Spatial distribution of the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi in the Pacific Ocean sector of the Antarctic Ocean: new data for paleoembiromental reconstruction and characterization of biostratigraphic events

Abstract

A specific biometric study of coccoliths of Emiliania huxleyi has been accomplished on 25 surface water samples from the eastern Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean. In all samples, E. huxleyi is the most abundant taxon, accounting always more than 85% of the assemblage. An automatic analysis of E. huxleyi was carried out, in order to characterize and compare specimens from this region with other described. The data show that all E. huxleyi specimens corresponds with the Type C (Young y Westbroek, 1991), and no major variations occur between samples recovered under influence of PF and SAF. On the other hand, this is the southernmost record of E. huxleyi in the Pacific Ocea