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Cronin et al. 1993
Cronin, T.M., Whatley, R., Wood, A., Tsukagoshi, A., Ikeya, N., Brouwers, E.M. and Briggs, W.M. (1993). Microfaunal evidences for elevated pliocene temperatures in the arctic ocean. Paleoceanography 8: doi: 10.1029/93PA00060. issn: 0883-8305.

The migration of thermophilic marine Ostracoda into the Arctic Ocean during the Pliocene indicates that winter and summer ocean temperatures around Arctic margins were ≥0 ¿C and >3 ¿C, respectively, and that ice-free conditions existed for most or all of the Arctic. By at least 3.5--3.0 Ma, probably earlier, the opening of the Bering Strait allowed marine organisms to migrate through the Arctic Ocean, mostly from the Pacific Ocean. Migrant taxa such as Cythere, Hemicythere, and Neomonoceratina are known from Pliocene deposites of Alaska and Canada as well as Neogene deposits of the North Pacific and Atlantic oceans. On the basis of ecological and zoogeographic information on ostracode species from more than 800 modern ''core top'' samples for the North Atlantic, North Pacific, and Arctic Oceans, we determined winter and summer temperature tolerances for migrant taxa to be at or above about 0 ¿C and 3 ¿C. This suggests ice-free summers, and probably, a perennially ice-free Arctic Ocean in some regions. Elevated water temperatures in the Arctic Ocean between 3.5 and 2.0 Ma is supported by evidence for late Pliocene increased meridional heat transport in the North Atlantic Ocean. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1993

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Abstract

Keywords
Oceanography, General, Arctic and Antarctic oceanography, Oceanography, Biological and Chemical, Ecosystems, structure and dynamics, Oceanography, Biological and Chemical, Higher marine organisms, Information Related to Geologic Time, Cenozoic
Journal
Paleoceanography
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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