Katherine Johnson, School of Earth Sciences, Ohio State University, 275 Mendenhall Laboratory, 125 S. Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210
Past climate studies provide a context for assessing current and future climate variability. The Antarctic-Southern Ocean region is significant for paleoclimate studies because critical deep water production and extreme polar climatic conditions occur there. The Pliocene-Pleistocene represents a time during which climate oscillated between extremes of glacial-deglacial periods. This research interprets the paleoceanography and paleoclimate of the southern Kerguelen Plateau during the Late Neogene (<5 mya) using open ocean bathyal benthic foraminiferal assemblages, their population dynamics, and the record of hiatuses in the region. Ocean Drilling Program Leg 119 and 120 (Sites 747, 748, 751, and 744) materials are investigated. The major focus of this research is the responses of benthic foraminifera to a changing environment. A better understanding of the roles of water masses, bottom currents and surface water phenomena, and how they affect changes to the benthic ocean environment is achieved.
[Manuscript]
