Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Marine Isotope Stage 3 in Southern South America, 60 KA B.P.-30 KA B.P. pp 299–319Cite as

Response of Diatoms to Late Quaternary Climate Changes

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Springer Earth System Sciences ((SPRINGEREARTH))

Abstract

Diatoms are very useful proxy indicators to reconstruct past climate changes. Studies are based on qualitative and quantitative analyses that allow to infer variables related directly to climate as temperature, or indirectly as salinity, depth, productivity and pH. Reconstructions based on these methods rely on the general assumption that past environmental requirements of the fossil diatom taxa have remained similar to those of their closest living representatives. In this way, the environmental information obtained from living organisms can be used as analogs and extrapolated to the fossil record, particularly in Late Quaternary studies. Diatom records from lacustrine deposits from Argentina, ancient lakes from South America, and marine cores from Southeastern Atlantic Ocean and Eastern Equatorial Pacific were reinterpreted with the aim to correlate them to climatic changes during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3) in the Southern Hemisphere. Marine records allowed paleo-reconstructions of productivity and upwelling conditions; at the same time continental records were used to interpret the lake-level histories. The high temporal resolution of diatom assemblages in both environments makes it possible to identify abrupt climate changes between ca. 60 and 30 cal. ka B.P. The future integration of diatom datasets constructed from different environments will solve the analogy problems between fossil and modern assemblages and increase the potential for reliable quantitative reconstructions of Late Quaternary climate in southern South America.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • Ampel L, Wohlfarth B, Risberg J, Veres D, Leng MJ, Tillman PK (2010) Diatom assemblage dynamics during abrupt climate change: the response of lacustrine diatoms to Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles during the last glacial period. J Paleolimnol 44:397–404

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blasi A, Castiñeira Latorre C, Del Puerto L, Prieto A, Fucks E, De Francesco C, Hanson P, García Rodriguez F, Huarte R, Carbonari J, Young A (2010) Paleoambientes de la cuenca media del Río Luján (Buenos Aires, Argentina) durante el último período glacial (EIO 4-2). Lat Am J Sedimentol Basin Anal 17(2):85–111

    Google Scholar 

  • Blunier T, Brook EJ (2001) Timing of millennial-scale climate changes in Antarctica and Greenland during the last glacial period. Science 291:109–112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brandefelt J, Kjellstrom E, Naslund JO, Strandberg G, Voelker AHL, Wohlfarth B (2011) A coupled climate model simulation of marine isotope stage 3 stadial climate. Clim Past 7:649–670

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bujalesky GG, Coronato AM, Roig CE, Rabassa JR, Espinosa MA (1992) Facies deltaicas proglaciales pleistocenas del Lago Fagnano, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. IV Reunión Argentina de Sedimentología Actas, La Plata, pp 235–242

    Google Scholar 

  • Bujalesky GG, Heusser CJ, Coronato AM, Roig C, Rabassa JR (1997) Pleistocene glaciolacustrine sedimentation at Lago Fagnano, Andes of Tierra del Fuego, southernmost South America. Quat Sci Rev 16:767–778

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cermeño P, Falkowski PG (2009) Controls on diatom biogeography in the ocean. Science 325:1539–1541

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cermeño P, Marañón E, Romero O (2013) Response of marine diatom communities to Late Quaternary abrupt climate changes. J Plankton Res 35(1):12–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Douglas MSV, Smol JP (2010) Freshwater diatoms as indicators of environmental change in the high Arctic. In: Smol JP, Stoermer EF (eds) The diatoms: applications for the environmental and earth sciences, 2nd edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 249–266

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Fritz SC, Baker PA, Lowenstein TK, Seltzer GO, Rigsby CA, Dwyer GS, Tapia PM, Arnold KK, Ku TL, Luo S (2004) Hydrologic variation during the last 170,000 years in the southern hemisphere tropics of South America. Quat Res 61:95–104

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fritz SC, Baker PA, Seltzer GO, Ballantyne A, Tapia PM, Cheng H, Edwards RL (2007) Quaternary glaciation and hydrologic variation in the South American tropics as reconstructed from the Lake Titicaca drilling project. Quat Res 68:410–420

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fritz SC, Baker PA, Ekdahl E, Seltzer GO, Stevens LR (2010) Millennial-scale climate variability during the last glacial period in the tropical Andes. Quat Sci Rev 29:1017–1024

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fritz SC, Baker PA, Tapia PM, Spanbauer T, Westover K (2012) Evolution of the Lake Titicaca basin and its diatom flora over the last ~370,000 years. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 317–318:93–103

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garleff K, Helmut Stingl B, Heinz Veit B (1993) New dates on the late quaternary history of landscape and climate in the Bolsón of Fiambalá/NW Argentina (Province Catamarca). Zbl Geol Paläont Teil I 1–2:333–341

    Google Scholar 

  • Grootes PM, Stuiver M, White JWC, Johnsen SJ, Jouzel J (1993) Comparison of oxygen isotope records from the GISP2 and GRIP Greenland ice cores. Nature 366:552–554

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haberzettl T, Kuck B, Wulf S, Anselmetti F, Ariztegui D, Corbella H, Fey M, Janssen S, Lücke A, Mayr C, Ohlendorf C, Schäbitz F, Schleser GH, Wille M, Zolitschka B (2008) Hydrological variability in southeastern Patagonia and explosive volcanic activity in the southern Andean Cordillera during oxygen isotope stage 3 and the Holocene inferred from lake sediments of Laguna Potrok Aike, Argentina. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 259:213–229

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hansen BCS, Wright HE Jr, Bradbury JP (1984) Pollen studies in the Junín area, central Peruvian Andes. Geol Soc Am Bull 95:1454–1465

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hassan GS, De Francesco CG, Dieguez S (2013) The significance of modern diatoms as paleoenvironmental indicators along an altitudinal gradient in the of central Argentina. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 369:249–360

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leduc G, Vidal L, Tachikawa K, Rostek F, Sonzogni C, Beaufort L, Bard E (2007) Moisture transport across Central America as a positive feedback on abrupt climatic changes. Nature 445:908–911

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mackay AW, Jones VJ, Battarbee RW (2003) Approaches to Holocene climate reconstructions using diatoms. In: Mackay AW, Battarbee AW, Birks RW, Oldfield F (eds) Global change in the Holocene, pp 294–309

    Google Scholar 

  • Maidana NI, Seeligmann C (2006) Diatomeas (Bacillariophyceae) de Ambientes Acuáticos de Altura de la Provincia de Catamarca, Argentina. Bol Soc Arg Bot 41(1–2):1–13

    Google Scholar 

  • Markgraf V, Bradbury JP, Fernández J (1986) Bajada de Rahue, Province of Neuquén, Argentina: an interstadial deposit in northern Patagonia. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 56:251–258

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pokras EM (1991) A displaced neritic diatom (Delphineis karstenii) in pelagic sediments of the southeast Atlantic. Mar Micropaleontol 17:311–317

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rabassa J, Ponce JF (2013) The Heinrich and Dansgaard-Oeschger climatic events during marine isotopic stage 3: searching for appropriate times for human colonization of the Americas. Quat Internat 299:94–105

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Recasens C, Ariztegui D, Maidana N, Zolitschka B (2015) Diatoms as indicators of hydrological and climatic changes in Laguna Potrok Aike (Patagonia) since the Late Pleistocene. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 417:309–319

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Romero OE (2010) Changes in style and intensity of production in the Southeastern Atlantic over the last 70,000 yr. Mar Micropal 74:15–28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Romero OE, Leduc G, Vidal L, Fischer G (2011) Millennial variability and long-term changes of the diatom production in the eastern equatorial Pacific during the last glacial cycle. Paleoceanography 26:2212. doi:10.1029/2010PA002099

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rühland K, Paterson AM, Smol JP (2008) Hemispheric-scale patterns of climate-related shifts in planktonic diatoms from North American and European lakes. Global Change Biol 14:2740–2754

    Google Scholar 

  • Rühland K, Paterson A, Smol JP (2015) Lake diatom responses to warming: reviewing the evidence. J Paleolimnol 54:1–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smol JP, Douglas MSV (2007) From controversy to consensus: making the case for recent climate change in the Arctic using lake sediments. Frontiers Ecol Environ 5:466–474

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sylvestre F, Servant-Vildary S, Roux M (2001) Diatom-based ionic concentration and salinity models from the south Bolivian Altiplano (15–23 degrees South). J Paleolimnol 25:279–295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tapia PM, Fritz SC, Seltzer GO, Rodbell DT, Metivier SP (2006) Contemporary distribution and late-quaternary stratigraphy of diatoms in the Junín Plain, Central Andes, Peru. Bol Soc Geol Perú 101:19–42

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright HE Jr (1983) Late Pleistocene glaciation and climate around the Junín Plain, central Peruvian highlands. Geogr Ann 65A(1–2):35–43

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Geología de Costas y del Cuaternario, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, CC 722 7600, Mar del Plata, Argentina

    Marcela Alcira Espinosa

  2. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras, CONICET-UNMDP, CC 722 7600, Mar del Plata, Argentina

    Marcela Alcira Espinosa

Authors
  1. Marcela Alcira Espinosa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marcela Alcira Espinosa .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Museo de La Plata División Paleontología Vertebrados, Universidad Nacional de La Plata Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, La Plata, Argentina

    Germán Mariano Gasparini

  2. Laboratoria de Geomorfología, CADIC-CONICET, Ushuaia, Argentina

    Jorge Rabassa

  3. División Paleontología Vertebrados, Museo de La Plata, La Plata, Argentina

    Cecilia Deschamps

  4. División Paleontología Vertebrados, Universidad Nacional de La Plata Museo de La Plata, La Plata, Argentina

    Eduardo Pedro Tonni

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Espinosa, M.A. (2016). Response of Diatoms to Late Quaternary Climate Changes. In: Gasparini, G., Rabassa, J., Deschamps, C., Tonni, E. (eds) Marine Isotope Stage 3 in Southern South America, 60 KA B.P.-30 KA B.P.. Springer Earth System Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40000-6_16

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation