Planktic foraminifer census data
from the northwestern Gulf of Mexico

US Geological Survey Open File Report 01-108

Harry J. Dowsett and Richard Z. Poore
U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Va. 20192

 INTRODUCTION and BACKGROUND

Near-future climate change (decades to century scale) must be viewed in the context of past climate change.  Baselines, rates of change and natural variability are all important aspects of climate change and must be taken into account when making land/resource use and natural hazards decisions.

Marine sediments record past paleoclimate and paleoceanographic changes.  We have focused on the Gulf of Mexico because these sediments preserve a record of North American climate change.  Periods of intense freshwater runoff following the last ice age are preserved in Gulf of Mexico sediments (Kennett and Shackleton, 1975; Flower and Kennett, 1990).  Likewise, extended episodes of flooding and drought are recorded in river flow data during the last century (Poore et al., in prep) and similar events throughout the Holocene should be recorded in high accumulation rate sequences in the Gulf of Mexico (Poore and Wright, 1999).  An annual summer monsoon is responsible for wet conditions in parts of the south from New Mexico to Florida.  Variability in monsoon strength should be recorded in the planktic foraminiferal assemblages from the western Gulf of Mexico.

Many techniques exist to extract paleoclimate information from marine sediments.  All faunal based reconstructions rely on a temporally well-constrained calibration data set representing modern or "near" modern conditions. We present faunal census data generated from analysis of surface sediment samples taken in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico on cruise 94H of the Texas A&M University research vessel R/V Gyre (Figure 1).  This work is one component of the USGS effort to develop a robust and well-dated planktic foraminifer calibration data set (see Dowsett and Poore, 1999).
 
 
 

Figure 1.  Location of LATX sites discussed in text.

METHODOLOGY

Sample Processing and Selection

Samples were taken using a short gravity corer with 180-cm long, 3-inch outer diameter, polycarbonate liners.   Upon retrieval, cores were capped and sealed.  After cores were split, samples were taken from 1-3cm at each core site and processed using low temperature (isotopic) techniques.  Samples were dried in an oven at ?50°C.  The dried bulk sample was disaggregated in a beaker filled with deionized water  and a small amount of dilute Calgon solution (5 g Calgon to 1 liter water).  Samples were washed through a 63 µm sieve using a fine spray and oven dried at ?50°C.  After drying, samples were sieved to isolate the <63µm, 63-149µm and *149µm size fractions.  A split of 300-350 planktic foraminifer specimens was obtained from the *149 µm size fraction using a Carpco sample splitter.  In many cases, due to a high ratio of benthic to planktic specimens, benthics were removed from the sample.

In many cases the number of planktic specimens in the sample was so low as to preclude further analysis.  After deleting barren (for planktics) samples and samples with low numbers of planktics the original data set was reduced to 43 samples.  Further examination of these 43 samples identified 26 samples with clear indications of down slope transport or intense dissolution (Fig. 2).  These samples were removed from the data set.  The remaining 17 samples (Fig. 1) exhibit the best-preserved faunas and have the highest potential to be near modern in age. Specimens were identified, sorted, and glued to a standard 60-square micropaleontological slide.
 

Figure 2.  LATX Core 94H-50.  Location of "core top" sample can be seen
at left (top) of core.  Pebbles throughout the core suggest downslope transport.

Counting Categories

In general, our taxonomic concepts follow Parker (1962; 1967) and Blow (1969);  exceptions to their practices are noted below.  A list of taxa identified is given below.

Candeina nitida d'Orbigny
Globigerina bulloides (d'Orbigny)
Globigerina digitata (Brady)
Globigerina falconensis Blow
Globigerina rubescens  Hofker
Globigerinella aequilateralis (Brady)
Globigerinella calida (Parker)
Globigerinita glutinata (Egger)
Globigerinoides conglobatus (Brady)
Globigerinoides ruber (d'Orbigny)   White and pink varieties of Gs. ruber were tabulated separately in Table 1.
Globigerinoides sacculifer (Brady)
Globigerinoides tenellus Parker
Globorotalia crassaformis (Galloway and Wissler).
Globorotalia hirsuta (d'Orbigny)
Globorotalia inflata (d'Orbigny)
Globorotalia menardii (Parker, Jones, and Brady)    Total number of specimens identified as Gl. menardii, Gl. tumida
    and Gl.ungulata were combined in the Globorotalia menardii complex (Total) category in Table 1.
Globorotalia scitula (Brady)
Globorotalia truncatulinoides (d'Orbigny)   Dextral and sinistral coiling varieties were tabulated separately in Table 1.
Globorotalia tumida (Brady)
Globorotalia ungulata Bermudez
Globorotaloides hexagona (Natland)
Hastigerina pelagica d'Orbigny
Neogloboquadrina dutertrei  (d'Orbigny)
Neogloboquadrina pachyderma (Ehrenberg)     Specimens of dextral coiling
N. pachyderma with greater than 4 chambers in the final whorl are considered transitional between N. pachyderma and N. dutertrei
    and are tabulated in the P-D intergrade category in Table 1.  No sinistral coiled specimens were encountered during this study.
Orbulina universa d'Orbigny
Pulleniatina obliquiloculata (Parker and Jones)
Sphaeroidinella dehiscens (Parker and Jones)
Turborotalita quinqueloba (Natland)

Faunal Counts

Data are presented in tabular format in Table 1 [table will open in new window].

SUMMARY

The data presented here will be dated using AMS ¹⁴C techniques prior to being incorporated in the USGS Gulf of Mexico core-top database.  These data will then be used to reconstruct regional Holocene paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic conditions.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank William Bryant, Niall Slowey and Daniel Bean of Texas A&M University for providing access to the LATEX cores.   Maria Erlandsen, Lianna Wright, Liz Castenson and Jessica Darling helped with sample processing.  We thank Bethany Boisvert for help with various aspects of data reduction.  Lynn Wingard and Debra Willard provided useful reviews of this manuscript.  This work is supported by the USGS Earth Surface Dynamics Program.

REFERENCES

Blow, W. H., 1969, Late middle Eocene to Recent planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy.  In Bronnimann, P. and Renz, H. H.,  (Eds), Proceedings of First Planktonic Conference:  Leiden (E. J. Brill), p. 199-422.

Dowsett, H.J. and Poore, R.Z., 1999.  Last Interglacial Sea-Surface Temperature Estimates from the California Margin: Improvements to the Modern Analog Technique.  U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 2171:  http://pubs.usgs.gov/bulletin/b2171/

Flower, B.P. and Kennett, J.P., 1990.  The Younger Dryas cool episode in the Gulf of Mexico.  Paleoceanography 5(6): 949-961.

Kennett, J.P. and Shackleton, N.J., 1975.  Laurentide ice sheet meltwater recorded in the Gulf of Mexico.  Science 188: 147-150.

Parker, F. L., 1962, Planktonic foraminiferal species in Pacific sediments, Micropaleontology, 8: 219-254.

Parker, F. L., 1967, Late Tertiary biostratigraphy (Planktonic Foraminifera) of tropical Indo-Pacific deep-sea cores: Bulletins of American Paleontology, 52: 115-208.

Poore, R.Z., Darling, J., Dowsett, H.J. and Wright, L., in prep., Variations in river flow to the Gulf of Mexico:  Implications for paleoclimate studies of Gulf of Mexico marine sediments.  U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin.

Poore, R.Z. and Wright, L.M., 1999.  Holocene continental flood events in marine sediments of the Gulf of Mexico.  U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 99-566: 1-14.

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