Bathymetric distribution of fossil foraminifera within marine sediment cores from the eastern part of Lützow-Holm Bay, East Antarctica, and its paleoceanographic implications

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Abstract

Faunal analysis of fossil foraminifera from marine gravity and piston cores collected by the Japanese Antarctic Research Expeditions (1981 and 1992) is used to estimate the impact of the latest Quaternary paleoceanography on coastal environments of the eastern part of Lützow-Holm Bay, East Antarctica.

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) carbon-14 ages produced from sedimentary organic carbon were less than 16 ka (non-corrected). Detailed correlation among submarine cores and Holocene elevated marine deposits exposed on the eastern shore of the embayment is difficult due to the indefinite reservoir correction value for marine organic matter and to upward-increasing abnormal ages for some cores.

A local carbonate dissolution level can be delineated around the present depth of 300–400 m or shallower in the eastern part of Lützow-Holm Bay during the Holocene, based on distributional trends of arenaceous, calcareous benthic, and planktonic foraminifera recognized within a depth less than 600 m. Downcore recovery of calcareous foraminifera containing Bulimina aculeata from two cores obtained in a drowned glacial trough deeper than 600 m situated far beyond the dissolution depth of CaCO3 indicates the incursion of warm, high-nutrient, and CaCO3-saturated Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) from the offshore area along the trough toward the southeastern coast of Lützow-Holm Bay during the Holocene. The intrusion of CDW impacted on the marine environments of the southeastern coast, thereby contributing to peripheral retreat of the ice sheet as well as increasing calcareous benthic foraminiferal productivity along the southeastern coast of Lützow-Holm Bay.

Introduction

The evolution of the Antarctic ice-sheet periphery during the glacial–interglacial cycles of the past depends on marine paleoenvironmental changes in the coastal region, which is transitional between glacial and marine environments that closely interacted with each other. Studies of fossil organisms from marine deposits in the coastal region can provide such marine paleoenvironmental information, because marine organisms are sensitive to coastal marine environmental changes and record temporal and spatial changes.

In one of our recent unpublished studies (Igarashi et al., in preparation), we analyzed faunal characteristics of fossil foraminifera from Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon-dated, elevated marine deposits exposed on the eastern shore of Lützow-Holm Bay, East Antarctica. We detected distinct differences between pre-Holocene and Holocene faunas and presumed that recovery of Holocene faunas from the southeastern coast of Lützow-Holm Bay might be closely related to an intrusion of the Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW). However, we lacked foraminiferal and other evidence from submarine sediments of Lützow-Holm Bay. Therefore, faunal analysis of foraminifera coupled with age determination of submarine deposits of Lützow-Holm Bay would provide paleoceanographic information to evaluate the above presumption.

This paper presents the results of faunal analysis of foraminifera extracted from marine sediment cores collected from the sea floor of the eastern part of Lützow-Holm Bay. Chronology for these cores was determined by AMS radiocarbon dating of marine organic carbon from the cores. The paper then estimates the latest Quaternary paleoceanographic conditions in the eastern part of Lützow-Holm Bay based on bathymetric and geographical characteristics of foraminifera and evaluates the paleoceanographic interpretation hypothesized for the foraminiferal results from elevated marine deposits.

Section snippets

Radiocarbon dating

Traditional carbon-14 dating methods cannot be applied to submarine cores, because not enough organic or carbonate materials can be obtained from them. Therefore, these methods of age determination have not been used for submarine cores collected from the Lützow-Holm Bay region. A dredge sample of submarine sediments obtained from the northwestern offshore area of Lützow-Holm Bay gave a carbon-14 age of 5490±370 yr bp (Uchio, 1960a).

In recent years, however, the AMS technique has provided a

Materials and methods

Seventeen marine sediment cores and one surface sample, collected during the 22nd and 33rd Japanese Antarctic Research Expeditions (JARE-22, 1980–1982 and JARE-33, 1991–1993), were used in this study. Locations of sampling stations are shown in Fig. 1; their latitudes and longitudes, water depths, and length and diameter of sediment cores recovered are listed in Table 1. These samples were collected by using either three types of gravity corers (0.5, 1, or 2 m in length) or a piston corer (1.6 m

Lithology of sediments

The 17 cores contain sediments that are poorly consolidated with two dominant lithologies (Fig. 2). One is coarse- to fine-grained sand, commonly containing subangular pebbles and granules in cores recovered from the sea floor shallower than 500 m in the northeastern part of the embayment, except for one obtained in the Fuji Submarine Valley (Station A-4). The second is sandy silt to silt, with granules of less than several millimeters and with very rare subangular pebbles. The sediments were

Evaluation of AMS radiocarbon ages

The AMS radiocarbon ages of the submarine cores in the present study are all younger than the Last Glacial Maximum (Table 2; Fig. 2). However, based on the chronological results, correlation (1000 yr order) between the cores and the Holocene elevated marine deposits distributed on the eastern shore of Lützow-Holm Bay (Miura et al., 1998a) is problematic.

In the Antarctic Ocean, carbon-14 dates need to be corrected to account for the dilution effect of the seawater caused by the input of glacial

Conclusions

Our paleoenvironmental study in Lützow-Holm Bay, East Antarctica, by applying AMS radiocarbon chronology and faunal analysis of fossil foraminifera to marine gravity and piston cores collected by JARE (1981 and 1992) led us to the following conclusions:

  • 1.

    AMS radiocarbon dates produced from organic carbon were less than 16 ka (non-corrected). The chronological results are not applicable to detailed correlation among submarine cores and Holocene elevated marine deposits distributed on the eastern

Acknowledgements

The authors express their gratitude to Emeritus Professor Tsunemasa Saito of the Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Tohoku University, for his providing continued guidance, encouragement, and valuable suggestions. Deep appreciation is also expressed to the following persons: Dr Naomi Harada of Japan Marine Science and Technology Center (a member of JARE-33) and all the other members of JARE-33 for their devoted cooperation in sampling with the gravity cores during the full operation of

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