High-resolution calcareous nannoplankton palaeoecology as a proxy for small-scale environmental changes in the Early Miocene

Within a 5.5-m-thick succession of upper Burdigalian (CNP-zone NN4) shallow neritic sediments from the North Alpine Foreland Basin in Lower Austria a high-resolution section of finely laminated sediment with a thickness of 940.5 mm was logged. The section was continuously sampled, resulting in 100 samples, covering a thickness of ~ 10 mm each. An integrated approach was applied to these samples in order to study proxy records including calcareous nannoplankton, geochemical and geophysical data. Multivariate statistics on the autochthonous assemblage were used to evaluate the ecological preferences of each taxon and to rule out possible contamination of the signal by taphonomic processes. In order to assess changes in the assemblage composition throughout the section, three taphogroups were defined using both the autochthonous and allochthonous nannofossils. Based on the distribution of these taphogroups five distinct intervals were defined that are indicative of centennial to decadal changes in palaeoenvironmental conditions. Combining these results with other proxies (geochemistry, geophysics) we were able to reconstruct short-term, small-scale variations in terms of temperature, primary productivity, bottom water oxygenation, organic matter flux, freshwater influx and changes in relative sea level in a highly dynamic shallow marine setting. This study represents the first such high-resolution analysis performed on a marine succession of late Burdigalian age. It is also a first attempt to analyse outcrop data on such a high-resolution, sub-Milankovitch scale, with respect to calcareous nannoplankton in conjunction with geochemical and sedimentological data.