Oligocene–Miocene paleoceanography off the Wilkes Land Margin (East Antarctica) based on organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts

Next to atmospheric CO 2 concentrations, oceanographic conditions are a critical factor determining the stability of Antarctic marine-terminating ice sheets. The Oligocene and Miocene epochs (~ 34–5 Ma) were time intervals with atmospheric CO 2 concentrations between those of present-day and those expected for the near future. As such, these time intervals may bear information to resolve the uncertainties that still exist in the projection of future ice-sheet volume decline. We present organic-walled dinoflagellate cyst (dinocyst) assemblages from chronostratigraphically well-constrained Oligocene to mid-Miocene sediments from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition (IODP) Site U1356. Situated offshore the Wilkes Land continental margin, East Antarctica, the sediment core has archived past dynamics of an ice sheet that is today mostly grounded below sea level. We interpret dinocyst assemblages in terms of paleoceanographic change on different time scales, i.e., on glacial-interglacial and long-term variability. Sea-ice indicators occur only for the first 1.5 Ma following the full Antarctic continental glaciation during the early Oligocene, and after the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum. During the remainder of the Oligocene and Miocene dinocysts suggest a weaker-than-modern sea-ice season. The assemblages generally bear strong similarity to present-day open-ocean, high-nutrient settings north of the sea ice edge, with episodic dominance of temperate species similar to the present-day subtropical front. Oligotrophic and temperate surface waters prevailed over the site notably during interglacial time intervals, suggesting that the position of the (subpolar) oceanic frontal systems have varied in concordance with Oligocene-Miocene glacial-interglacial climate variability.