Terrestrial and marine cenozoic palynology: high latitude biostratigraphy, ecostratigraphy and stable isotope stratigraphy

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Spores and pollen occur abundantly as tiny fossils in sediments and can be identified by palynologists to make comparisons with similar species in the modern vegetation.  They can be used to reconstruct changes in ancient vegetation that occurred as the climate warmed and cooled through the Cenozoic (the last 65 million years).  Northern Canada is particularly susceptible to vegetational changes linked to climatic fluctuations because for the last several tens of millions of years it has occupied a high latitude position close to the North Pole where small changes can lead to large effects.  This research program focuses on an Arctic sedimentary basin developed under the Mackenzie Delta and adjacent Beaufort Sea which is important for petroleum production and also because it contains a record of climate change in deep time.  The results of this research will clarify how climates have changed in Canada over long periods of time, and particularly will shed light on extreme warm climates which occurred 50-60 million years ago on the one hand, and the onset of very cool conditions and the eventual freeze-up leading to the glaciation of much of Canada in the geologically recent past, starting perhaps 15 million years ago.  Tiny single celled algae (dinoflagellates) also occur in sediments deposited on the sea floor, and their rapid evolution can be used to accurately calibrate times of climate change and also determine the nature of the early Arctic Ocean, when it was formed, and its changing salinity.  This research has practical applications which can be immediately used in the oil and gas industry because it provides information for the exploration geologist on when and how rocks from deep oil and gas wells were deposited.