudes restricts their use and has relegated stable oxygen and carbon isotope stratigraphy to a subordinate role (Fronval and Jansen, 1996, Matthiessen et al., 2009a). In addition, the low evolutionary turnover of these calcareous microfossil groups at high latitudes reduces the number of bioevents, which themselves are not necessarily synchronous between high and low latitudes (Backman et al., 1984). These deficiencies are compounded by the susceptibility of foraminiferal tests and calcareous placoliths to dissolution in the colder waters of high northern latitude sites (e.g. Spiegler and Jansen, 1989).
Dinocysts are therefore crucial for high-latitude biostratigraphy, but to further enhance their utility it is necessary to study those sites with robust chronostratigraphy as a means of independently calibrating the dinocyst datums (De Schepper and Head, 2008). ODP Hole 907A in the Iceland Sea (Fig. 1) is at one of few high northern latitude sites featuring a comparatively well-constrained magnetic polarity stratigraphy for the Middle and Upper Miocene (Channell et al., 1999a), in this case supported independently by silicoflagellate biostratigraphy (Amigo, 1999). Located today under the influence of cold water-masses exported from the Arctic Ocean, Hole 907A serves as a reference section for biostratigraphic correlation in the polar environments.
For these reasons the Middle Miocene to Pliocene interval of Hole 907A has been selected for a detailed palynostratigraphic study. We present a suite of biostratigraphically useful dinocyst and acritarch bioevents that are correlated for the first time in the Nordic Seas to the astronomically-tuned Neogene time scale (ATNTS 2004, Lourens et al., 2005), by using a revised magnetostratigraphy for Hole 907A (Channell et al., 1999a).
To identify those bioevents in Hole 907A that potentially extend biostratigraphic correlation into the high northern latitudes, we have compared the timing of our events with the published records of lower-latitude sites having independent age control. The most important of these sites are in the North Atlantic region, but we also compare our data with records from the North Sea and Mediterranean Sea basins and the on- and offshore eastern U.S.A. to evaluate possible ecologically- or climatically-induced asynchronies.
Section snippets
Materials and methods
ODP Leg 151 Hole 907A was drilled in the southwestern part of the Norwegian–Greenland Sea, on the eastern Iceland Plateau (69°14.989′ N, 12°41.894′ W; 2035.7 m water depth; Fig. 1), which is a flat-topped platform defined by the 1800-m contour. The drill hole penetrated a horizontal, undisturbed, pelagic sequence and reached a total depth of 224.1 meters below sea floor (mbsf). The lithology consists of 216.3 m of sediment (recovery 102.6%) underlain by 8.7 m of basalts (recovery 60.2%) at the base
Chronostratigraphic summary of sites used for comparison
To test the biostratigraphic utility of bioevents calibrated in Hole 907A on a regional and supraregional scale, comparisons are made with the few relatively high-resolution Neogene palynostratigraphic studies from the North Atlantic region that have detailed and reliable magnetostratigraphy and/or independent biostratigraphy (Fig. 1). The age assignments of bioevents in the older literature have been revised where new chronostratigraphic control is available, and all datums are calibrated to
Discussion
The appearance and disappearance datums of dinocyst species are rarely precisely synchronous worldwide (e.g. Williams et al., 2004), especially in the late Cenozoic owing to increasing latitudinal temperature gradients. Nonetheless, De Schepper and Head (2008) recently compared mid-Pliocene through Pleistocene dinocyst events across the North Atlantic and, despite evident latitudinal control on the stratigraphic ranges of many species, they identified several bioevents suitable for
Conclusions
Based on the palynological analyses of 120 samples spanning the interval c. 14.5–2.5 Ma in ODP Hole 907A at c. 100 kyr temporal resolution, a magnetostratigraphic calibration of 26 potentially useful dinocyst and acritarch bioevents has been conducted for the first time in the Miocene and Pliocene of the high northern latitudes. Most events are last appearances and reflect a progressive extinction of species in response to long-term cooling from the Middle Miocene towards the intensification of
Systematic paleontology
Division DINOFLAGELLATA (Butschli, 1885) Fensome et al., 1993
Subdivision DINOKARYOTA Fensome et al., 1993
Class DINOPHYCEAE Pascher, 1914
Subclass PERIDINIPHYCIDAE Fensome et al., 1993
Order GONYAULACALES Taylor, 1980
Suborder GONYAULACINEAE (Autonym)
Family GONYAULACACEAE Lindemann, 1928
Subfamily GONYAULACOIDEAE (Autonym)
Genus IMPAGIDINIUM Stover and Evitt, 1978
Type: Impagidinium dispertitum (Cookson and Eisenack, 1965) Stover and Evitt, 1978
Impagidinium elongatum sp. nov. (Plate II, 6–20; Fig. 6,
Acknowledgments
This research uses samples and data provided by DSDP and ODP and we thank Walter Hale and Alex Wülbers for technical support while sampling at the IODP Core Repository, Bremen. We are grateful to Morten Smelror who shared unpublished data, and Stijn De Schepper for comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript. Support was provided by the German Research Foundation (DFG MA 3913/2) to J.M. and M.S., and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant to M.J.H.
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