The Arctic Ostracode Database provides species census data for about 100 species of benthic marine Ostracoda from modern surface and late Quaternary sediments from various parts of the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas. Ostracodes are a microfossil group of bivalved Crustacea that secrete a calcareous shell commonly preserved in sediments in the Arctic region. Because many ostracode species have ecological limits controlled by temperature, salinity, oxygen, food and other factors, they can provide an important tool for paleoceanographic reconstruction in the Arctic. Some recent applications of ostracodes to understanding Arctic Ocean history include Briggs (1983), Reimnitz et al. (1983, 1992), McDougall et al. (1986), Clark et al.(1990), Pak et al. (1992), Brouwers et al. (1991), Cronin et al. (1993, 1994, 1995), Penney (1993a,b), Nurnberg et al. (1994), and Briggs and Mudie (in prep.).
Ostracodes are a microfossil group of bivalved Crustacea that secrete a calcareous shell commonly preserved in sediments in the Arctic region. Because many ostracode species have ecological limits controlled by temperature, salinity, oxygen, food and other factors, they can provide an important tool for paleoceanographic reconstruction in the Arctic.
All files are tab-delimited ASCII text, meaning that columns are separated by the tab character (ASCII 9). It should be straightforward to import these data into a spreadsheet or database application, provided the tab characters are preserved during the transfer across the network. To ensure that the tabs are preserved, load the files directly to your local disk, don't save them from a web browser's display window.
Mail Stop 955, National Center
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We are grateful to the shipboard scientists and crews of cruises who obtained Arctic cores and samples that provided the material for this database. We are also especially appreciative of the following colleagues who have freely and kindly provided material for ostracode study: Dr. J. T. Andrews, K. Foley, Prof. D. Fütterer, Dr. A. Grantz, Dr. S. Ishman, Dr. E. Reimnitz, Dr. P. Barnes, Dr. S. Lehman, Dr. A. Mackensen, Dr. D. Nurnberg, Dr. L. Polyak, Dr. R.Z. Poore, Dr. R. Spielhagen, Dr. R. Stein, Prof. J. Thiede, Dr. C. Vogt, Dr. J. Wollenburg. Much of the ostracode research was supported by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Global Change and Climate History Program, in collaboration with INSTAAR (University of Colorado) and the Institute of Earth Studies, Aberystwyth, (University College, Wales), and with assistance from the Alfred Wegener Institute (Bremerhaven) and GEOMAR (Kiel). Most of the taxonomy of this database was agreed upon at a conference on deep-sea Ostracoda held in summer, 1993, at the USGS in Reston, Virginia, sponsored by the USGS Global Change and Climate History Program.
The data set was compiled on a Macintosh IIci, using Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word.
Most of the 103 categories represent individual ostracode species; a few (i.e., Polycope) are genus-level categories, used because the taxonomy of a particular genus is not well understood. Category 100 represents "other", unidentified species. Category 101 includes ice- rafted ostracodes (IRO) representing shallow water species believed to be transported into deeper water sediments by Arctic Ocean sea- ice. Category 103 represents taxa from the Atlantic Ocean.
The contributors to the Arctic Ostracode Database generally agree on the taxonomic identification of most Arctic ostracodes, although additional work is required in some groups such as Cytheropteron. Readers are referred to the following sources and the references therein for formal taxonomic treatment of Arctic taxa: Sars (1866, 1922-28), Elofson (1941), Neale and Howe (1975), Joy and Clark (1977), Cronin (1981; 1988), Whatley (1982), Penney (1989), Hartmann (1992), Whatley and Coles (1987), and Whatley and Eynon (1995).
Water depths are not available for the following samples:Alaska 66 S5-77-BS-29 S5-77-BS-16 S5-77-BS-18 S5-77-BS-27 Alpha-H #9 Alpha-H #4 Bart. LT 27 Hazel 8 AW-EH-2 Barnes 44-80 Barnes 45-80 Eluitkit Pass AW-R-1 Thule, N. Sta.Bay (2) AW-CFNeither geographic location nor water depth is available for core Pl88-AR-BC22
A recent application of ostracodes to understanding Arctic Ocean history
A recent application of ostracodes to understanding Arctic Ocean history
A recent application of ostracodes to understanding Arctic Ocean history
A recent application of ostracodes to understanding Arctic Ocean history
Contains and refers to formal taxonomic treatment of Arctic ostracode taxa
Contains and refers to formal taxonomic treatment of Arctic ostracode taxa
Described a Modern Arctic Ostracode Database (MAOD) that included mostly shallow water samples from four repository laboratories: Aberystwyth (Institute of Earth Studies, University College Wales, R.C. Whatley and A. Wood), Boulder, Colorado (INSTAAR, University of Colorado, W.M. Briggs, Jr.), Denver, Colorado (U.S. Geological Survey, E.M. Brouwers), Reston, Virginia (U.S. Geological Survey, T.M. Cronin). MAOD gave the longitude, latitude, water depth of the samples and the repository for each. Most of the shallow water samples from MAOD containing more than 20 individual specimens of ostracodes are included in this modern sample database (several sites from latitudes below 50°N were excluded); taxonomy for a few species was updated and a few typographical errors were corrected.
A recent application of ostracodes to understanding Arctic Ocean history
Provided species census data from 43 coretop samples obtained during the 1991 cruise of the Polarstern to the Arctic Ocean. A recent application of ostracodes to understanding Arctic Ocean history
Provided additional coretop ostracode census data from other deep water regions of the Arctic and the adjacent Nordic Seas obtained during several Polarstern and Meteor cruises and the 1992 Polar Star cruise to the Northwind Ridge region, Canada Basin. Describes the Modern Analog Technique of quantitative analyses A recent application of ostracodes to understanding Arctic Ocean history
Contains and refers to formal taxonomic treatment of Arctic ostracode taxa
Station data for 43 coretop samples obtained during the 1991 cruise of the Polarstern to the Arctic Ocean
Surface sample data from the 1993 Polarstern cruise to the Barents and Laptev Seas
Contains and refers to formal taxonomic treatment of Arctic ostracode taxa
Contains and refers to formal taxonomic treatment of Arctic ostracode taxa
A recent application of ostracodes to understanding Arctic Ocean history
Contains and refers to formal taxonomic treatment of Arctic ostracode taxa
A recent application of ostracodes to understanding Arctic Ocean history
A recent application of ostracodes to understanding Arctic Ocean history
Contains and refers to formal taxonomic treatment of Arctic ostracode taxa
A recent application of ostracodes to understanding Arctic Ocean history
A recent application of ostracodes to understanding Arctic Ocean history
A recent application of ostracodes to understanding Arctic Ocean history
A recent application of ostracodes to understanding Arctic Ocean history
Contains and refers to formal taxonomic treatment of Arctic ostracode taxa
Contains and refers to formal taxonomic treatment of Arctic ostracode taxa
Contains and refers to formal taxonomic treatment of Arctic ostracode taxa
Contains and refers to formal taxonomic treatment of Arctic ostracode taxa
Contains and refers to formal taxonomic treatment of Arctic ostracode taxa
Each assemblage is further documented by the number of each of 101 taxa of ostracode specimens found in it. For each of these taxa, the label used in the data files is TaxonXXX where XXX is the number of the taxon, an arbitrary designation related to a more formal scientific reference in the file taxa.txt.
Mail Stop 955, National Center
12201 Sunrise Valley Drive
Mail Stop 955, National Center
12201 Sunrise Valley Drive