The ecology and biostratigraphy of Lower Cretaceous foraminifera of the North Sea Basin

Castañeda Venegas, Juan Pablo ORCID: 0000-0002-7593-5105 (2023). The ecology and biostratigraphy of Lower Cretaceous foraminifera of the North Sea Basin. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

The Early Cretaceous witnessed a progressive rise in global sea level (following the marked global low stand at the end of the Jurassic). Global temperature also rose, and species richness increased for some calcifying marine organisms – gastropods, bivalves, ostracods, calcareous nannoplankton, and foraminifera among them. This project investigates Early Cretaceous foraminiferal assemblages from a range of
depositional settings and palaeodepths in the North Sea Basin and the surrounding region to study the impact of global and local environmental changes on foraminifera communities from both shallow and deep-water. This study will aim at understanding key ecological shifts that ultimately provided the opportunity for diversification within the foraminifera. The fossil material studied was obtained from the following sites: 1. Filey Bay outcrop section, and 2. North Fordon G1 borehole from the Cleveland Basin in Yorkshire, which represent the shelfal environment. 3. 16/26-B3, and 4. 15/30-7 ST2 boreholes from the Britannia Field in the Witch Ground Graben. 5. North Jens-1 borehole from the Danish Central Graben. The last three sites represent the upper bathyal environment. The results of this project provided information regarding three initial hypotheses involving increasing species richness and ecological niches expansion for planktic, benthic calcareous and agglutinated foraminifera as each of
these foraminiferal groups was found to increase in species richness and abundance in specific stages of the Lower Cretaceous. However, for agglutinated foraminifera, their initial hypothesis could not be confirmed entirely because the palaeodepths of the upper bathyal environment were not significant enough to develop a proper deep-water agglutinated foraminiferal assemblage.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):

Supervisor(s)	Email	ORCID
Boomer, Ian	UNSPECIFIED	orcid.org/0000-0003-1276-2179
Edgar, Kirsty	UNSPECIFIED	orcid.org/0000-0001-7587-9951
Bailey, Haydon	UNSPECIFIED	orcid.org/0000-0003-4686-5395