Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The North Atlantic Current is an important conveyor of heat and moisture to the high northern latitudes. The proposed research aims to reconstruct sea-surface conditions numerically in the North Atlantic for the past 4.9 million years as means of assessing the fluctuating influence of the North Atlantic Current over time. Such reconstructions are critical for understanding the ocean-climate system and validating computer-generated climate simulations. Described as the "dancing dust of the sea", dinoflagellates are mostly free-swimming cells and rank among the most important primary producers in today's oceans. Their organic-walled cysts, "dinocysts", are now routinely used in quantitative reconstructions of later Quaternary marine environments, especially at higher latitudes. The analysis of their fossil record allows us to reconstruct both summer and winter sea-surface temperature and salinity, the duration of sea-ice cover, and even levels of nutrient enrichment. The proposed research examines dinocysts at very high temporal resolution across seven time intervals (each about 100 thousand years duration or less) of critical paleoclimatic interest for the Pliocene through Holocene. Material will be examined from across the North Atlantic region based on existing deep-sea core material. Assemblages will be calibrated using a novel method that obtains stable isotopes and Mg/Ca ratios to serve as fully independent proxies for climate change, allowing precise tuning to an orbital timescale. Results will provide new insights into the timing and causes of Northern Hemisphere glaciations, past episides of global warming, and indeed the very mechanisms of climate change. The oil sands of Alberta place Canada second after Saudi Arabia in global oil reserves. Vitrinite reflectance and palynofacies analyses of selected units with in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin will elucidate the potential source rocks of the Alberta oil sands, and help assess in-situ transformation of the oil. Source rock analysis will allow oil migration routes to be plotted, aiding oil exploration/exploitation in the region.