Pliocene Global Warming: An ostracodal and sedimentological analysis of the Coralline Crag Formation, Suffolk Dale Tromans Submitted version deposited in Coventry University’s Institutional Repository Original citation: Tromans, D. (2017) Pliocene Global Warming: An ostracodal and sedimentological analysis of the Coralline Crag Formation, Suffolk . Unpublished MSC by Research Thesis Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Some materials have been removed from this thesis due to Third Party Copyright. Pages where material has been removed are clearly marked in the electronic version. 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Pliocene Global Warming: An ostracodal and sedimentological analysis of the Coralline Crag Formation, Suffolk By Dale Tromans MScR September 2017 A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the University’s requirements for the Degree of Master of Science by Research Contents List of Figures ............................................................................................................................. ii List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. vi List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................ vii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ viii Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... ix 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 2. Literature Review .............................................................................................................. 3 2.1 The Cenozoic Era ....................................................................................................... 3 2.2 The Neogene Period ................................................................................................. 5 2.3 The Pliocene Epoch ................................................................................................... 6 2.4 Uniformitarianism and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction ................................ 9 2.5. Plio-Pleistocene Sediments .................................................................................... 10 2.6 Fossil proxies ........................................................................................................... 14 2.7 Mutual Climatic Range (MCR) ................................................................................ 20 2.8 Earth systems for climate modelling ...................................................................... 23 2.9 Climate modelling comparison projects ................................................................ 25 2.10 Limitations of Pliocene Data ................................................................................... 27 2.11 Improving the reliability of Pliocene modelling .................................................... 28 2.12 Summary ................................................................................................................. 28 3. Methodology ................................................................................................................... 29 3.1 Field Data Collection ............................................................................................... 29 3.2 Laboratory Data Collection ..................................................................................... 31 3.3 Sedimentary logs .................................................................................................... 32 3.4 Approaches in Climatic Reconstruction ................................................................. 33 3.5 Mutual Climatic Range method (MCR) .................................................................. 34 3.6 Mutual Climate Range ............................................................................................ 37 3.7 Multivariate methods of analysis ........................................................................... 40 3.8 Binary Similarity Coefficient method ..................................................................... 41 3.9 Cluster analysis ....................................................................................................... 42 3.10 Simpson and Margalef indices ............................................................................... 44 4. Results ............................................................................................................................. 45 4.1 Sedimentary logs .................................................................................................... 45 4.2 Genera temperature envelopes and MCR ............................................................. 47 4.3 Mutual Climatic Ranges and temperature reconstruction .................................... 50 4.4 Multivariate Analysis .............................................................................................. 60 4.5 Cluster Analysis ....................................................................................................... 63 4.6 Simpson and Margalef index values ...................................................................... 65 4.7 Summary ................................................................................................................. 66 5. Analysis and Discussion .................................................................................................. 67 5.1 Sedimentary log locations and members .............................................................. 67 5.2 Comparison of Ramsholt and Sudbourne members MCRs ................................... 80 5.3 Dice binary similarity coefficient ............................................................................ 86 5.4 Species hierarchical clustering analysis ................................................................. 89 5.5 Coralline Crag Formation temperature range from MCR ...................................... 91 5.6 Comparison with published palaeotemperature reconstructions ........................ 92 5.7 Summary ................................................................................................................. 94 6. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 95 6.1 Avenues for future research and improvements................................................... 96 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 98 APPENDICES .......................................................................................................................... 116 APPENDIX A ....................................................................................................................... 117 APPENDIX B ....................................................................................................................... 139 APPENDIX C ....................................................................................................................... 165 i List of Figures Figure 2.1. The subdivisions of the Cenozoic Era (Gradstein et al. 2012). Figure 2.2. Neogene timescale variation and adjustments since 1937 (Gradstein et al. 2012). Figure 2.3. Global surface temperatures for the a) Cenozoic, and b) Late Neogene to Present Day, green lines identifying mPWP (Hansen et al. 2013). Figure 2.4. Geographic location and distribution of the East Anglian Crags of Pliocene age (Wood et al. 2009). Figure 2.5. Location of the Coralline Crag outcrop in Suffolk (Balson et al. 1993; Long and Zalasiewicz, 2011). Figure 2.6. The Coralline Crag Formation, with red line distinguishing boundaries for Ramsholt and Sudbourne members at Sutton Knoll (52.04N 1.36E), spade and trowel for scale. Figure 2.7. Internal organs of an ostracod with right valve removed (Smith, 2017). Figure 2.8. Geological timescale for the deposition of the Coralline Crag, Red Crag and Norwich Crag Formations, red lines highlighting hiatus between Coralline and Red Crag formations (Lisiecki and Raymo, 2005; Wood et al. 2009). Figure 2.9. Taphonomy of ostracods from a high energy depositional environment (Boomer, Horne and Slipper, 2003). Figure 2.10. Recent (numbered points) and Fossil (un-numbered) mean summer and winter temperature envelopes for the North Sea and Red Crag Formation, with modern day bottom water temperatures shown (Wood, 2012). Figure 3.1. Location of sample sites in Suffolk, United Kingdom (Google Earth, 2017). Figure 3.2. Cross bedded section from Richmond Farm used for sediment logging showing the Sudbourne Member, tape measure for scale at 2m with digitised log adjacent. Figure 3.3. Aurila localities from the Wood binary database (unpublished data) where temperatures were sampled. Figure