Previous   |    Next

doi:10.2204/iodp.proc.317.207.2014

Introduction

The purpose of this pilot study was to assess the suitability of marine and terrestrial palynomorph assemblages from Hole U1352B for combined paleoenvironmental reconstructions of both the eastern South Island terrestrial vegetation and the nearby surface ocean. Previous studies of marine and terrestrial palynomorphs from Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 594, farther east and offshore of the present site, revealed glacial–interglacial changes in pollen assemblages over the last 350 k.y. (Heusser and Van der Geer, 1994) and dinoflagellates cyst assemblages back to 125 ka (Marret et al., 2001). Records from Site U1352 were investigated to add to this information for two reasons. The site is closer to land, with a more constrained pollen source area and is under a different surface-water mass than Site 594, which is overlain by a narrow tongue of partly subtropical water (the Southland Front) that flows around the eastern margin of South Island (Sutton, 2003)

Coring in Hole U1352B recovered 613 m of sediment from the offshore Canterbury Basin, eastern South Island, New Zealand, in November 2009 (see the “Site U1352” chapter [Expedition 317 Scientists, 2011]). This data report documents the presence of dinoflagellate cysts and pollen and spores from 51 samples, which were collected between 91.1 and 181.5 m composite depth (mcd). Based on the shipboard biostratigraphy (see the “Site U1352” chapter [Expedition 317 Scientists, 2011]), the samples described here include sediment deposited during marine isotope Stages 12–10. The Stage 11 interval was targeted because it had a prolonged period of stable interglacial climate and a similar orbital solution to the present and thus has some similarity to the Holocene (e.g., Siegenthaler et al., 2005; Tzedakis et al., 2009). Additional high-resolution age control required for detailed study is not yet available for this core. Should this become available through future postcruise research, more detailed interpretation and expansion of the present palynomorph data set may be warranted.

Top of page   |    Previous   |    Next