Guest Expert: Dr. Brian Huber
Dr. Brian T. Huber, Smithsonian Institution
Date of Webinar: December 6, 2011, 8:00pm EST
Topic: Planktonic foraminifera and what they can tell us about how Earth’s environment has changed during the past 120 million years
Title: Foraminiferal Evidence of Dramatic Climate and Ocean Change During the Cretaceous Period
Description: Climate change during the geological past can be detected from chemical analysis of the calcium carbonate shells of foraminifera, which are single-celled organisms that have an extensive fossil record in ancient marine sediments. By measuring the ratios of oxygen-18 and oxygen 16 in well preserved shells of planktonic (floating) and benthic (seafloor dwelling) foraminifera the temperature of the ocean surface and ocean bottom can be reconstructed through time. This presentation will discuss evidence for climate and ocean chemistry change that affected the diversity and distribution of planktonic foraminifera at three times between 113 and 65 million years ago in the Cretaceous Period.
Guest Expert Bio: Brian Huber received his Ph.D. from the Ohio State University in 1988 and become Curator of Foraminifera at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History immediately afterward. His research has focused on Cretaceous and Paleogene paleoclimate and Paleoceanography, evolutionary dynamics and extinction of Cretaceous and Paleogene planktic foraminifera, and biotic and paleoenvironmental changes across mid-Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Events. He has done land-based field studies of marine sediments in Antarctica, southern South America, Spain, Tanzania, and deep-sea research on the JOIDES Resolution in the southern Indian Ocean (ODP Leg 119) and off the coast of northern Florida (ODP Leg 171B). He has authored over 95 articles and three books, he has supervised 18 undergraduate interns, three pre-doctoral students, and ten post-doctoral researchers, and he served as advisor to one Ph.D. student. He currently serves on the editorial boards for four international journals and is Chairman of the Department of Paleobiology.
Dr. Huber’s Presentation:
Foraminiferal evidence of dramatic climate and ocean change during the Cretaceous Period (.pdf)
Watch the Webinar! (.wmv)
Additional Resources about Planktonic Foraminifera:
Planktic Foraminiferal Species Turnover Across Deep-Sea Aptian/Albian Boundary Sections
Huber, B. T., MacLeod, K. G., and Norris, R. D., 2002, Abrupt extinction and subsequent reworking of Cretaceous planktonic foraminifera across the K/T boundary: Evidence from the subtropical North Atlantic: Boulder, CO, Geological Society of America Special Paper 356, p. 277-289.
Huber, B. T., Norris, R. D., and MacLeod, K. G., 2002, Deep sea paleotemperature record of extreme warmth during the Cretaceous: Geology, v. 30, p. 123-126.
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