Gephyrocapsa Coccolith Abundance and Holocene Paleotemperature Assessment
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               World Data Center for Paleoclimatology, Boulder
                                  and
                     NOAA Paleoclimatology Program
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NOTE: PLEASE CITE CONTRIBUTORS WHEN USING THIS DATA!!!!!

NAME OF DATA SET: Gephyrocapsa Coccolith Abundance and Holocene Paleotemperature Assessment
LAST UPDATE: 7/2002 (Original Receipt by WDC Paleo)

CONTRIBUTORS: Jörg Bollmann and Jorijntje Henderiks 
Geological Institute, ETH Zurich, and Bernhard Brabec,
WSL Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF

IGBP PAGES/WDCA CONTRIBUTION SERIES NUMBER: 2002-056

SUGGESTED DATA CITATION: Bollmann, J., et al., 2002,
Gephyrocapsa Coccolith Abundance and Holocene Paleotemperature Assessment,
IGBP PAGES/World Data Center for Paleoclimatology 
Data Contribution Series # 2002-056.
NOAA/NGDC Paleoclimatology Program, Boulder CO, USA.

ORIGINAL REFERENCE: 
Bollmann, J., J. Henderiks and B. Brabec, 2002, 
Global calibration of Gephyrocapsa coccolith abundance 
in Holocene sediments for paleotemperature assessment, 
Paleoceanography, 10.1029/2001PA000742, 14 August 2002.


ADDITIONAL REFERENCES:
Cachão, M., Distribuição de nanoplâncton calcário em sedimentos 
superficiais da plataforma continental Portuguesa (dados preliminares). 
GAIA 6, 1-9, 1993.

Levitus, S., Boyer, T. Burgett, R. and M. Conkright, World Ocean Atlas 
1998 (WOA98). Ocean Climate Laboratory, National Oceanographic Data 
Center. Data available at http://ferret.wrc.noaa.gov/las/main.html , 1998.

Van Kreveld, S.A., Knappertsbusch, M., Ottens, J., Ganssen, G.M. and Van 
Hinte, J.E., Biogenic carbonate and ice-rafted debris (Heinrich layer) 
accumulation in deep-sea sediments from a Northeast Atlantic piston core, 
Marine Geology, 131 (1-2), 21-46, 1996.

Vogelsang, E. Sarnthein, M. and Pflaumann, U., d18O Stratigraphy, 
Chronology, and Sea Surface Temperatures of Atlantic Sediment Records 
(GLAMAP - 2000 Kiel), Ber. - Rep., Inst. für Geowiss., Universität Kiel, 
Nr. 13, 244p., 2000.


GEOGRAPHIC REGION: Global

PERIOD OF RECORD: Holocene

DESCRIPTION: 
Bollmann et al. 2002 Gephyrocapsa Coccolith Abundance and 
Holocene Paleotemperature Assessment


This data set contains the core location, the relative abundance of 
Gephyrocapsa morphotypes and the sea surface temperatures from all 
deep sea cores used in this study.

All columns are tab-delimited.

Sample identification includes ship, cruise and core number: 
A = Atlantis II, V = VEMA, RC = Robert Conrad, are cores from 
Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory. 
E = Eltanin are cores from Florida State University. 
ERDC = Eurydice, INMD = Indo-Med, PLDS= Pleiades are cores 
from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. 
KC /PR are cores from the Servicos Geologico of Portugal [Cachão, 1993]. 
VM = core from Instituto Geologico e Minereiro of Portugal. 
N = NORESTLANTE III, Instituto Hidrografico of Portugal. 
T = Tyro [van Krefeld et al., 1996]. 
MC = Multi corer cores from Tübingen University. 
MD = Marion Dufrêsnes are cores from the core collection of the 
Museum of Natural History (Paris). 
BTS = Bermuda JGOFS Time Series Station. 
GeoB are cores from the University of Bremen. 
ME = Meteor cores and all cores with only a numerical label are 
from the University of Kiel [Vogelsang et al., 2000]. 
Environmental data are from the World Ocean Atlas [Levitus et al., 1998]. 


N = Number of Gephyrocapsa specimens measured.  
% GC, % GT, % GO, % GE, % GL, % GM = relative proportions of 
morphotypes within the Gephyrocapsa complex. 
TWT = Trigger Weight Top


A global sea surface temperature calibration based on the relative 
abundance of different morphotypes within the coccolithophore genus 
Gephyrocapsa in Holocene deep-sea sediments is presented. There is 
evidence suggesting that absolute sea surface temperature for a given 
location can be calculated from the relative abundance of Gephyrocapsa 
morphotypes in sediment samples, with a standard error comparable to 
temperature estimates derived from other temperature proxies such as 
planktic foraminifera transfer functions. 
A total of 110 Holocene sediment samples were selected from the Pacific, 
Indian and Atlantic Oceans covering a mean sea surface temperature 
gradient from 13.6°C to 29.3°C. Standard multiple linear regression 
analyses were applied to this data set, linking the relative abundance of 
Gephyrocapsa morphotypes to sea surface temperature. The best model 
revealed an r2 of 0.83 with a standard residual error of 1.78°C for the 
estimation of mean sea surface temperature. 
This new proxy provides a unique opportunity for the reconstruction of 
paleotemperatures with a very small amount of sample material due to the 
minute size of coccoliths, permitting examination of thinly laminated 
sediments (e.g., a pinhead of material from laminated sediments for the 
reconstruction of annual sea surface temperature variations). Such fine 
scale resolution is currently not possible with any other proxy. 
Application of this new paleotemperature proxy may allow new 
paleoenvironmental interpretations in the late Quaternary period and 
discrepancies between the different currently used paleotemperature 
proxies might be resolved.