Diatom Silica Oxygen Isotope Records from the Late Quaternary Antarctic Margin

Late Quaternary to Holocene sediment cores from the Antarctic margin, containing seasonally layered fossil diatom records. The dataset, produced by the British Geological Survey under NERC grant NE/G004811/1, provides an archive of ice-ocean-climate interactions. It was last updated on 2026-04-09.

Use Cases

• Reconstructing past sea surface salinity and freshwater input based on diatom oxygen isotope measurements.
• Analyzing seasonal to millennial-scale climate fluctuations recorded in layered Antarctic margin sediments.
• Investigating the sensitivity of polar waters to environmental parameters like sea ice concentration and sea surface temperature.
• Modeling the transfer of ocean-climate signals from Antarctic ice sheets into the Southern Ocean.

Strengths

• Data originates from exceptionally well-preserved sediment cores recovered in the last decade.
• Records capture climate interactions on seasonal timescales through the deglaciation and Holocene.
• The Antarctic margin location is described as sensitive to ice sheet waxing and waning.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file formats are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

British Geological Survey (BGS), NERC grant NE/G004811/1.

Collection Method

Measurements from fossil planktonic diatoms in Antarctic margin sediment cores.

Time Range

Late Quaternary, from the end of the last ice age through the Holocene.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-09 08:25:41.217139; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Antarctic continental margin seas.