(Appendix) Gephyrocapsa coccolith abundance and holocene paleotemperature assessment

DOI

A global sea surface temperature calibration based on the relative abundance of different morphotypes within the coccolithophore genus Gephyrocapsa in Holocene deep-sea sediments is presented. There is evidence suggesting that absolute sea surface temperature for a given location can be calculated from the relative abundance of Gephyrocapsa morphotypes in sediment samples, with a standard error comparable to temperature estimates derived from other temperature proxies such as planktic foraminifera transfer functions. A total of 110 Holocene sediment samples were selected from the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans covering a mean sea surface temperature gradient from 13.6° to 29.3°C. Standard multiple linear regression analyses were applied to this data set, linking the relative abundance of Gephyrocapsa morphotypes to sea surface temperature. The best model revealed an r**2 of 0.83 with a standard residual error of 1.78°C for the estimation of mean sea surface temperature. This new proxy provides a unique opportunity for the reconstruction of paleotemperatures with a very small amount of sample material due to the minute size of coccoliths, permitting examination of thinly laminated sediments (e.g., a pinhead of material from laminated sediments for the reconstruction of annual sea surface temperature variations). Such fine-scale resolution is currently not possible with any other proxy. Application of this new paleotemperature proxy may allow new paleoenvironmental interpretations in the late Quaternary period and discrepancies between the different currently used paleotemperature proxies might be resolved.

Supplement to: Bollmann, Jörg; Henderiks, Jorijntje; Brabec, Bernhard (2002): Global calibration of Gephyrocapsa coccolith abundance in Holocene sediments for paleotemperature assessment. Paleoceanography, 17(3), 7-1-7-9

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.844989
Related Identifier https://doi.org/10.1029/2001PA000742
Related Identifier https://doi.org/10.25921/NYGS-NF63
Metadata Access https://ws.pangaea.de/oai/provider?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=datacite4&identifier=oai:pangaea.de:doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.844989
Provenance
Creator Bollmann, Jörg; Henderiks, Jorijntje ORCID logo; Brabec, Bernhard
Publisher PANGAEA
Publication Year 2002
Rights Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
OpenAccess true
Representation
Resource Type Supplementary Dataset; Dataset
Format text/tab-separated-values
Size 2573 data points
Discipline Earth System Research
Spatial Coverage (-7.800W, -39.967S, 2.183E, 49.190N); Great Australian Bight; South Atlantic Ocean; Angola Basin; Agadir Canyon; Canary Islands; Brazil Basin; East Atlantic; Sierra Leone Rise; North Atlantic; Northeast Atlantic; off West Africa; off Gabun; Indian Ocean; South Pacific Ocean; Eastern Equatorial Pacific
Temporal Coverage Begin 1956-09-17T00:00:00Z
Temporal Coverage End 1998-11-03T01:45:00Z