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Biotic Response to late Quaternary Rapid Climate switches in the Santa Barbra Basin

Biotic Response to late Quaternary Rapid Climate switches in the Santa Barbra Basin. Kurtis Szu Joey Verdian Brandon Swanson Adam Tolan. Introduction. The Santa Barbra Basin is a perfect area to study changes in the Earths Biosphere.

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Biotic Response to late Quaternary Rapid Climate switches in the Santa Barbra Basin

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  1. Biotic Response to late Quaternary Rapid Climate switches in the Santa Barbra Basin KurtisSzu Joey Verdian Brandon Swanson Adam Tolan

  2. Introduction • The Santa Barbra Basin is a perfect area to study changes in the Earths Biosphere. • Here we have been able to study the rapid climate switches that occurred in the biosphere during the late Quaternary period (D-O events). • The Benthic Foraminiferal organisms are very opportunistic organism and this makes them perfect for determining oxygen levels in the basin. • Much of this has never been proven until this study.

  3. Benthic Foraminifera • Benthic Foraminifera live at the bottom of the sea floor. • They thrive in oxic environments. • They are opportunistic and can rapidly adapt to oxygen deprived environmental changes. • The thought was that they go extinct during dysoxic periods because they would disappear from the area. • They adapt by moving to a place with more favorable conditions and return to basin when oxic conditions improve. • There is no real change in the organism, just where they choose to live during dysoxic periods.

  4. Santa Barbara Basin • Sedimentation rate of 120 cm/k.a • Assemblages of Benthic Foraminifera provide a highly sensitive record of environmental changes associated with basin ventilation switches. • Basin ventilation switches are directly correlated with sea level. • Warmer period of higher sea level = less ventilation = lower levels of O2 in the water. • When ventilation is restricted to shallow depths due to higher sea levels 02 depleted water upwells along the North Pacific Margin. • These oxygen deprived conditions result in benthic macro fauna being excluded from the basin floor, thus sediment laminations form. • Colder periods of lower sea level result in intensified ventilation where young oxygen rich water from the Subarctic North Pacific enters the basin creating an opportune environment for bioturbating macro fauna to occupy the basin floor. • Correlation of laminated intervals of the Santa Barbara Basin with dysoxic and oxic cycle recorded from ice cores in Greenland suggests that fluctuations in the upper pacific intermediate waters and the oxygen minimum zone are tightly linked to climate change.

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