Project Details
Projekt
Palynomorphs in the Northern High Latitude Cold Water Domain: A neogene stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental transect across the fram strait
Applicant
Dr. Jens Matthiessen
Subject Area
Palaeontology
Term
from 2007 to 2012
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 48820494
Despite sucessfully drilling Neogene sediments during ODP Legs 151 and 162 and IODP Expedition 302, the Neogene paleoenvironmental evolution in the coldwater domain of the Atlantic sector of the high northern latitudes is virtually unknown. A transect from the seasonally-ice covered Nordic Seas to the perennial ice-covered Arctic Ocean, consisting of the Sites 907, 909, and M2A, will be used to unravel the paleoenvironmental history for the period between ~16 and 3 Ma years. A Neogene palynomorph biostratigraphy (dinoflagellate cysts, acritarchs and other organic-walled algae) will be established and calibrated versus magnetostratigraphy to provide a reference stratigraphy for existing holes and for future drilling activities in the ice-covered regions. Quantitative palynomorph data and other published data will be incorporated in a reconstruction of sea-surface conditions (temperature, salinity, sea-ice cover), of the glaciation history, and of the response of high latitude oceans to global climate cooling across the major Arctic Gateway, the Fram Strait, since the Middle Miocene.
DFG Programme
Infrastructure Priority Programmes
