HR: 08:45h
AN: PP51F-04 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Antarctic Pliocene Biotic and Environmental Change in a Global Context Changes
AU: * Quilty, P G
EM: P.Quilty@utas.edu.au
AF: School of Earth Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 79, Hobart, Tas 7001 Australia
AU: Whitehead, J
EM: jason.whitehead@utas.edu.au
AF: ACE CRC, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 80, Hobart, Tas 7001 Australia
AB: The Pliocene was globally an interval of dramatic climate change and often compared with the environment evolving through human-induced global change. Antarctic history needs to be integrated into global patterns. The Prydz Bay-Prince Charles Mountains region of East Antarctica is a major source of data on Late Paleozoic-Recent changes in Antarctic biota and environment. This paper reviews what is known of 13 marine transgressions in the Late Neogene of the region and attempts to compare the Antarctic pattern with global patterns, such as those identified through global sequence stratigraphic analysis. Although temporal resolution in Antarctic sections is not always as good as for sections elsewhere, enough data exist to indicate that many events can be construed as part of global changes. It is expected that further correlation will be effected. During much of the Pliocene, there was less continental ice, reduced sea-ice cover, probably higher sea-level, penetration of marine conditions deep into the hinterland, and independent evidence to indicate that this was due to warmth. The Antarctic Polar Frontal Zone probably was much farther south than currently. There have been major changes in the marine fauna, and distribution of surviving species since the mid-Pliocene. Antarctic fish faunas underwent major changes during this interval with evolution of a major new Subfamily and diversification in at least two subfamilies. No palynological evidence of terrestrial vegetation has been recovered from the Prydz Bay - Prince Charles Mountain region. Analysis of origin and extinction data for two global planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphic zonations shows that the interval Late Miocene-Pliocene was an interval of enhanced extinction and evolution, consistent with an interval of more rapid and high amplitude fluctuating environments.
DE: 1621 Cryospheric change (0776)
SC: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology [PP]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005