Summary This data set is part of the Pliocene Research, Interpretation, and Synoptic Mapping (PRISM) Project. Data or information about the data set can be obtained online via the World Wide Web at:
The following information about the data set was provided by the data center contact:
This data set describes marine ostracode species and related sample and stratigraphic information produced as part of the USGS PRISM Project (Pliocene Research, Interpretation, and Synoptic Mapping). The general goals of PRISM are to reconstruct global climate during a period of extreme warmth about 3 million years ago and to determine the causes of the warmth and the subsequent climatic change towards colder climates about 2.5 million years ago. To do this, PRISM has been studying Pliocene deposits and their microfaunas and, by comparison with modern assemblages, estimating past boundary conditions such as ocean temperatures. To obtain more reliable estimates of past environments in paleoclimate studies, the use of ecologically sensitive species requires
extensive modern datasets on living species with limited environmental tolerances. Thus, much of the data generated by PRISM consists of species counts from modern samples that form a "coretop" dataset applicable not only to PRISM Pliocene assemblages but also to Quaternary assemblages as well.
This situation was especially true for ostracodes, a group of Crustacea that includes many species that have limited range of water temperatures required for survival, reproduction, or both. Fossil assemblages of ostracodes can therefore yield information on past bottom water conditions on continental shelves in the mixed ocean layer above the thermocline and they are especially useful where planktic foraminifers are rare or absent. However comprehensive datasets with quantitative ostracode data were not available for application to regional paleoceanographic studies. Further, because of the endemic nature of ostracodes living on continental shelves, separate modern datasets needed to be developed for regions of the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. The data contained in the files in this folder come from the western North Pacific Ocean, mainly the seas around Japan. These regions encompass subtropical to cold temperate and subfrigid marine climate zones and include faunas from the major Western North Pacific water masses such as the Oyashio and Kuroshio current systems.
The ostracode data sets were developed in collaboration with Prof. Noriyuki Ikeya, Institute of Geosciences, Shizuoka University, Shizuoka, Japan, Prof. Ikeya's students, and other Japanese colleagues, with support from the USGS Global Change and Climate History Program and grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF grant INT: LTV-9013402) and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS grant EPAR- 093). Most of the faunal slides are housed at Shizuoka University.
Separate PRISM ostracode data sets contain modern and Pliocene species data from continental shelves of the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans and from deep sea environments.
Among the various types of quantitative analyses used to evaluate the ostracode data, the Squared Chord Distance (SCD) coefficient of dissimilarity was found to be useful in identifying modern analog assemblages for fossil assemblages on the basis of the proportions of shared species between two samples.
The ostracode data and analyses of them are discussed in detail in the following published scientific papers:
Ikeya, Noriyuki and Cronin, Thomas. M., 1993, Quantitative analysis of Ostracoda and water masses around Japan: Application to Pliocene and Pleistocene paleoceanography: Micropaleontology, v. 39, p. 263-281.
Cronin, T.M., Kitamura, A., Ikeya, N., Watanabe, M., and Kamiya, T., in press. Late Pliocene climate change 3.4-2.3 Ma: Paleoceanographic record from the Yabuta Formation, Sea of Japan: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. Geographic Coverage
Spatial coordinates
N: 63.0
S: 25.0
E: 165.0
W: 122.0
Data Set Citation
Dataset Creator:
Thomas M. Cronin, Noriyuki Ikeya, Akihisa Kitamura, Mahito Watanabe, and Takahiro Kamiya
Dataset Title:
MODERN AND FOSSIL OSTRACODE CENSUS DATA FROM THE WESTERN PACIFIC OCEAN AND SEAS AROUND JAPAN
Dataset Publisher:
GCRP, USGS, DOI
Online Resource:
http://geochange.er.usgs.gov/pub/PRISM/ostracodes/pacific/
Name:
PETER
N.
SCHWEITZER Phone:
(703) 648-6533
Fax:
(703) 648-6252
Email:
pschweitzer at usgs.gov
Contact Address:
Mail Stop 954 National Center
U.S. Geological Survey
12201 Sunrise Valley Drive City:
Reston
Province or State:
VA
Postal Code:
20192
Country:
USA
Personnel
THOMAS
MARK
CRONIN Role:
INVESTIGATOR
Phone:
703-648-6363
Fax:
703-648-6032
Email:
tcronin at usgs.gov
Contact Address:
U.S. Geological Survey
12201 Sunrise Valley Drive City:
Reston
Province or State:
VA
Postal Code:
20192
Country:
USA
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