The relationship between global warming/cooling and shallow marine environments in the Sea of Japan during the Pliocene

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Fossil ostracode and planktonic foraminiferal faunal analyses and trace element analysis of ostracode valves were conducted to reconstruct paleoenvironments such as timing of inflow of warm-water current, relative sea-level changes, and paleotemperature, in the Sea of Japan during the Pliocene. As a result, the inflow of the warm-water current to the Sea of Japan started at 3.66-ca. 3.4 Ma and it occurred frequently afterwards. Sea-level lowering possibly caused by the global cooling at MIS M2 was found and the decrease in water depth was estimated at 50 m at most. On the basis of Mg/Ca ratio of ostracode valves, paleotemperature in the intermediate water mass off Niigata was probably ca. 5 °C higher than now.