Holocene melt-water variations recorded in Antarctic coastal marine benthic assemblages

Technical Report · Sun Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:7271599

Berkman, P A

Climate changes can influence the input of meltwater from the polar ice sheets. In Antarctica, signatures of meltwater input during the Holocene may be recorded in the benthic fossils which exist at similar altitudes above sea level in emerged beaches around the continent Interpreting the fossils as meltwater proxy records would be enhanced by understanding the modern ecology of the species in adjacent marine environments. Characteristics of an extant scallop assemblage in West McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, have been evaluated across a summer meltwater gradient to provide examples of meltwater records that may be contained in proximal scallop fossils. Integrating environmental proxies from coastal benthic assemblages around Antarctica, over ecological and geological time scales, is a necessary step in evaluating the marginal responses of the ice sheets to climate changes during the Holocene.

• Research Organization: Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States)
• OSTI ID: 7271599
• Report Number(s): AD-P-007323/9/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540110*
540310 -- Environment
Aquatic-- Basic Studies-- (1990-)
58 GEOSCIENCES
580000 -- Geosciences
ANTARCTIC REGIONS
ANTARCTICA
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
CENOZOIC ERA
CLIMATIC CHANGE
ECOLOGY
FOSSILS
GEOLOGIC AGES
GLACIERS
ICE
ICE CAPS
LEVELS
MELTING
PALEOCLIMATOLOGY
PALEONTOLOGY
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
POLAR REGIONS
QUATERNARY PERIOD
SEA LEVEL
SNOW
VARIATIONS