Southern Ocean Diatom Resting Spore Nitrogen Isotope Data for Paleoclimate Reconstruction

Laboratory incubation data from the AMD_USAPDC organization explores the nitrogen isotopic composition of Chaetoceros diatom resting spores to assess their role in recording past nutrient conditions. The work addresses uncertainties in how these fossils record surface nutrient conditions and their potential impact on environmental reconstructions in the Antarctic sea ice zone. The dataset was last updated on July 31, 2022.

Use Cases

• Calibrating paleoenvironmental proxies based on nitrogen stable isotope signatures of diatom fossils.
• Modeling past nutrient drawdown in sea ice environments during the last ice age and the Pliocene based on laboratory incubation results.
• Investigating biases in sedimentary records introduced by Chaetoceros resting spore production.
• Reconstructing historical sea ice extent and biological production in the Southern Ocean based on diatom fossil chemistry.

Strengths

• Focuses on a specific, ecologically important diatom genus (Chaetoceros) with a unique life cycle stage.
• Includes comparative measurements of both vegetative cells and resting spores from controlled laboratory incubations.
• Addresses a direct research question about bias and information in the sedimentary record for two contrasting historical intervals.

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality and completeness require manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

nasa_earthdata

Collection Method

Laboratory incubations with surface sediments and nutrient manipulation, followed by isotope ratio measurements.

Time Range

Study focuses on interpreting the last ice age and the warm Pliocene intervals.

Freshness

Last updated 2022-07-31 23:59:59.999000; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southern Ocean, Antarctic sea ice zone.