Ocean and Polar Research

Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology (한국해양과학기술원)
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Records of Holocene Environmental Changes in Terrestrial Sedimentary Deposits on King George Island, Antarctica; A Critical Review

  • Tatur A. (Department of Antarctic Biology, PAS) ;
  • Valle R. Del (Instituto Antartico Argentino) ;
  • Barczuk A. (Department of Geology, Warsaw University) ;
  • Martinez-Macchiavello J. (Museo Argentino de Ciencas Naturales)
  • Published : 2004.09.30
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Abstract

In this study we discuss some problems that emerged from paleolimnological and paleontological investigations of terrestrial Holocene ecosystems on King George Island (South Shetland Islands) conducted by an Argentine-Polish research group. Biological and geochemical markers commonly used in standard analytical procedures are considered insufficient in tracing overlapping records of past environmental changes preserved in peat banks, lake sediments and ornithogenic remnants. Records that might be explained by predictable natural events (related to glacio-isostatic uplift of land), roughly predictable events (ecological succession), or unpredictable events (volcanic eruptions or accidental destruction of aquatic moss) may overlap or interfinger one with another providing that signals of regional and/or global climatic changes, are hardly identifiable. A more sophisticated and more selective methods are recommended to do discrimination between records of local and regional/golbal processes in studies on Holocene climatic history of the South Shetland Islands.

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References

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