Reconstruction of late Paleogene (52-23Ma) paleotemperatures from the North Atlantic: how reliable are dinoflagellate cysts as paleoclimatic indicators?

This DFF/FNU funded project (grant no. 11-107497) has a twofold aim: (1) to obtain a temperature record across the major global climatic cooling during the late Paleogene (52-23 million years ago), which introduced the icehouse climate as it exists today. Special focus will be on the two strongest Oligocene cooling events. Paleotemperatures will be obtained from recently developed geochemical proxies (Uk’37 and TEX86) (2) to investigate the link between sea surface temperature trends and dinoflagellate cyst (dinocyst) distribution, in particular to test the reliability of the dinocyst Svalbardella as cold water marker and its potential for paleoclimatic reconstructions in areas where other climatic proxies are unavailable.