Holocene Benthic Colonization History Beneath the Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctica

A 47 cm sediment core from beneath the Amery Ice Shelf in East Antarctica reveals a succession of seabed communities over the Holocene. The data, published by Geoscience Australia, shows a transition from no fauna prior to ~9600 years BP to mobile benthic organisms and plankton, followed by filter feeders and infauna. This fossil analysis provides evidence for community development linked to ice shelf retreat and changing food supply.

Use Cases

• Modeling species succession in sub-ice shelf environments based on the described faunal stages.
• Analyzing the relationship between ice shelf proximity and benthic food supply based on the advection of planktonic particles.
• Assessing potential impacts of future ice shelf collapse on benthic communities based on the described organic supply regime.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a 47 cm long sediment core providing a temporal sequence.
• The description details a clear faunal succession timeline starting from ~9600 years BP.
• The dataset is associated with a specific and significant geographic location: the Amery Ice Shelf in East Antarctica.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The data format is HTML, which may not be immediately usable for analysis.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Fossil analysis of a sediment core.

Time Range

Holocene, with specific events noted from ~9600 years BP to present.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 01:23:07.417840; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Beneath the Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctica; Prydz Bay region.