Correlation between faunal transitions of benthic foraminifera and ballasting of particulate organic carbon by siliceous plankton during the Holocene off San-in district,southwestern Japan

Abstract

We investigated the biotic response of benthic foraminifera (Rhizaria) to Holocene paleoceanographic changes in a upper bathyal environment by examining fossil benthic foraminifera younger than ~13 ka from core GH87-2-308 (316-m water depth) off San-in district, southwestern Japan. A non-metric multidimensional scaling (nm-MDS) analysis enabled the distinction of three main benthic foraminiferal assemblages and two faunal transitions. The phase 1 to 2 transition at 11.3 ka was characterized by a rapid decrease in species diversity followed by its gradual recovery and a shift toward present-day fauna. The phase 2 to 3 transition at ~7 ka was characterized by continuation of the shift toward present-day fauna as the Tsushima Warm Current developed and approached its present-day form. The nm-MDS axis 1 was negatively correlated with the radiolarian accumulation rate at this site and with the radiolarian and diatom accumulation rates of neighbor core D-GC-6, suggesting that benthic foraminifera responded to ballasting of particulate organic carbon (POC) with siliceous plankton skeletons. Furthermore, a decrease in the benthic foraminiferal accumulation rate during late phase 2 (~9–7 ka), when warm-water planktonic foraminifera were common, can be attributed to a decreased food supply from the surface ocean because of reduced paleoproductivity beneath a warmer, more stratified surface ocean, possibly accompanied by enhanced remineralization of POC, in response to strengthening of the Tsushima Warm Current. Thus, the benthic foraminifera at upper bathyal depth off San-in district appear to have responded to surface oceanographic changes, suggesting coupling of surface and bottom biota.

Keywords

ballasting of particulate organic carbon benthic foraminifera remineralization siliceous plankton Tsushima Warm Current

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Akimoto

Hasegawa

(1989) Bathymetric distribution of the recent benthic foraminifers around Japan – As a contribution to the new paleobathymetric scale. Geological Society of Japan, Memoirs 32: 229–240 (in Japanese with English abstract).

Alegret

Thomas

Lohman

(2012) End-Cretaceous marine mass extinction not caused by productivity collapse. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 109: 728–732.

Domitsu

Oda

(2005) Japan Sea planktic foraminifera in surface sediments: Geographical distribution and relationships to surface water mass. Paleontological Research 9: 255–270.

Domitsu

Oda

(2006) Linkages between surface and deep circulations in the southern Japan Sea during the last 27,000 years: Evidence from planktic foraminiferal assemblages and stable isotope records. Marine Micropaleontology 61: 155–170.

Domitsu

Oda

(2008) Holocene influx of the Tsushima Current into the Japan Sea signalled by spatial and temporal changes in Neogloboquadrina incompta distribution. The Holocene 18: 345–352.

Francois

Honjo

Krishfield

et al . (2002) Factors controlling the flux of organic carbon to the bathypelagic zone of the ocean. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 16: 34–1–34–20.

Gallagher

Kitamura

Iyu

et al . (2015) The Pliocene to recent history of the Kuroshio and Tsushima Currents: A multi-proxy approach. Progress in Earth and Planetary Science 2: 17.

Gamo

Nozaki

Sakai

et al . (1986) Spatial and temporal variations in the Japan Sea bottom water. Journal of Marine Research 44: 781–793.

Gooday

(2003) Benthic foraminifera (Protista) as tools in deep-water paleoceanography: A review of environmental influences on faunal characteristics. Advances in Marine Biology 46: 1–90.

10.

Hasegawa

(1979) Foraminifera of Himi Group, Hokuriku Province, central Japan. Science Reports of the Research Institutes, Tohoku University 49: 89–163.

11.

Henson

Sanders

Madsen

(2012) Global patterns in efficiency of particulate organic carbon export and transfer to the deep ocean. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 26: GB1028.

12.

Herguera

Berger

(1991) Paleoproductivity from benthonic foraminifera abundance glacial to postglacial change in the west-equatorial Pacific. Geology 19: 1173–1176.

13.

Ikehara

Kikkawa

Katayama

et al . (1994) Late Quaternary paleoceanography of the Japan Sea: A tephrochronological and sedimentelogical study. In: Juvingne

(ed.) Quaternary Environmental Changes: Proceedings of the 29th International Geological Congress, Part B. Utrecht: VSP, pp. 229–235.

14.

Inoue

(1989) Northwestern Pacific foraminifera as paleoenvironmental indicators. Science Reports of the Institute of Geoscience, University of Tsukuba, Section B 10: 57–162.

15.

Itaki

Ikehara

Motoyama

et al . (2004) Abrupt ventilation changes in marginal sea of NW Pacific over the last 30 kyr: Evidence from deep-dwelling Radiolaria in the Japan Sea. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 208: 263–278.

16.

Itaki

Komatsu

Motoyama

(2007) Orbital- and millennial-scale changes of radiolarian assemblages during the last 220 kyrs in the Japan Sea. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 247: 115–130.

17.

John

Pearson

Coxall

et al . (2013) Warm ocean processes and carbon cycling in the Eocene. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences 371: 20130099.

18.

Jorissen

Fontanier

Thomas

(2007) Paleoceanographical proxies based on deep-sea benthic foraminiferal assemblage characteristics. In: Hillaire-Marcel

De Vernal

(eds) Proxies in Late Cenozoic Paleoceanography, vol. 1. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 263–326.

19.

Katayama

Ikehara

(1988) Surface sediments in areas extending from off San’in to Hokuriku regions. In: Arita

Moritani

(eds) Preliminary Reports of Geological Mapping Program of the Continental Shelf Areas in Japan in 1987. Tsukuba: Geological Survey of Japan, pp. 69–105 (in Japanese).

20.

Kato

(1984) Japan Sea since the last glacial age: Foraminifera-Mainly based on analysis of core KH-79–3, C-3. Chikyu (Monthly, the Earth) 6: 529–536 (in Japanese).

21.

Kato

(1992) Benthic foraminifers from the Japan Sea: Leg 128. Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results 127–128(Pt. 1): 365–392.

22.

Kitamura

Kimoto

(2007) Eccentricity cycles shown by early Pleistocene planktonic foraminifers of the Omma Formation, Sea of Japan. Global and Planetary Change 55: 273–283.

23.

Koizumi

(2008) Diatom-derived SSTs (Td′ ratio) indicate warm seas off Japan during the middle Holocene (8.2–3.3 kyr BP). Marine Micropaleontology 69: 263–281.

24.

Koizumi

Tada

Narita

et al . (2006) Paleoceanographic history around the Tsugaru Strait between the Japan Sea and the Northwestern Pacific Ocean since 30 cal kyr BP. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 232: 36–52.

25.

Kuzmin

Burr

Gorbunov

et al . (2007) A tale of two seas: Reservoir age correction values (R, ΔR) for the Sakhalin Island (Sea of Japan and Okhotsk Sea). Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms 259: 460–462.

26.

Lee

Bahk

Narita

(2003) Temporal variations in productivity and planktonic ecological structure in the East Sea (Japan Sea) since the last glaciation. Geo-Marine Letters 23: 125–129.

27.

Loeblich

Tappan

Jr (1987) Foraminiferal Genera and Their Classification. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 970 pp and 847 plates.

28.

Matoba

(1967) Younger Cenozoic foraminiferal assemblages from the Choshi district, Chiba Prefecture. Science Reports of the Research Institutes, Tohoku University 38: 221–263.

29.

Matoba

Honma

(1986) Depth distribution of recent benthic foraminifera off Nishitsugaru, eastern Sea of Japan. In: Matoba

Kato

(eds) Studies on Cenozoic Benthic Foraminifera in Japan. Akita: Akita University, pp. 53–78 (in Japanese with English abstract).

30.

Nishida

Ikehara

(2013) Holocene evolution of depositional processes off southwest Japan: Response to the Tsushima Warm Current and sea-level rise. Sedimentary Geology 290: 138–148.

31.

Nomura

(1983a) Cassidulinidae (Foraminiferidae) from the uppermost Cenozoic of Japan (part 1). Science Reports of the Research Institutes, Tohoku University 53: 1–101.

32.

Nomura

(1983b) Cassidulinidae (Foraminiferidae) from the uppermost Cenozoic of Japan (part 2). Science Reports of the Research Institutes, Tohoku University 54: 1–93.

33.

Nomura

(1999) Miocene cassidulinid foraminifera from Japan. Paleontological Society of Japan, Special Papers 38: 1–69.

34.

Oba

Kato

Kitazato

et al . (1991) Paleoenvironmental changes in the Japan Sea during the last 85,000 years. Paleoceanography 6: 499–518.

35.

Oksanen

Blamchert

Kindt

et al . (2010) Vegan: Community Ecology Package. R package version v. 1. 17. 4. Available at: http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/vegan/index.html.

36.

Paillard

Labeyrie

Yiou

(1996) Macintosh program performs time-series analysis. Eos Trans. AGU 77: 379. Available at: http://www.agu.org/eos_elec/96097e.html.

37.

R Development Core Team (2010) R: A Language and Environments for Statistical Computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Available at: http://www.R-project.org.

38.

Saito

Thompson

Breger

(1981) Systematic index of recent and Pleistocene planktonic foraminifera. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 190 pp.

39.

Stuiver

Reimer

(1993) Extended ¹⁴C database and revised CALIB radiocarbon calibration program. Radiocarbon 35: 215–230.

40.

Stuiver

Reimer

(2005) CALIB 5.0 (WWW program and documentation). Available at: http://calib.qub.ac.uk/calib/manual/.

41.

Sun

Corliss

Shower

(2006) The effect of primary productivity and seasonality on the distribution of deep-sea benthic foraminifera in the North Atlantic. Deep-Sea Research, Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers 53: 28–47.

42.

Tada

Irino

Koizumi

(1999) Land-ocean linkages over orbital and millennial timescales recorded in late Quaternary sediments of the Japan Sea. Paleoceanography 14: 236–247.

43.

Tada

Koizumi

Cramp

et al . (1992) Correlation of dark and light layers, and the origin of their cyclicity in the Quaternary sediments from the Japan Sea (ed Pisciotto

Ingle

Jr von Breymann

et al .). Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results 127–128(Pt. 1): 577–601.

44.

Tada

Murray

Alvarez Zarikian

et al . (2015) Site U1427. In: Tada

Murray

Alvarez Zarikian

et al . (eds) Proceedings of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), vol. 346. College Station, TX: IODP. DOI: 10.2204/iodp.proc.346.102.2015.

45.

Takata

Itaki

Ikehara

et al . (2006) Significant Tsushima Warm Current during the early-middle Holocene along the San-in district coast inferred from foraminiferal profiles. The Quaternary Research 45: 249–256 (in Japanese with English abstract).

46.

Tanigawa

Hyodo

Sato

(2013) Holocene relative sea-level change and rate of sea-level rise from coastal deposits in the Toyooka Basin, western Japan. The Holocene 23: 1038–1051.

47.

Thomas

(2007) Cenozoic mass extinctions in the deep sea: What perturbs the largest habitat on Earth? The Geological Society of America, Special Paper 424: 1–23.

48.

Usami

Ohi

Hasegawa

et al . (2013) Foraminiferal records of bottom-water oxygenation and surface-water productivity in the southern Japan Sea during 160–15 ka: Associations with insolation changes. Marine Micropaleontology 101: 10–27.

49.

Yasuhara

Cronin

deMenocal

et al . (2008) Abrupt climate change and collapse of deep-sea ecosystems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105: 1556–1560.

50.

Yasuhara

Hunt

Cronin

et al . (2012) Climate forcing of Quaternary deep-sea benthic communities in the North Pacific Ocean. Paleobiology 38: 162–179.

51.

Yokoyama

Kido

Tada

et al . (2007) Japan Sea oxygen isotope stratigraphy and global sea-level changes for the last 50,000 years recorded in sediment cores from the Oki Ridge. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 247: 5–17.